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A Deesis mould in Berlin: Christian–Muslim cultural interchange between Iran, Syria and Mesopotamia in the early thirteenth century

2011; Routledge; Volume: 22; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09596410.2011.560428

1469-9311

Lucy‐Anne Hunt,

Byzantine Studies and History

Abstract Material culture, particularly that belonging to the assumed category of 'Islamic' art with Christian scenes, forms the focus of this article. This is undertaken through consideration of a ceramic object from medieval Iran now in Berlin, a mould with the scene of the Deesis, which is signed by a Muslim craftsman, also a coppersmith. A central issue is that of cultural ambiguity, which can be pursued though analogies with twelfth–thirteenth-century metalwork. Metalwork with Christian scenes is invariably considered as 'Islamic' art with the emphasis on style rather than iconographic content; in other words, the medium rather than the message is often prioritized. This article seeks to redress the balance by suggesting a more substantive role for the Christian imagery employed here. Keywords: DeesisChristian–Muslim cultural interchangemedieval Eastern Christian artIslamic ceramicsIslamic metalwork with Christian scenesChristian art in medieval IranChristian art in medieval Iran Syria and Mesopotamia Acknowledgements This article was first given as a paper at the Sixth Mingana Symposium, held in Birmingham, UK, 16–19 September 2009. Notes I am particularly grateful to Dr Jens Kröger and Prof. Dr Claus-Peter Haase for facilitating my study of this object at the Museum in July 2007 and for several valuable comments. Other acknowledgements are given in the appropriate places below. See Brisch et al. 1979 Brisch, K., Hauptmann-von Gladiss, A., Kröger, J., Spuhler, F. and Zick-Nissen, J. 1979. Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin, Katalog, Berlin-Dahlem: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz. [Google Scholar], 187–8, no. 662 (entry by Johanna Zick-Nissen), where it is dated to around 1200 AD. Cf. Zick-Nissen 1980 Zick-Nissen, J. 1980. Figurenreliefs auf islamischer gefäßkeramik. Berichte aus den Staatlichen Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 3(19): 11–12. [Google Scholar], 11–12. Personal letter (19 March 1980) from Prof. Dr. Klaus Brisch, then Director of the Museum für Islamische Kunst (Sammlung in Dahlem). For the production technique, see the descriptions by Wilkinson (1959) Wilkinson, C. K. 1959. The kilns of Nishapur. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 17(9): 235–40. Available at http://www.metmuseum.org/publications/bulletins/1/pdf/3257810.pdf.bannered.pdf (accessed 3 December 2010) [Google Scholar] and Watson (2004 Watson, O. 2004. Ceramics from Islamic lands, London: Thames and Hudson. in association with The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait National Museum [Google Scholar], 41 and 139). Watson 2004 Watson, O. 2004. Ceramics from Islamic lands, London: Thames and Hudson. in association with The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait National Museum [Google Scholar], 306, Cat. L.3, with plate. The inscription relates to drinking. Wilkinson 1959 Wilkinson, C. K. 1959. The kilns of Nishapur. Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 17(9): 235–40. Available at http://www.metmuseum.org/publications/bulletins/1/pdf/3257810.pdf.bannered.pdf (accessed 3 December 2010) [Google Scholar], 236 (plate of exterior), 238 (plate of interior and modern glazed pressing); idem 1973, 273 no. 58 a, b (with profile drawing) and 285 (plates a, b and glazed cast, c). Wilkinson 1969 Wilkinson, C. K. 1969. "Christian remains from Nishapur". In Forschungen zur Kunst Asien: in memoriam Kurt Erdmann, Edited by: Aslanapa, O. and Naumann, R. 79–87. Istanbul: Baha Matbaasi. [Google Scholar], 79–87; idem 1973, 78–9, no. 48; 79 no. 49; 335 no. 200. I benefited from comments made to me on this inscription by both the late Ralph Pinder Wilson (personal letter, 6 September 1980) and Prof. Dr Claus-Peter Haase (in person, July 2007). Ta'līq was a preferred chancery script and was still in use as such by secretaries in the sixteenth century (Roxburgh 2001 Roxburgh, D. J. 2001. Prefacing the image: the writing of art history in sixteenth-century Iran, Leiden: Brill. [Google Scholar], 125–6). Dr Rhoads Murphey (personal communication) makes the following observation: 'I see a series of "dal ra"s which could be the Persian preposition dar/der meaning (according to context) … in/into/by/under … and a series of clusters, some of three others less clearly three radicals and all beginning with "alif" which is more prominent and taller than the other radicals; in one case (at the middle) apparently "elif" "ha" "dal" which I would take to mean or imply the context of a treaty or some other agreement requiring unanimity and togetherness. The other ones (apart from the middle one) do not have "ha" so clearly in the middle…'. Prof. David Thomas (also personal communication) has suggested that 'some at least of those long uprights could, of course, be lams rather than alifs. That would make the one decipherable triliterate root l.h.d. which yields a meaning of "to overburden". This has prompted me to wonder whether there is any connection with Matthew 11:28, "Come to me all you who are overburdened and heavy laden…". But I would definitely not want to press this, because the rest does not appear to make sense as the rest of the verse.' I am grateful to both scholars for their views on this inscription, made on the basis of a photograph of the cast. British Library MS Egerton 1139 fol. 89v. Folda (1995 Folda, J. 1995. The art of the crusaders in the Holy Land 1098–1187, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar], 137–59) discusses the Psalter, with this initial illustrated (pl. 6.9j). Kühnel 1971 Kühnel, E. 1971. Die islamischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, VII-XIII Jahrhundert, Berlin: Deutsche Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft. [Google Scholar], Nr. 88. taf. 97–8. pl. XCVIII (no. 88C); Brisch et al. 1971 Brisch, K., Jröger, J., Spuhler, F. and Zick-Nissen, J. 1971. Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin, Katalog, Berlin-Dahlem: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz. [Google Scholar], 20–1, no. 21 with Abb. 42. The panel is one of a group, now divided between Paris (Louvre) and Berlin (Museum für Islamische Kunst). Just two examples are Monneret de Villard (1950 Monneret de Villard, U. 1950. Le pitture musulmane al soffitto della Cappella Palatina in Palermo, Rome: La Liberia dello Stato. [Google Scholar], Fig. 160) and Grube and Johns (2005 Grube, E. and Johns, J. 2005. The painted ceilings of the Cappella Palatina, Genoa: Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art. [Google Scholar], Pl. XLVI (A 23.11)). Brisch et al. 1971 Brisch, K., Jröger, J., Spuhler, F. and Zick-Nissen, J. 1971. Museum für Islamische Kunst Berlin, Katalog, Berlin-Dahlem: Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz. [Google Scholar], 97–8, no. 370 with Abb 52. Another potter who signed his models is also known to have been itinerant (see Bahrami 1947 Bahrami, M. 1947. Contribution à l'étude de la céramique musulman en Iran. Athār-é Īran, 3: 209–29. [Google Scholar], cited in Wilkinson 1973 Wilkinson, C. K. 1973. Nishapur: pottery of the early Islamic period, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Google Scholar], 261). Watson 2004 Watson, O. 2004. Ceramics from Islamic lands, London: Thames and Hudson. in association with The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait National Museum [Google Scholar], 136–8, Cat. no. Af.1, citing the inscription, a secular poem about wine. Watson here attributes other ceramic objects to this master. Wilkinson 1973 Wilkinson, C. K. 1973. Nishapur: pottery of the early Islamic period, New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. [Google Scholar], 272–3, no. 57a, with 284 (pls 57a and cast, b, c). The height is given as 16.5 cm. Zick-Nissen 1980 Zick-Nissen, J. 1980. Figurenreliefs auf islamischer gefäßkeramik. Berichte aus den Staatlichen Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 3(19): 11–12. [Google Scholar], 11 with Abb. 1, giving the measurements as 13.5 x 16.5 cm in diameter. Zick-Nissen (1980 Zick-Nissen, J. 1980. Figurenreliefs auf islamischer gefäßkeramik. Berichte aus den Staatlichen Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 3(19): 11–12. [Google Scholar], 11) sees this as the origin of Il-Khanid painting. For example, the painting on the lusterware bowl illustrated in Watson (2004 Watson, O. 2004. Ceramics from Islamic lands, London: Thames and Hudson. in association with The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait National Museum [Google Scholar], 347 Cat. 0.1, with plate on p. 346). For a definition of the term in Byzantine art, see Weyl Carr (1991) Weyl Carr, A. 1991. "Art: Deesis". In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Edited by: Kazhdan, A. P. Vol. 1, 599–60. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar] and Walter (1968 Walter, C. 1968. Two notes on the Deesis. Revue des Études Byzantines, 26: 311–36. [Google Scholar]; 1970 Walter, C. 1970. Further notes on the Deesis. Revue des Études Byzantins, 28: 161–87. [Google Scholar]). For Eastern Christian examples, see Velmans (1980–1981; 1983 Velmans, T. 1980. L'image de la Deisis dans les églises de Géorgie et dans celles d'autres régions byzantines. Cahiers Archéologiques, 29: 47–102. –1981 and 1983 31: 129–68 [Google Scholar]). For example in the Last Judgement scene by T'oros Roslin of 1268 (Erevan, Matenadaran 10675), for which see the comments of Der Nersessian (1993 Der Nersessian, S. 1993. Miniature painting in the Armenian kingdom of Cilicia from the twelfth to the fourteenth century, 2 vols, Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library. [Google Scholar], 1:63 with 2: Fig. 223). British Library MS Egerton 1139 (Buchthal 1957 Buchthal, H. 1957. Miniature painting in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, Oxford: Clarendon. [Google Scholar], 2 with pl. 12b); Folda (1995 Folda, J. 1995. The art of the crusaders in the Holy Land 1098–1187, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar], 137–59) discusses the Psalter with the Deesis illustrated (pl. 6.8x). Leroy (1964 Leroy, J. 1964. Les manuscrits syriaques à peintures conservés dans les bibliothèques d'Europe et d'Orient, Paris: Geuthner. [Google Scholar], 395–6) points to Armenian elements in the manuscript's illustration. For discussion of these differences in blessings, see Cruikshank-Dodd (2001 Cruikshank-Dodd, E. 2001. The frescoes of Mar Musa al-Habashi: a study in medieval painting in Syria, Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. [Google Scholar], 180–5). An example of Christ blessing in the Western manner in the Deesis image is found in the apse of the thirteenth-century Syrian Orthodox church of Mar Tadros at Bahdeidat in Lebanon. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Museo Sacra: Cecchelli 1926 Cecchelli, C. 1926. /27 Il tesoro del Laterano. II. Oreficerie, argente, smalti. Dedalo 7. Rome-Milan: Edizioni Dedalo [Google Scholar]/27, quoted in Marschak (1986 Marschak, B. 1986. Silberschätze des Orients: Metallkunst des 3. – 13. Jahrhunderts und ihre Kontinuität, Leipzig: Seemann. [Google Scholar], 114–15 with pl. 149). An example of the appearance of the Deesis scene further east is an embroidered altar cloth with a scene of Christ with the Virgin and St John the Baptist and angels in a church of the Assyrian Church of the East, as described by the Franciscan William of Rubruck who visited the Mongol capital of Karakorum in 1253/4 (Jackson 1990 Jackson, P., trans. (with D. Morgan). 1990. The mission of Friar William of Rubruck: his journey to the court of the great Khan Möngke 1253–1255. London: Hakluyt Society [Google Scholar], 123; Baumer 2006 Baumer, C. 2006. The Church of the East: an illustrated history of Assyrian Christianity, London and New York: I.B. Tauris. [Google Scholar], 167). Watson 2004 Watson, O. 2004. Ceramics from Islamic lands, London: Thames and Hudson. in association with The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait National Museum [Google Scholar], 318, Cat. L.17. (ht 14.5 cm, diam. 26.7 cm.) For an example of a brass cyclindrical incense burner with Christian figures, attributed to Syria, c. 1240, see Baer (1989 Baer, E. 1989. Ayyubid metalwork with Christian images, Leiden: Brill. [Google Scholar], 7–10, pls 1, 15–20) and Soucek (1997 Soucek, P. 1997. Byzantium and the Islamic East. Entry in Evans and Wixom 1997, 426 no. 284 [Google Scholar], 426 no. 284, with colour plate). It differs, however, in incorporating three feet. For an example of a hexagonal, metal, silver-inlaid incense burner with a pierced lid, inscribed with a cursive inscription with good wishes, see University of Michigan Museum of Art (1959 University of Michigan Museum of Art. 1959. Persian art before and after the Mongol conquest [catalogue of an exhibition, 9 April–17 May], Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. [Google Scholar], 32, with illustration on p. 54). The measurements are given as 17.17 cm high x 12 cm diameter. The dimensions are given as 17.5 cm high x 20.1 cm wide. 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