Ornamental pilaster
Lisbon, Portugal
City Museum
Lisbon City Council
Hegira 3rd–4th / AD 9th–10th century
MC.ARQ.1484
Limestone; sculpture in bas-relief.
Height 54.5 cm, width 49 cm, depth 16 cm
Umayyad of Córdoba, Caliphate period
Lisbon.
Fragment of a pilaster, found together with another smaller frieze – also now in the City Museum, Lisbon – which repeats the design of the side fascias of the front panel of this pilaster. Given that the central element of the plaque indicates that the motifs would have been repeated vertically, there seems little doubt that the piece in question is all that remains of an elaborate pilaster.
The stone has three different vertical fields, separated by a simple corded design. The sides of the panel are filled with a frieze of finely cut fleur-de-lys rosettes. The inner fascia is decorated with four-lobed medallions, which are supported on almost imaginary lines, interrupted by the peripheral ornaments, but joined to one another in a repetitive quadrangular pattern, which gives the motif a quite dynamic design. The centre of the surviving medallion is distinguished by a circle with a radiating rosette, while the external area emerges filled with succulent bunches of fruit and small fleurs-de-lys, both arranged as a cross and enclosed in the curvatures of the medallion. The other medallions, only the edges of which can be seen, would have represented the imperial eagles of Sassanid tradition. In the upper part a fan-shaped tail can be seen and two claws rigidly supported on the corners of the medallion. The remaining lobe of the other ornament, in the lower part of the piece, shows the area of the creature's head, too damaged for us to tell whether or not it was bifid. The side spaces between the medallions are sculpted with very open palmettes, of oriental tradition, and which are also found on other sculptures in the city.
This pilaster may have originated in the Episcopal Basilica of Lisbon. The plant and animal motifs suggest Sassanid origins, although close similarities can be found in the Umayyad palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar near Jericho. The pilaster is one of a group of pieces from Lisbon classed as Mozarabic.
The two stones found in the house on Rua dos Bacalhoeiros are similar to others from the Cathedral, the Castle, the Casa dos Bicos and from Chelas (Lisbon), which must be considered to be from the Mozarabic period. In this specific case, both the ornamental schema, and some of the decorative motifs are reminiscent of certain stuccoes at the Umayyad palace of Khirbat al-Mafjar (Jericho), datable from the first half of the 8th century. These sculptures have no parallel in any other peninsular art attributable to the Visigoth period.
Presented to the Lisbon City Hall, after being removed from a building on Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, where it was found together with another piece.
Several pieces were found in the Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, next to the line of the wall, where they may have been re-used after being taken from a destroyed Mozarabic church. Their extraordinary decorative richness and relative proximity to the Cathedral suggest that these pieces may have come from the Episcopal Basilica.
Almeida, F. de, “Arte Visigótica em Portugal”, Arqueólogo Português, New series, IV, Lisbon, 1962, pp. 7–27.
Fernandes, P. A., Visigótico ou Moçárabe? O Núcleo de Alta Idade Média da Cidadede Lisboa no Museu Arqueológico do Carmo,(forthcoming).
Ferreira, O. V., “Acerca de uma Pedra Visigótica Ornamentada”, Revista do Sindicato Nacional dos Engenheiros Auxiliares, Agentes Técnicos de Engenharia e Condutores, 4, Lisbon, 1949, pp. 508–14.
Palol, P., Arte Hispánico de la época Visigoda, Barcelona, 1968.
Real, M. L., “Inovação e Resistência: Dados Recentes Sobre a Antiguidade Cristã no Ocidente Peninsular”, in IV Reunió d'Arqueologia Cristiana Hispànica, Barcelona, 1995, pp.17–68.
Manuel Luís Real "Ornamental pilaster" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;pt;Mus01_C;26;en
MWNF Working Number: PT 35
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