- Gallery Text
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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.
- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- 1981.10
- Title
- Ceiling Facet
- Classification
- Architectural Elements
- Work Type
- architectural element
- Date
- 16th-17th century
- Places
- Creation Place: Africa, Morocco
- Period
- Sa'did period
- Culture
- Moroccan
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/216127
- Location
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Level 2, Room 2550, Art from Islamic Lands, The Middle East and North Africa
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Carved and painted wood
- Technique
- Painted
- 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.
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Fund for the Acquisition of Islamic Art
- Accession Year
- 1981
- Object Number
- 1981.10
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Publication History
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Michele de Angelis and Thomas W. Lentz, Architecture in Islamic Painting: Permanent and Impermanent Worlds, brochure, Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, Mass, 1982)
Stephan Wolohojian and Alvin L. Clark, Jr., Harvard Art Museum/ Handbook, ed. Stephan Wolohojian, Harvard Art Museum (Cambridge, 2008), p. 122
- Exhibition History
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Islamic Art: Drawings, Calligraphies and Objects, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/29/1983 - 09/25/1983
Islamic Art: The Power of Pattern, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 09/23/1989 - 01/17/1990
Arabesque, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/01/1990 - 03/24/1991
Woven, Hammered, and Thrown: Textiles and Objects from the Islamic World, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/22/1991 - 08/18/1991
Recent Acquisitions, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/04/1992 - 06/21/1992
Pattern and Purpose. Decorative Arts of Islam., Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 02/19/1994 - 07/03/1994
32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050
- Subjects and Contexts
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Google Art Project
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu