The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of June 1, 2023

Column Base

c. 960–76

Spain, Cordoba, Spanish Umayyad period

(756–1031)

Marble

Overall: 15 x 20.5 x 20.5 cm (5 7/8 x 8 1/16 x 8 1/16 in.)

Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Fund 2021.5

Location

116 Islamic

Fun Fact

In the mid-1800s the ruins of Madinat al-Zahra were rediscovered and the source of great fascination as people imagined a palace like that in the stories of 1001 Nights.

Description

This base comes from the palatial city of Madinat al-Zahra near Cordoba (Spain) which was begun by caliph Abd al-Rahman III (r. 912–61) around 936. Large parts of the Iberian Peninsula were then under Islamic rule and experienced a cultural flowering. The city, destroyed already in 1010, was the most magnificent palace complex in Europe at the time.

Inscriptions
Inscription Translation

On the rounded column base, two bands of stylized waves frame an Arabic inscription asking for blessings upon the unnamed overseer of this part of the building project.

Provenance
–2021
(Sam Fogg, London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
2021–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Strong, Meghan E. “Art of the Islamic World.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 3 (Summer 2021): 28-30. Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 30.
Exhibition history

Art of the Islamic World (Islamic art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (May 21, 2021-May 31, 2022).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2021.5