The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2024

Peacock-shaped Hand Washing Device (recto); Text Page, Arabic Prose (verso)

Peacock-shaped Hand Washing Device (recto); Text Page, Arabic Prose (verso)

1315
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

The mouth of the peacock acts as a spigot pouring water; the figure emerged from a small door and offers soap to the hand washer.

Description

This leaf from a 1315 Syrian copy of Ibn al-Razzāz al-Jazarī’s The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices, written in 1206, depicts a peacock basin automaton for ritual hand washing. There are 15 surviving manuscript copies of al-Jazarī’s work, ranging from the early 13th to the late 19th century. An engineer from upper Mesopotamia, al-Jazarī was in the service of King Nasrī al-Dīn when he completed his masterwork, an anthology of automated devices including clocks, trick vessels for drinking sessions, devices for washing, fountains, water-raising machines, and measuring instruments. His designs clearly illustrate that automata were not innovations from Western Europe, but they stemmed from a tradition known in the ancient, Islamic, and Byzantine worlds. We do not know with certainty that al-Jazarī’s device was ever actually constructed.
  • ?-1945
    (Hagop Kevorkian [1872–1962], New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1945-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 717 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 221 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 221 archive.org
    The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 278 archive.org
    Suchman, Lucille Alice. Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Actions. 2007. Cover www.cambridge.org
    Fliegel, Stephen N., and Elina Gertsman. Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's Gothic Table Fountain. 2016. pp. 104-107, Cat. no. 4
    Mikolic, Amanda. The Art of Handwashing. The Cleveland Museum of Art The Thinker Blog on Medium. April 10, 2020. medium.com
  • Myth and Mystique: Cleveland's Gothic Table Fountain. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 9, 2016-February 26, 2017).
    Muslim Miniature Paintings. Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice, Italy, Venezia, Italy (organizer) (September 1-October 31, 1962); The Asia Society Museum, New York, NY (December 4, 1962-February 3, 1963).
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  • {{cite web|title=Peacock-shaped Hand Washing Device (recto); Text Page, Arabic Prose (verso)|url=false|author=|year=1315|access-date=24 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1945.383