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Fountainhead
Doha, Qatar
Museum of Islamic Art
About Museum of Islamic Art, Doha
Hegira 4th century / AD 10th century
MW.7
Bronze; Casting, Engraving
Height: 48.1cm, Depth: 41.1cm
Umayyad
Spain, Cordoba
This animal, a hind or female deer, would once have stood beside a pool or fountain in one of the palaces of Umayyad Spain. A very similar piece, now in the Cordoba Museum, was discovered in the ruins of the caliphal pleasure-palace of Madinat al-Zahra, where the historian al-Maqqari mentions there being a marble basin adorned with fountain heads in the shape of different animals. The decoration on the hind’s body gives the impression that it is covered in a sumptuous, tasselled textile.
Allan, James W., Metalwork Treasures from the Islamic Courts, London: The Islamic Art Society, 2002.
Seipel, Joseph H., God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: The object in Islamic Art and Culture, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
Watson, Oliver, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2008.
"Fountainhead" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;qt;Mus21;4;en
MWNF Working Number: QT 04
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