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Lot Essay
Carved from alabaster, this rare column capital is distinguished by its monumental form and sophisticated vegetal ornament. The abstracted palmettes closely recall the stucco decoration of the Abbasid palaces of Samarra, particularly the so-called C style, characterised by vegetal motifs treated with geometric abstraction. The relationship is especially compelling given the discovery of comparable capitals at Raqqa. Two were found by Friedrich Sarre (1865-1945) and Ernst Herzfeld (1879-1948) during their excavations in the Euphrates and Tigris regions and published in Archäologische Reise im Euphrat- und Tigris-Gebiet, vol. 2, Berlin, 1911, p.352, figs.322-3. Herzfeld subsequently published two further capitals from Raqqa in Der Wandschmuck der Bauten von Samarra und seine Ornamente (Berlin, 1923), pl.XXIV. Several related examples are preserved in the National Museum of Damascus (including 13 446; 235 4002; 235 4019; 235 4023; 9687-001, see E. Herzfeld, op. cit., pl.XXIV).
Raqqa was an important Abbasid centre and, in 796, was selected by Caliph Harun al-Rashid as his imperial residence. It remained the Abbasid capital for approximately thirteen years, and poems from this period record the splendour of the imperial court. Under the Abbasids the city was substantially expanded, including the construction of two new palaces, while the neighbouring garrison city of al-Rāfiqah, founded in 770-71, had by the end of the eighth century merged with Raqqa to form a single urban complex. It was during this period of Abbasid prominence that the city developed the architectural environment to which the present capital belongs.
Comparable examples are preserved in several major museum collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, houses two late 8th-century capitals attributed to Syria, probably Raqqa: the Capital in the “Beveled Style”, carved from alabaster and gypsum (36.68.1), and the Capital with Palmettes and Leaves (36.68.2). A further Column Capital, dating to the late 7th–early 8th century and carved from marble, is preserved in the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. Three related capitals are preserved in the David Collection, Copenhagen (35⁄1986, 1⁄200 and 2⁄2001), one of which is attributed to 8th-9th-century Raqqa and published by Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, Cosmophilia: Islamic Art from the David Collection (Copenhagen, 2006, no.81, p.156).
Raqqa was eventually abandoned in the thirteenth century following the Mongol invasions and was practically deserted by the time twentieth-century archaeologists began excavating there. The present capital therefore represents a rare surviving element of the architectural decoration associated with Abbasid Raqqa, combining a monumental architectural form with the highly abstracted bevelled-palmette ornament that links it to the wider decorative traditions of the Abbasid world.
Raqqa was an important Abbasid centre and, in 796, was selected by Caliph Harun al-Rashid as his imperial residence. It remained the Abbasid capital for approximately thirteen years, and poems from this period record the splendour of the imperial court. Under the Abbasids the city was substantially expanded, including the construction of two new palaces, while the neighbouring garrison city of al-Rāfiqah, founded in 770-71, had by the end of the eighth century merged with Raqqa to form a single urban complex. It was during this period of Abbasid prominence that the city developed the architectural environment to which the present capital belongs.
Comparable examples are preserved in several major museum collections. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, houses two late 8th-century capitals attributed to Syria, probably Raqqa: the Capital in the “Beveled Style”, carved from alabaster and gypsum (36.68.1), and the Capital with Palmettes and Leaves (36.68.2). A further Column Capital, dating to the late 7th–early 8th century and carved from marble, is preserved in the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. Three related capitals are preserved in the David Collection, Copenhagen (35⁄1986, 1⁄200 and 2⁄2001), one of which is attributed to 8th-9th-century Raqqa and published by Sheila Blair and Jonathan Bloom, Cosmophilia: Islamic Art from the David Collection (Copenhagen, 2006, no.81, p.156).
Raqqa was eventually abandoned in the thirteenth century following the Mongol invasions and was practically deserted by the time twentieth-century archaeologists began excavating there. The present capital therefore represents a rare surviving element of the architectural decoration associated with Abbasid Raqqa, combining a monumental architectural form with the highly abstracted bevelled-palmette ornament that links it to the wider decorative traditions of the Abbasid world.