Oliver White
Head of Department
Lot 21W
An Umayyad carved marble Capital Madinat-al Zahra, Spain, Period of Al-Hakim II (AD 961-976)
23 April 2013, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street£10,000 - £15,000
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An Umayyad carved marble Capital
Madinat-al Zahra, Spain, Period of Al-Hakim II (AD 961-976)
Madinat-al Zahra, Spain, Period of Al-Hakim II (AD 961-976)
of characteristic form, carved and drilled with a lattice of elaborate acanthus scrolls and vegetation in two registers, surmounted by four scrolled volutes
29cm. high
29cm. high
Footnotes
A number of similar capitals are published, although the most reknown are Corinthian capitals found in the salón of 'Abd al-Rahman III (AD 954-57) in Madinat al-Zahra. Three comparable capitals in the Museo Arqueologico Provincal de Cordoba illustrate the evolution of this type of column in Umayyad Spain under Abd Al-Rahman III (AD 912-961) and al-Hakam II (AD 961-976), progressing from the classical prototype into a more lacy and stylised appearance of our capital, influenced by the Byzantine aesthetic.
Further published capitals from Madinat al-Zahra include a capital in the Museo de la Alhambra (R.E.1672) and a dated example in the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait which bears the name and title of al-Hakim and the year AH 362 (AD 972-73) (Arte Islamico en Granada. Propuesta para un Museo de la Alhambra, Granada, 1995, no 56 and no. 39). Additional examples are illustrated in Les Andalousies de Damas a Cordoue, Paris, 2001, nos. 73, 75, 78 and 79 and at auction, Christie's, Islamic Art and Manuscripts, 11th October 2005, Lot 21; and Sotheby's, Arts of the Islamic World, 18th April 2007, Lot 61.