Mshatta Facade
The Mshatta Facade is the decorated part of the
History
The facade belonged to the Qasr Mshatta or Mshatta palace, which was excavated about 30 km south of the contemporary Jordanian capital of
Unusually for an Umayyad building, the main structures are built from burnt bricks resting on a foundation layer of finely dressed stone; the carved facade is also in stone. The name of the place, Mshatta, is a name used by the modern Bedouins in the area, and the original name remains unknown.
The remains of the palace were excavated in 1840. The facade was a gift from the Ottoman Sultan
There has been much discussion of the fact that the decoration on the left side of the facade contains many animals among the foliar forms, while on the right of the entranceway in the centre there are no animals. It has been suggested that this is because the right-hand side was the outside wall of the mosque.[1]
Decoration
Description
The portion of the facade housed in the
Greco-Roman and Sasanian Influence
The imagery used on the Mshatta facade, like much early Islamic art, draws inspiration from different historical referents. The grape vine, acanthus leaf, and amphora motifs provide a clear link to Greco-Roman and Byzantine visual culture. These motifs were consistently used in Byzantine churches, as well as early Umayyad monuments like the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.[5] Some of the mythical creatures depicted in the relief also come from Greco-Roman origins, like the griffin and centaur. One section of the facade contains a central image on the bottom register of a griffin and another creature with the head of a dog and tail of a peacock. This creature has been identified as a simurgh from Zoroastrian mythology. The appearance of a Zoroastrian mythical creature suggests that visual culture from the Sasanian Empire influenced the design of the Mshatta facade. This is further supported by the vegetal imagery on the right side of the facade. Among the grape vines are pine cone-like buds and winged palmettes that draw reference to the iconic crown of the Sasanian kings.[5]
Scholars have suggested many incentives for the Caliph’s use of multicultural imagery. One theory suggests that Al-Walid II intentionally commissioned imagery from the former ruling empires of Syria to represent the cultural heterogeneity of his subjects.[6] Combined with the use of military architecture employed throughout the palace complex, this multicultural imagery could have been used to convey the widespread power of the Umayyad Caliphate[7]. Another theory considers the architects and artists who carved the relief to be the driving force behind the amalgamation of cultural motifs. The Umayyads were known to employ Coptic and Orthodox Christian architects who would have been familiar with the classical motifs we see on the Mshatta facade.[8] Parallel to this theory, scholars have argued that the Sasanian motifs reproduced on the facade differ enough from their origins that they were likely influenced by Sasanian textiles, coins, or books, not created by artisans familiar with Sasanian culture.[5]
Gallery
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Drawing of the reconstruction by Bruno Schulz in 1903, presented in the Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin.
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Left Facade, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
See also
References
- ISBN 0-300-08869-8
- ^ "Mshatta Façade. Museum of Islamic Art Berlin". universes.art. Retrieved 2022-11-14.
- ^ , retrieved 2022-11-20
- OCLC 44764251.
- ^ , retrieved 2022-11-20
- )
- OCLC 40624753.
- )
- Grabar, Oleg The Date and Meaning of Mshatta Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Vol. 41, Studies on Art and Archeology in Honor of Ernst Kitzinger on His Seventy-Fifth Birthday (1987), pp. 243–247
- Enderlein, Volkmar Mshatta-A Caliphs Palace The Pergamon Museum Information leaflet No. ISL I, Berlin, 1996