Wall Panel with Geometric Interlace

Wall Panel with Geometric Interlace

Panels of inlaid polychrome marble often decorated interior walls of both religious institutions and palaces in Egypt and Syria during the Mamluk period. This example comes from an unknown building. With its rectangular format and vertical orientation, it probably once adorned the lower register of a wall, but similar marble inlay also appears on contemporary mihrabs, spandrels, and even cenotaphs. Flanking the inlaid panel, the interlocking marble revetment in contrasting colors, a device known in medieval times as ablaq (literally, striped), is a hallmark of Mamluk architectural decoration. The framed, rectangular baseboard slabs at the bottom of the panel are also typical of wall treatments of the time.[1]

The design of the tessellated central panel—an interlacing repeat pattern based on a central ten-pointed star, surrounded by a variety of polygonal shapes—compares closely with designs from many media in Mamluk art. Such patterns were frequently used in carved and inlaid woodwork, especially door panels, including the minbar doors previously discussed (no. 91.1.2064). Another vehicle for this pattern, on a much smaller scale, is bookbinding: a fourteenth-century example in the Metropolitan Museum attributed to Egypt or Syria provides an especially close parallel.[2] The correspondence between such distinct media can be attributed to the role of the rassamun, designers whose workshops, situated in the market streets of Cairo, generated patterns for a wide range of purposes that could easily have been scaled as needed.[3]

Marble was not widely quarried by the Mamluks.[4] It was a prized material, removed from ancient Egyptian, Roman, Byzantine, and crusader sites within the Mamluk territories and collected as war booty from other regions.[5] Whole columns in pairs or sets were especially valued, but those unsuitable for structural reuse were sliced thin and applied as polychrome sheathing or carved into ornamental revetment, while the small remnants were combined to create inlays such as those found here.

Ellen Kenney in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. Behrens-Abouseif 2007, pp. 90–97.

2. Metropolitan Museum (acc. no. 33.103.2a, b). Mexico City 1994, pp. 106 – 7; Dimand 1944a, p. 79, ill. p. 80, no. 46 (33.103.2a, b).

3. Behrens-Abouseif 2007, p. 41.

4. Burgoyne 1987, p. 97; see also Goodwin, Godfrey. "The Reuse of Marble in the Eastern Mediterranean in Medieval Times." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, 1977, no. 1, pp. 17–30,, esp. p. 26, and Meinecke-Berg, Viktoria. "Die Vervendung von Spolien in der mamlukischen Architektur von Kairo." In XX. Deutscher Orientalistentag vom 3. bis 8. Oktober 1977 in Erlangen: Vorträge, edited by Wolfgang Voigt, pp. 530 – 32. Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlandischen Gesellschaft, Supplement 4. Wiesbaden, 1980.

5. Kahil, Abdallah. The Sultan Hasan Complex in Cairo, 1357–1364: A Case Study in the Formation of Mamluk Style. Beiruter Texte und Studien, 98. Würzburg and Beirut, 2008, pp. 81–82.

The Hagop Kevorkian Fund, New York (until 1970; gifted to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Renaissance of Islam: Art of the Mamluks," November 21, 1981–January 10, 1982, suppl. #58.

Dimand, Maurice S. A Handbook of Muhammadan Art. 2nd rev. and enl. ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1944. no. 46, p. 79, ill. p. 80, bookbinding; close parallel.

Burgoyne, Michael. Mamluk Jerusalem, an Architectural Study. London, 1987. p. 97.

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 Kahil, 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. pp. 106–7.

Behrens-Abouseif, Doris. "a History of the Architecture and its Culture." In Cairo of the Mamluks. London and New York, 2007.

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. 114, p. 165, ill. (color).

Haidar, Navina. Jali : Lattice of Divine Light in Mughal Architecture. Ahmedabad, India: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 2023. p. 47, ill. fig. 8.