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A monumental carved cedarwood frieze panel, Almohad, Spain or North Africa, 12th-13th century
Estimate
250,000 - 350,000 GBP
bidding is closed
Description
- carved wood
composed of three horizontal sections, each beam comprised of multiple planks joined together, carved at the front in bold relief with a design composed of a colonnade comprising pairs of columns paired by a small horseshoe arch, between each pair of columns an elaborate polylobed arch encloses a mirrored Kufic design with the perpendiculars rising to form further poylobed arches, knot designs and cusped cartouches enclose a plump palmette, the spandrels with similar motifs, all on a ground of interlacing half-palmettes, a frieze of stylised floral motifs across the upper edge
Catalogue Note
inscriptions
The repetition and mirroring of al-yumn, ‘prosperity’
This monumental wooden panel, decorated in an intricate combination of architectural, vegetal and epigraphic elements displays the richness of design and mastery of woodcarving that characterised both the Almohad and Merinid dynasties across their successive empires in North Africa and Spain.
Whereas the design on this wooden frieze is reminiscent of the sophisticated patio de las Muñecas in the Alcázar of Seville attributed to the Almohads (see Barrucand and Bednorz 1992, pp.162-168), it can also be compared to Merinid architecture, notably the interior designs of their pious foundations. For example, the al-Sahrij madrasa in Fez, dated to 1321-28, is decorated with a carved wooden panel above its archway with a similar lobed arch design surrounded by vegetal motifs. Furthermore, it features an epigraphic frieze repeating the word al-yumn with high and interlocking upstrokes under arches supported by short columns and covering a central shell. This decoration is, however, more compressed and less clear than in the present example (illustrated in Aix-en-Provence, 1991, no. 157). The panel in the al-Sahrij madrasa also appears below a frieze of Qur`anic verses written in a slightly less stylised Kufic script. This composition of two friezes, one above the other, is found in other Merinid madrasas, notably on the Bu Inaniya madrasa in Fez, datable to 1350-55, and the madrasa in Salé, dated to 1341, possibly indicating how the present frieze would have originally been mounted and displayed along the upper reaches of a wall (see Tettasse 1925, pl. xxxv, xxxvi). Its highly ornate design indicates that it probably would have embellished a building of consequence.
The present panel stands out for its design of immense complexity in which each element was carved in a fully expressed form. The fluidity of the interlaces and the perpendiculars of the calligraphy are noteworthy. A panel in the Louvre, thought to be Spanish of the fourteenth century, has a related design but with more angular calligraphy and the architectural nature of the overall design is more pronounced (Paris 1977, p.92, no.129). A panel probably from the same original frieze was sold at Sotheby's on 6 April 2011, lot 300.
Results of a carbon 14 test conducted at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, give a calibrated age of 1170 – 1265 AD.
The repetition and mirroring of al-yumn, ‘prosperity’
This monumental wooden panel, decorated in an intricate combination of architectural, vegetal and epigraphic elements displays the richness of design and mastery of woodcarving that characterised both the Almohad and Merinid dynasties across their successive empires in North Africa and Spain.
Whereas the design on this wooden frieze is reminiscent of the sophisticated patio de las Muñecas in the Alcázar of Seville attributed to the Almohads (see Barrucand and Bednorz 1992, pp.162-168), it can also be compared to Merinid architecture, notably the interior designs of their pious foundations. For example, the al-Sahrij madrasa in Fez, dated to 1321-28, is decorated with a carved wooden panel above its archway with a similar lobed arch design surrounded by vegetal motifs. Furthermore, it features an epigraphic frieze repeating the word al-yumn with high and interlocking upstrokes under arches supported by short columns and covering a central shell. This decoration is, however, more compressed and less clear than in the present example (illustrated in Aix-en-Provence, 1991, no. 157). The panel in the al-Sahrij madrasa also appears below a frieze of Qur`anic verses written in a slightly less stylised Kufic script. This composition of two friezes, one above the other, is found in other Merinid madrasas, notably on the Bu Inaniya madrasa in Fez, datable to 1350-55, and the madrasa in Salé, dated to 1341, possibly indicating how the present frieze would have originally been mounted and displayed along the upper reaches of a wall (see Tettasse 1925, pl. xxxv, xxxvi). Its highly ornate design indicates that it probably would have embellished a building of consequence.
The present panel stands out for its design of immense complexity in which each element was carved in a fully expressed form. The fluidity of the interlaces and the perpendiculars of the calligraphy are noteworthy. A panel in the Louvre, thought to be Spanish of the fourteenth century, has a related design but with more angular calligraphy and the architectural nature of the overall design is more pronounced (Paris 1977, p.92, no.129). A panel probably from the same original frieze was sold at Sotheby's on 6 April 2011, lot 300.
Results of a carbon 14 test conducted at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, give a calibrated age of 1170 – 1265 AD.