Of wood (probably pine) with polychrome decoration in tempera, including Kufic script

Rectangular wooden panel, painted in tempera, with pseudo-Kufic Arabic script in yellow, framed in white flower-bud motifs, flanked by white reed-like motifs on a red ground.

Bought with nine other panels (Museum Nos: 207 to 216 - 1894) from M. Stanislas Baron, Rue Grange-Batelière 28 (Paris) for £0. 8s.
"Panel from a wooden ceiling, painted in black, white and yellow tempera colours on a red ground with vertical leafy stems forming two compartments, each of which encloses a pear-shaped device, containing simulated Kufic characters. Painted by Moorish artists for the Spaniards. Hispano-Moresque; 15th century."

Historical significance: Ceilings with painted beams and panels are more often associated with Christian Spain, and this included Catalonia, whose coats of arms are emblazoned on No. 216-1894 of this set. Nevertheless, this panel is an interesting example of Middle Eastern influences, particularly noticeable in the use of Islamic floral devises and pseudo-Kufic script. This is a particularly good example of the Islamic style of decoration found in interiors of houses even in the predominantly Christian parts of Spain.

Ceilings in Christian Spain, during the Middle ages, were often supported by large, decoratively painted beams with painted panels like this example recessed between them. Examples include the ceiling over the cloister of the Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos, south of Burgos, and the one over the Chapel of Santa Agüeda in Barcelona. Just as complex geometrical ceilings, supported by box-core pendants and inscribed with Arabic calligraphy, were characteristic of Moorish buildings, those with painted beams and panels were more often owned by Christians, and found in larger and more important rooms.

This panel formed part of a ceiling of a house in Spain, and would originally have been placed in one of the recesses between large supporting beams which spanned the room. Ceilings with painted beams and flat recesses made up of painted panels were more characteristic of Christian than Moorish buildings in the period between 1300 and 1500, but the decoration of this particular panel nevertheless shows strong signs of Islamic influence (particularly the vegetal motifs and pseudo-Arabic script), which survived in Spain until well after 1500.

214-1894