Carved Panelfirst half of 9th century

On view:

Geffen Galleries, Islamic Art and Late Antiquity

Title: Carved Panel
Place Made: Egypt
Date Made: first half of 9th century
Medium: Wood, carved
Dimensions: 25 5/16 x 8 in. (64.29 x 20.32 cm)
Credit Line: The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky
Accession Number: M.73.5.119
Classification: Wood
Collecting Area: Art of the Middle East: Islamic
Curatorial Notes: This panel likely once formed part of a cenotaph marking the burial place of an individual of some importance given the paucity of wood in Egypt and the careful carving of the low-relief design and inscriptions. Inscribed across the top is the beginning of Qur’an, chapter 112. It belongs to a group of similar carved wood panels said to have been excavated at Fustat (Old Cairo). All have the same diagonal crack, suggesting that they were discarded and stacked one atop the other, causing the matching fractures.
Selected Bibliography: Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.
Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.