A CARVED UMAYYAD WHITE MARBLE CAPITAL

This visually strong capital is of the type used in the extension of the Great Mosque of Cordoba undertaken during the reign of Al-Hakim II in 961-976 AD. Under Al-Hakim II, the maqsara, or ruler's prayer space, was commissioned, separated visually from the rest of the prayer hall by screens formed of elaborate intersecting polylobed arcades. These arcades were supported on capitals of precisely this form with two stepped bands of curling simplified acanthus leaves and four circular volutes, left distinctively void of any carving. Images of the capitals in situ in front of the magnificent mosaic mihrab in the Mosque are published in Christian Ewert and Jens-Peter Wisshak, Forschungen zur almohadischen Moschee Lieferung 1: Vorstufen, Mainz, 1981, pl.30 and 31. Related examples, although lacking the same strength, are found in Almeria, and are published in Ars Hispaniae Historia Universal del Arte Hispanico, vol. III, Madrid, 1951, fig.321, p.269.