Ceiling Facet
16th-17th century
Description
Lines intersect and interlace to form a star and polygon pattern in this ceiling fragment. In prestigious buildings, panels of cedar carved and painted with complex designs were often employed to cover the wooden beam construction used throughout Morocco during the reigns of the Saʿdid (1554–1659) and early ʿAlawid (1664–present) dynasties. For viewers glancing upward, the pattern may have seemed celestial, alluding to a divinely ordered universe. The interlacing geometric mode of ornament underwent intense development around the year 1000 in Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Empire. Initially applied to objects or parts of buildings with symbolic or religious value, the style came to be used for a broad range of structures and portable objects. Geometric interlace spread eastward and westward, but its decorative possibilities — rhythmic and complex, yet austere — found particular favor across North Africa from the late eleventh to the early seventeenth century.
Dimensions
H: 74 x W: 67 x Depth no greater than: 17 cm (29 1/8 x 26 3/8 x 6 11/16 in.)
Provenance
[Spink and Son, Ltd, London, 1981], sold; to Fogg Art Museum, 1981.
Related Artworks
View MoreLimestone
19th-20th centuryItalianLimestone
6th centuryCopticUnderglaze painted fritware
16th centuryIndianUnderglaze painted fritware
16th centuryIndianBrick red earthenware with mold-impressed decoration. Reportedly from Kyŏngju, North Kyŏngsang province.
5th-6th centuryKoreanMarble
12th-15th centuryEuropeanTerracotta
RomanLimestone, pelsparite
16th centuryFrenchMedium gray earthenware with mold-impressed decoration
KoreanLimestone
6th centuryCopticRed earthenware with lead-fluxed, emerald-green glaze
15th-16th centuryChineseLimestone
12th centuryFrench