Two Reverse Glass Paintings: Abdallah and al-Yamina on a Horse; Two Horsemen

These reverse glass paintings testify to the popular dissemination of the Tunisian historical and epical past in the early 20th century. The subject of 2025.478(a) is clarified by a handwritten inscription, in Arabic, naming the two personages. The epic hero of the Arab conquest of Ifriqiyya in the 7th century, Abdallah Ibn Ja‘far, is depicted as he miraculously escapes from his enemies, carving a passage through the mountains with his sword. On his horse, he carries al-Yamina, daughter of the Byzantine governor of Tunis.

The diffusion of this image, which occurs on Tunisian glass paintings as early as the 1880s, as well as on Tunisian and Algerian chromolithographs and chromolithographic postcards of the early 20th century, has been linked to anti-colonial sentiments towards the French occupation of the time. One of these lithographs was bought by Wassily Kandinsky during his trip in Tunisia in 1904–1905 and is said to have inspired his famous oil painting Riding Couple (1907).

As for 2025.478(b), the absence of an inscription makes the identification of the scene uncertain.

Both paintings bear a handwritten note on the back stating that they were acquired in the medina of Tunis in the 1960s.