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Pair of Doors with Carved Decoration

second half of the 8th century
Not on view
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.
Richly patterned like the stone carvings at the Umayyad palace at Mshatta, these doors are said to have been found near the Abbasid capital Baghdad in Iraq. With their distinctive mixture of naturalism, abstraction, and geometry, they epitomize the transitional style characteristic of the late Umayyad and early Abbasid periods. Taste for surface pattern and stylization spread widely at this time, appearing in monuments throughout the Islamic empire from Central Asia to North Africa, including the lost southern provinces of the Byzantine Empire.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Pair of Doors with Carved Decoration
  • Date: second half of the 8th century
  • Geography: Made in Probably Iraq
  • Medium: Wood
  • Dimensions: 100 3/8 x 48 7/16 in. (255 x 123 cm)
  • Classification: Woodwork
  • Credit Line: Benaki Museum, Athens (9121)
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters