ALMOHAD OR NASRID ANDALUSIA OR NORTH AFRICA, 12TH OR 13TH CENTURY

This monumental wooden panel, constructed from three beams on top of each other, and decorated with floral and epigraphic decoration is a masterclass in late Almohad and early Merinid design. A powerful line of kufic, repeating the mirrored word al-yumn (prosperity), runs the entire length of the beam, determining the rhythm of the arcade above which is filled with scallop shells, knotted motifs, and a plethora of dense exquisitely drawn interlacing arabesques. The relief is deep, with a much greater sense of vigour than is found in most Merinid carving, strongly redolent of the power of the preceding style under the Almohads. Remains of a red polychromy indicate that, as in the neighbouring Nasrid kingdom with whom the Merinids had strong links, the decoration was originally highly coloured.

A beam from the al-Sahrij madrasa in Fez (1323) shows a similar epigraphic frieze repeating the word al-yumn supporting an arcade (G. Chiauzzi et al., Maghreb médiéval, Paris, 1991, ill. 157). That decoration is, however, more compressed and less clear than in the present example. An al-yumn arcade that dates from the start of the Merinid period is in the Musée Nejjarine des Arts et Métiers du Bois, Fez. While the basic structure is the same, the background foliage is of Umayyad-influenced pine-cones and serrated split palmettes rather than our succulent arabesques (Le Maroc médiéval, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2014, no.269, pp.444-45). The energy and tension of our scrollwork is far closer to that on a beam with a long cursive inscription that was made for the al-Jadida mosque in Ceuta dating from 1347 (Le Maroc médiéval, op.cit., no.294, pp.490-491). The same basic composition as here, also around the reflected word al-yumn, is found on a fragmentary beam that was discovered during the remodeling of a house in Seville, thought to date from the 14th or 15th century, showing that the design was also prevalent in Spain (Ibn Khaldun, The Mediterranean in the 14th Century, exhibition catalogue, Seville, 2006, p.77).

Surviving examples of Merinid architecture demonstrate that panels of this type were often originally situated on the walls of the inner courtyard, above the lateral arcades parallel to the long side of the central basin. In the al-Sahrij madrasa, the frieze with a decoration of arches is above a frieze of Qur'anic verses written in a slightly less-stylised kufic. This composition of two friezes one above the other is found in other Merinid foundations such as the Bu 'Inaniya Madrasa in Fez (circa 1350) and the Madrasa of Sala dating from 1341 (H. Terrasse, Les arts décoratifs au Maroc, Paris, 1925, pls. xxxv, xxxvi). However, the remarkable state of conservation of the beams and their decoration indicate a position in an inner room where it would not have been exposed to the elements. The size of that room, judging from the scale of this panel, and the published other examples of its group, would have been considerable.

Two further panels, which must originally have been from the same commission, were sold at Sotheby’s, 6 April 2011, lot 300, and in these Rooms 7 October 2008, lot 100. A C14 test performed by the Swiss Federal Institue of Technology, Zurich on 21 December 2012 on one of those panels gives a date of 1170-1265 AD, consistent with the proposed cataloguing.