EGYPT OR SYRIA, EARLY 15TH CENTURY

This basin provides strong support for the theory that the so-called Veneto-Saracenic metalwork was produced in Syria or Egypt rather than by Muslim craftsmen settled in Venice. The plaited kufic inscriptions, decorative rather than meaningful, are features of much Veneto-Saracenic work of the late 15th century. The basin shows that this type of plaited kufic was already an accepted decorative feature of Mamluk metalwork in the early 15th century. It was a development of the meaningful plaited inscriptions found on Mamluk metalwork of the 14th century (cf. Exhibition of Islamic Art in Egypt, Cairo, 1969, no. 80, pl. 16(a)).