Tripod Candlestick

Tripod Candlestick

The shape of this candlestick with an elongated shaft and wide six-lobed rosette standing on three feet relates to a Byzantine prototype. Similar forms were common in the early and medieval Islamic world until about the thirteenth or fourteenth century, when truncated candlesticks became popular (see cat. no. 109 [MMA 91.1.561] in this volume).[1] Examples might have feet, shaped like lions or other felines, and shafts with alternating bulbs or angular, drop-shaped pieces.[2] The present candlestick is in the style of inlaid metalworking developed by the renowned "al-Mawsili" School.

Primarily inlaid in silver with a few highlights in gold (as in the small dots decorating the lower edges of the lobes on the base), the figural iconography expresses royalty, power, and protection.[3] The double-headed eagle on the knee of each leg and the lion heads on the nobs between the lobes of the base are common symbols of medieval rulers in the eastern Mediterranean, both in Christian and Muslim contexts, and were at times used as heraldic emblems.[4] Additional motifs of the so-called courtly cycle include the seated, cross-legged figures inlaid on the drop-shaped units of the base, one figure per unit. The themes of music and feasting here were part of the ideal life and aspirations of rulers.[5] The sovereign, distinguished by a frontal presentation, sits on a simple elevated throne (takht) holding the wine-drinking cup in front of his chest while musicians play the flute, tambour, and oud; another figure is drinking. The sophisticated medium of inlaid metalwork and the royal and courtly iconography of feasting were common on household objects of the ruling elite. An Arabic inscription on the upper bulb of the neck identifies the owner of this candlestick as a noble dignitary: "Of what was made to order for our Lord, the illustrious, the well-served Sharaf al-Din ‘Abd al-Rahman"

Deniz Beyazit in [Higgins Harvey 2021]

Footnotes:

1. A ring attached on the back of each leg makes it possible to attach a chain.

2. On lighting devices in the medieval Islamic world, see Deniz Beyazit in Canby, Sheila R., Deniz Beyazit, Martina Rugiadi, and A.C.S. Peacock. Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2016, pp. 88–91, no. 21a–c.

3. Gold inlays began to be used in the mid-thirteenth century; the earliest datable example is a ewer from Mosul dated 1246. See Beyazit in ibid., p. 138, no. 68.

4. On lions, see Beyazit in ibid., pp. 219–22, no. 136a–d; on double-headed eagles, see Beyazit in ibid., pp. 236–37, no. 148a, b, and Michael Falcetano in ibid., pp. 238–40, nos. 149–51. The motif of the double-headed eagle was the heraldic emblem of Badr al-Din Baysari (d. 1298), an important Syrian officer of the early Mamluk period; see Atil, Esin. Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks. Exh. Cat., National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C., 1981, pp. 58–59, no. 11. The owner Sharaf al-Din 'Abd al-Rahman praised in the upper bulb may have been in the service of Baysari. The style of the candlestick accords with a dating to the second half of the thirteenth century.

5. See "The Courtly Cycle" chapter in Canby et al. 2016 (see note 2), pp. 72–165.

Inscription: On upper bulb of the neck in Arabic:
Of what was made to order for our Lord, the illustrious, the well-served Sharaf al-Din `Abd al-Rahman

Edward C. Moore (American), New York (until d. 1891; bequeathed to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks," November 21, 1981–January 10, 1982, suppl. #6.

Beyazit, Deniz, Maryam Ekhtiar, and Sheila R. Canby. Collecting Inspiration : Edward C. Moore at Tiffany & Co., edited by Medill Higgins Harvey. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021. no. 110, pp. 23, 175–76, ill.