Panel

This carved wooden panel came to the museum through a gift from Eustache de Lorey, a key figure in the development of the fields of Islamic art, epigraphy, and codicology. The panel is said to come from Syria, where the French diplomat and amateur archaeologist was the director of the French Institute of Archaeology and Muslim Art at Damascus (later renamed as French Institute of Damascus) between 1922 and 1930. The carved pattern, which includes interlaced geometrical forms such as octagons and trefoil arches, and continuous and interlaced scrolls of beaded split palmettes, was developed from the tenth century onwards.