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A carved stone window arch, Toledo, Spain, 13th-14th century
Description
Condition
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."
Catalogue Note
The carved decoration of this stone arch is characteristic of thirteenth-and fourteenth-century Spanish ornamentation, existent in both architecture and smaller decorative objects. A group of stone jamb panels illustrated in Gómez-Moreno, 1951, p.232, fig.29, displays the same quatrefoil borders as in the present example, and a further panel (p.234, fig.292, centre) demonstrates a slightly less compact version of the same motif that we see here on the vertical panels.
The decoration in the upper section surrounding the arch is a more general form of interlacing palmettes that can frequently be seen in Spanish ornamentation from the tenth-century onwards on a variety of media, including wooden beams and small ivory boxes. A plaster spandrel of the time of Yusuf I in the first half of the fourteenth century and that may have belonged in the Alhambra, exemplifies a comparable style of vegetal motif (see the colour plate from Owen Jones 1842 and 1845, reproduced in Fernández-Puertas 1997, pl.28 & pp.386-388).