Author
Unknown (made)
Publication Date
1450
Publication Place
Cairo (Made) Egypt (made) Africa -
Subject
Africa Islam Woodwork
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
Height: 206 cm, Width: 29cm
Library
Victoria and Albert Museum
Library Asset ID
889-1884
Record ID
889-1884
Library Location
Middle East Section
Date
1450
Notes
This door panel represents a composite in which late Mamluk and early Ottoman panels and plaques were re purposed within 19th century frames, a composition most likely done by a European residing in Cairo at the time. The salvaging of older Mamluk wood and ivory panels and their re purposing within later architectural structures was a common trend in Egypt during the time of the French influence, starting under Napoleon III yet continuing in increasing numbers towards the end of the 19th century. The French were particularly interested in re purposing architectural elements (panels, doors and plaques) â some taken directly from minbars (Islamic pulpits) and others from architectural decorations in mosques and madrasas â to serve as decorative fittings within their Neo-Mamluk homes built in central Cairo. Doors such as these were common during the second half of the 19th century, especially at a time when much of old historic Cairo was being transformed and modernised. This, coupled with the increasing trend for Islamic designs, motivated European residents in Cairo to utilize such pieces within their newly designed homes. When entire structures could not be re purposed (such as minbar doors), a selection of diverse panels would have been used, with ânewerâ plaques made to fill in the missing pieces within the geometric composition. As such, composite panels present a combination of styles, techniques and dates, some of which are today difficult to decipher, as the craftsmanship of late 19th century carvers cleverly (and quite convincingly) imitated their earlier Ottoman and Mamluk masters. The use of uncarved ivory and wooden panels set within a geometric pattern is typically associated with the work of Egyptian woodworkers of the late Burji Mamluk and early Ottoman period from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Unlike the delicately carved panels of the earlier Mamluks, later woodworkers adopted the tradition of intarsia (inlaid) work, which embraced bold forms of contrasting colours achieved through the use of ebony and either bone or ivory. The epistemological root of the word intarsia derives from âtarsiâ, the Arabic word for incrustation. This type of decoration witnessed a long and distinguished history in al-Andalus (southern Spain) from the tenth century, as seen with the minbar of al-Hakim II commissioned for the Great Mosque of Cordoba; from there the technique is believed to have spread north into Italy, and then possibly east into Mamluk Egypt. While this intricate and detailed decorative technique became a characteristic of Nasrid woodwork of southern Spain, it remains unknown exactly how and when this pattern arrived into Egypt; given the popularity of bone and ivory inlay work seen in Ottoman objects from the sixteenth century, the technique could have also arrived through Ottoman craftsmen sometime after 1517. Nonetheless, this type of inlay or marquetry work becomes the dominant style of wood decoration from the sixteenth century, replacing almost entirely the carving techniques of the earlier Mamluk woodcarvers.
İlişki
Paris International Exhibition, 1878 Gaston De Saint-Maurice
Malzemeler ve teknikler
Carved ivory and ebony plaques inlaid into modern wooden frame Bone Ebony Carved Inlaid
Fiziksel açıklama
This door is composed of wooden, bone and ivory panels assembled into a 19th century door frame. The individual panels consist of rhomboid, hexagon, triangle and star shapes, and are decorated with a combination of fine bone and ebony marquetry designs or solid bone set within a thin ebony border. The panels are arranged in a repeating geometric pattern of rhomboids radiating from half stars.
