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Week 5

This week's object of the week is a spherical incense-burner from Syria. Objects like these were fashionable in the eastern Mediterranean courts, especially around 1290. They were made of two halves, so that they could be opened to put aromatic substances on a charcoal fire in an inner cup to produce perfumed smoke.

Brass Incense Burner with gold and silver
Syrian, 2nd half of the 13th Century
Inv.-Nr. 2774 

Week 4

This week´s object is a page from a manuscript with a poem written in Persian that was made by the Mughal Prince Dara Shikoh (1615 – 1659). Dara was the eldest son of the Emperor Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal (whose tomb is the Taj Mahal), and was learned in the calligraphic arts. This beautifully decorated folio was made when he was only 15 years old. It is a Persian verse conveying the wisdom of life. Unfortunately the signature and the date are no longer extant on the page.

Miniature of a Persian Verse belonging to the Mogul Prince Dara Shikoh
India
1630-31
Inv.-Nr. I. 4597, fol 8r 

Week 3

The object of the week is the Alhambra Cupola, which, as the name indicates, was originally in the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain! The palace complex called the Palacio del Partal, was once made into the private house of a German banker, who was given permission to transfer the small dome to his villa in Berlin. The wooden cupola is characteristic of Nasrid architecture of the fourteenth century. The cupola is made of cedar and poplar woods that were carved in individual pieces and joined together to create the stunning geometric patterns. There are still traces of green, red and blue pigments, suggesting that the entire dome was once painted.

Alhambra Cupola
Spain, Granada
1320 CE
Cedar and poplar, carved and partly painted.
3.5 m. diameter.
Inv. Nr. I.5/78 

Week 2

This week´s object is the famous Dragon and Phoenix Carpet that dates to the 15th Century. It was acquired by William von Bode in 1886 and is considered to be one of the most important early Ottoman carpets decorated with an animal motif. The Dragon and Phoenix are of Chinese influence, one which came to the Islamic world during the 13th Century via the arrival of the Mongols. This particular carpet is also unique, as the Italian painter Domenico di Bartolo depicted a similar carpet in the fresco "The Wedding of the Foundlings" in the Spedale della Scala in Siena in 1440- 1444.

Carpet with dragon and phoenix
172cm x 90cm
Ottoman, 15th century
                          Inventory nr. I-4



Week 1

This week´s object is a rock crystal ewer made in Egypt in the 10th or early 11th century during the Fatimid period. These ewers were luxury items commissioned by Sultans and Amirs. Previously, there were only 7 similar Fatimid rock crystal ewers known of and displayed in European collections, until 2008 when this one appeared in a small auction house in Hampshire, England. It then made its way to Christie´s, and now it is in Berlin!

Carved of rock crystal and fitted with gold, the ewer is on view in the Edmond de Unger Collection in the Museum of Islamic Art at the Pergamon Museum.