Publication Date
XIII century
Publication Place
-
Ministry of Interior, General Directorate of Worship Affairs (Endowments)
Subject
Ivory mounted on a wooden base, painted in black watercolor and gold leaf. —Sicilian teachers with Arab culture.
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الارتفاع: 18 سم؛ العرض: 48.5 سم؛ العمق: 29.5 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
غير متوفر
Record ID
object;ISL;it;Mus01_C;45;ar
Library Location
Palatina Dome (Al Khazneh)
Date
XIII century
Notes
The piece belongs to the rectangular boxes with a flat lid. Its decoration is executed in black watercolor and gold, covering all the faces of the box. It is known to Muslim craftsmen. The Christian Sicilians included in this decoration what they stored of Christian art, and we find the credibility of this in some examples, such as the piece of furniture found in Giroli Cathedral, and another in the Del Bargello Museum in the city of Florence. On the cover and in the middle is a drawing representing Jesus Christ, and on either side of him are two saints, and surrounded by a picture of two leopards attacking a gazelle and a wild rabbit, and at the bottom to the right we find a picture representing a giraffe with two guards urging it to walk. On the left we find another image representing an elephant cutting down a bush with its trunk, and on its back is a richly decorated howdah. On the front and back surfaces of the box, and in the middle of each, we see drawings of predatory animals chasing their prey, and hunters rushing to take their catch. These drawings were executed in different shapes resembling icons. We find in the middle of each of the two side surfaces a drawing of the Tree of Life, with two peacocks and two birds opposite it. We see at the bottom of the four surfaces of the box a drawing that differs from the drawing of the Tree of Life, the two peacocks and the two birds, which is a drawing of dogs and cheetahs running after deer, and this drawing is repeated to form a strip for those surfaces. At the top of these four surfaces there is a second strip consisting of a bird and a peacock, which is repeated. It is adjacent to the lid. We can compare the decoration of this box to the decoration of the mosaics in the Ruggiero Hall executed in wooden ceilings preserved in the Regional Museum of the City of Palermo.
Sample Text
Maria Ilaria Randazzo “Crate with natural drawings” in Discover Islamic Art. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;it;Mus01_C;45;ar
