Beads

Elements from a Necklace

The Nasrid Spanish school of jewelry, like that of Mamluk Syria, represents the continuation in late medieval times of the tradition of fine filigree and granulation work most associated with Fatimid (tenth to eleventh century) Egypt and Syria. Whether or not there were cross-fertilizations in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries between Spain and the eastern Mediterranean, the great likelyhood is that the Nasrid school essentially developed out of earlier (tenth to twelfth century) Spanish work, the latter examplified by a group now in the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore.

Cloisonné enameling is characteristic of Nasrid Spanish jewelry and also appears in earlier Spanish and Fatimid work. The cartouches running around the middle of each of these beads bear single-wire Arabic inscriptions proclaiming "Glory is God's alone".

Manuel Keene in [Berlin 1981]

Inscription: On enameled cartouche on each bead in Arabic:
Glory is God’s Alone

J. Pierpont Morgan (American), New York (until d. 1913; his estate 1913–17; gifted to MMA)

"Joyas Moriscas." La Ilustracion Espanola y Americana vol. 46, December 1887 (1887). p. 365.

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 156 (no ill.).

"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 62, pp. 158–59, ill.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Daniel S. Walker, Arturo Ponce Guadián, Sussan Babaie, Stefano Carboni, Aimee Froom, Marie Lukens Swietochowski, Tomoko Masuya, Annie Christine Daskalakis-Matthews, Abdallah Kahli, and Rochelle Kessler. "Colegio de San Ildefonso, Septiembre de 1994–Enero de 1995." In Arte Islámico del Museo Metropolitano de Arte de Nueva York. Mexico City: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, 1994. no. 104, pp. 252–53, ill. (b/w).

Franco Mata, Ángela. "Sistemas de Acopio de Arte Medieval en Grandes Museos." Boletin del Museo Arqueologico Nacional 2011-2013 (2011-2013). p. 85, ill. fig. 12.