An Umayyad carved marble capital, Spain, Cordoba, 10th century

inscriptions

'amal, 'work of'

A crucial element of the splendour of the Andalusian courts was the presence of exquisite carving, seen both in portable objects such as carved ivory boxes, and in architectural ornament. Major workshops were established in Cordoba and Madinat al-Zahra where principal carvers honed their skills. Capitals such as the present lot would be sculpted and scored in the workshop, before they were deeply carved and drilled to produce lace-like vegetal designs after their installation (Dodds 1992, p.244).

The general form of such capitals was derived from Corinthian models and the Umayyads admired the naturalistic ornament of these prototypes. Themes of verdant nature would extend from the wall decoration to the capitals, as seen in the layered acanthus leaves on this example. Umayyad artisans assumed a more stylised decorative scheme, influenced by trends in the Byzantine world where the tendency to drill rather than carve resulted in a more 'honeycombed' effect. Carvers often added an inscription in Kufic inscribing the names and titles of the caliph, and a partial inscription indicating that the capital was once signed is present on our example.

Further examples carved with layered acanthus leaves are in the Museo Arqueologico Provincial de Cordoba (inv. nos.28.609, 30.149 and 30.150, see Dodds, op.cit. pp.244-6, nos.37 and 38).