Late Antique and Byzantine pyxides generally had flat lids, but the lids covering the cylindrical vessels of this Andalusian group are all domical. Thus, the missing lid of this example would probably have been domical as well. Made principally for the personal use of Umayyad nobility, these containers held precious aromatics and cosmetics.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Cylindrical Box (Pyxis)
Date:10th century
Geography:From Spain
Medium:Ivory; carved
Dimensions:H. 2 5/8 in. (6.7 cm) Diam. 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm)
Classification:Ivories and Bone
Credit Line:Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915
Object Number:30.95.175
Box (Pyxis)
This pyxis, or cylindrical box, belongs to a group of ivory boxes and caskets that became synonymous with the artistic production of luxury objects under the caliphate of the Umayyad dynasty of Cordoba. Skillfully carved and often gilded or painted with colored pigments,[1] such objects were often presented as gifts to commemorate an event or occasion and were sometimes inscribed with the name of the recipient.[2] These elaborately decorated pyxides served both as carriers of multivalent social and political meanings, encoded in their iconography,[3] and as objects of aesthetic delectation. They frequently contained precious aromatic substances, such as ambergris, musk, and camphor, as recorded in the poetic inscriptions on one example.[4] The inscriptions commonly found on the lids of pyxides give the names and titles of the patrons, blessings and good wishes for the owner, and even the signatures of craftsmen. In this incomplete example, however, the knobbed lid and the metal fittings that originally held the lid in place are missing.
The body of this pyxis displays a deeply carved decoration composed of intertwined vines forming two rows of heart-shaped compartments that enclose birds of prey. These addorsed birds are depicted either perched on a branch or standing with outspread wings. The delicate stems of the vines terminate in the large, luxuriant leaves at the top, recalling the crown of a tree, under which the birds are sheltered. A narrow interlace border, typical of such ivory boxes, frames the composition.
Caliphal ivories produced in the royal workshops at the same time as this example show a complex iconographic decorative program that includes human and animal figures set against a dense and varied foliate decoration.[5] However, the simplified composition and sparse vegetation of this pyxis have led to the suggestion that it was made in a secondary workshop.[6]
Olga Bush in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]
Footnotes:
1. A panel from a casket in the Metropolitan Museum (acc. no. 13.141) retains traces of red and green pigments. See Daniel Walker in Dodds 1992, p. 203, no. 6.
2. For instance, the inscriptions on a casket in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (no. 301-1866), record that it was made for the daughter of the Cordoban caliph ‘Abd al-Rahman III (r. 912–61). A reference to the caliph as deceased made it possible to date the casket to after 961. See Renata Holod in Dodds 1992, p. 192, no. 2.
3. Prado-Vilar, Francisco. "Enclosed in Ivory: The Miseducation of al-Mughira." In Folsach and Meyer, eds. 2005, pt. 1, pp. 138–63; Prado-Vilar, Francisco. "Circular Visions of Fertility and Punishment: Caliphal Ivory Caskets from al-Andalus." Muqarnas 14 (1997), pp. 19–41.
4. Hispanic Society of America, New York (no. D 752).
5. Prado-Vilar 2005 (see footnote 5 for reference).
6. Galan y Galindo, Angel. Marfiles medievales del Islam. 2 vols.Cordoba, 2005, p. 44. Stylistically, this pyxis is most closely associated with two other examples, one in the Hispanic Society of America, New York (no. D 752), and another in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters (acc. no. 1970.234.5).
Theodore M. Davis, New York (by 1914–d. 1915; bequeathed to MMA)
New York. The Cloisters Museum & Gardens. "Spanish Medieval Art," December 15, 1954–January 30, 1955, no. 18.
Upton, Joseph M. "The Near Eastern Decorative Arts." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 26 (March 1931). p. 35, ill. fig. 5 (b/w).
Ferrandis Torres, Jose. Marfiles árabes de Occidente. no. 12, vol. I (1935), II (1940). Madrid, Spain: Estanislao Maesstre, 1935, 1940. pp. 38, 69, ill. pl. XIV.
Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. p. 128, ill. fig. 72 (b/w).
Gomez-Moreno, Manuel. "El arte árabe español hasta los Almohades." Ars Hispaniae, Ars hispaniae, vol. 3 (1951). p. 299, ill. fig. 358, imitating box from Cathedral of Zamora, now in Madrid.
Spanish Medieval Art: A Loan Exhibition in Honor of Dr. Walter W.S. Cook. New York: Institute of Fine Arts Alumni Association, 1954. no. 18.
Kühnel, Ernst, and J. & S. Goldschmidt. Die Islamische Elfenbeinskulpturen VII–XIII Jahrhundert. no. 30. Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1971. no. 30, p. 37, ill. pl. XVI.
Galán y Galindo, Ángel. "Catalogo De Piezas." In Marfiles Medievales Del Islam. vol. 2. Cordoba: Publicaciones Obra Social Y Cultural Cajasur, 2005.
Von Folsach, Kjeld, and Joachim Meyer, ed. The Ivories of Muslim Spain: Papers from a Symposium Held in Copenhagen from the 18th to the 20th of November 2003. Journal of the David Collection, Vol. pt. 2. Copenhagen: The David Collection, 2005.
Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 37, pp. 54, 67, 68, ill. p. 68 (color).
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