Stucco panel
Rabat, Morocco
Museum of Archaeology
About Museum of Archaeology, Rabat.
Hegira 6th / AD 12th century
99.12.10.2463
Sculpted and carved plaster.
Height left 107 cm, height centre 110 cm, height right 163 cm, length 62 cm
Almoravid
‘House of the Plain’, Chichaoua, Morocco.
This panel has several different decorated sections. The upper section consists of a protruding band with a double grooved braid above a large frieze with palmettes and acanthus leaves. Sculpted in relief, the lower two lobes of the seven-lobed palmettes are rolled and the upper one marked with a central slot. They alternate with and are framed by bouquets of acanthus with digitate leaves and disc-shape calyxes.
The lower section consists of a spandrel and an arcature. The triangular spandrel, surrounded by a double braid, is marked with a medallion made up of a fleuron consisting of three acanthus leaves. The central veined digitate leaf includes offshoots and is seen from the front, while the two side ones, bent to form a calyx, are seen from the side. This medallion is surrounded by two interlaced stems bearing acanthus leaves beside to pinecones set obliquely.
The arcature is crowned by two bands. The upper band consists of a crown of veined acanthus leaflets above the second arched band decorated with a double braid. Alternating below this band there are smooth voussoirs and projecting voussoirs sculpted in relief that are reminiscent of the voussoirs of the arch of the mosque of Córdoba. Intertwined foliage with axillary buds, with some side branches that interrupt the rectilinear frame of the voussoirs, decorate the protruding voussoirs. Their coils tightly surround symmetrical and asymmetrical palms with acanthus leaves and three-leaf fleurons.
All of this ornamental flora, as well as the deep carving technique which is found in the plaster work ornamentation of the Almoravid qubba at Marrakesh and the domes from the same period in the Qarawiyyin mosque, suggest that this arcature facing comes from the Almoravid period.
This panel is a piece of carved stucco cladding. It comes from an arch, probably a mihrab arch. The composition of its decoration, its geometric and floral motifs inspired by Taifa art, and the deep sculpting technique date it to the Almoravid period.
Through stylistic and comparative analysis. The type of decoration and the carving technique are similar to the plasterwork decoration at the Almoravid qubba of Marrakesh and the Almoravid domes in the Qarawiyyin mosque, which can be dated to the reign of 'Ali ibn Yusuf ibn Tashufin, 500–37 / 1106–1142.
Excavated.
Archaeological object found in situ.
Berthier, P., “En marge des sucreries marocaines. La maison de la plaine et la maison des oliviers à Chichaoua”, Hespéris-Tamuda, 1062, III, fasc. 1, pp.75–7.
Meunié, J. et Terrasse, H., Nouvelles recherches archéologiques à Marrakech, Paris, 1957.
Meunié, J. et Terrasse, H., Recherches archéologiques à Marrakech, Paris, 1952.
Terrasse, H., La mosquée Al-Quaraouiyin à Fès, Paris, 1968.
Naima El Khatib-Boujibar "Stucco panel" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;ma;Mus01;21;en
MWNF Working Number: MO 26
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