Review: [untitled] Author(s): J. M. Rogers Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 141, No. 1156 (Jul., 1999), p. 423 Published by: The Burlington Magazine Publications, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/888343 . Accessed: 18/10/2011 11:17

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Fatimid art at the Victoria and Albert eleventh- or early twelfth-century develop- Contadini's brief discussion of the Fati- Museum. By Anna Contadini. 138 pp. ment of major importance which, the mid arts of the book is less easy to follow, incl. 54 col. pls. + 39 text figures. (Victoria author argues, was an Egyptian invention3 partly because it could have done with and Albert Museum Publications, London, - she too turns to lustre wares, discussing more argument. The manuscripts she claims as Fatimid have all had other at- 1998), ?60. ISBN 1-851-77178-6. them in terms of an early mass-production recently industry, with workshops persisting over tributions: a naskhzKoran (Chester Beatty The spectacular remains of Fatimid art time, as demonstrated by significant varia- Library MS 1430) dated 428/1036-37, in have received surprisingly little tions in the decoration, glaze and body-type to Iraq () or Iran; pages from a detailed attention. Anna Contadini's recent of sherds bearing the name SaCd,for exam- multi-volume blue Koran,4 to Spain or the study of ivory gaming pieces, many of them ple. By the reign of al-Hakim (996-1021 Maghrib but to the ninth, not the tenth, Fatimid,1 qualifies her well for this wider A.D.), and with the work of the painter century; and a page in the Victoria and survey. To it she brings the same qualities Muslim, they had established their own Albert Museum (MS L.31-1985), to the of thoroughness and informed intelligence, distinctive style; and in the twelfth century ninth century too." For completeness she and the publisher's claim that this is the they were to bring about lustre-painting briefly considers Fatimid painting. Our best accessible account of Fatimid art is in Syria and Iran. Unfortunately the rich- knowledge of manuscript illustration is well justified - though its balance is pri- ness of the Victoria and Albert Museum's restricted to scraps, some little more than marily determined by the material in the sherd collection has precluded an exhaus- caricatures, from the rubbish heaps of Victoria and Albert Museum's collections. tive discussion of workshop practice here, . Contadini rightly emphasises the Thus, rock-crystal, textiles, ceramics and so that Contadini's perceptive remarks on relevance of the twelfth-century paintings glass receive thorough treatment; but there the inter-relations of decorative repertoire, of the Cappella Palatina at Palermo and is no jewellery; and woodwork, ivory and variations in lustre colour, technique, body the cathedral at Cefali', which makes it metal-work occupy a disproportionately composition and glazes remain program- surprising that she does not also consider small space to their importance in Fatimid matic. Despite the scarcity of material later medieval Coptic illustrated liturgical art. In addition to historical documentation from stratified contexts, the investigation is manuscripts, such as the well-known and stylistic evolution, Contadini considers potentially extremely promising and it is Gospels dated April 1178-January 1180 in problems of technology, innovation and much to be hoped that she finds time to the Bibliotheque nationale, Paris.6 workshop-practice. She has much to say complete it. The volume is enriched by contributions that is new and her work will deservedly Also relevant is lustre painting on glass from A.H. Morton on glass coin-weights be much consulted. (pp.96-98). Contadini allows that the same (104-08), and on the technical analysis of Of particular interest is Contadini's re- kilns must have been used, which has cer- the tirdzfabrics by Linda Woolley. Especial construction of the manufacturing tech- tain implications for the appearance of the praise is due to Anne Searight for her niques of Fatimid rock-crystals, many of same craftsmen's or workshop names, such drawings of tirdz inscriptions. It is good which found their way via Byzantium or as Sacd, on glass and pottery. That can only that the V. & A. is now publishing its own the Holy Land to European treasuries and have been because these were specialised books again, but this volume is in some in which the Museum's collection is second lustre painters, who were sent by potters and respects rather amateurish. There are no only to S. Marco in Venice. Among these glass-blowers ready-made artefacts for dec- lists of either plates or figures at the begin- is a real find (plate 2), a balsamarium (M.78. oration and firing in muffle kilns; this is an ning of the volume - though readers (unlike 1910) with English silver-gilt mounts of important contribution to our knowledge of the present reviewer) may not need to be c.1540-50, which had remained hidden practice at Fustat. told that the numbering of the plates follows in the Museum's Department of Metal- The study of Fatimid tirdz,that is, fabrics that of the catalogue entries. The figures, work. Three inscribed pieces dateable to manufactured in bulk at towns such as reproduced in black and white in the mar- 975-1036 A.D. are decisive evidence for Tinnis under varying degrees of court gins, are often at too small a scale to be a Fatimid court workshop. However, the control and often bearing official inscrip- legible. But, such minor criticisms apart, author persuasively argues that the abun- tions (tirdzal-Khassa), is still at a fairly primi- Contadini's study, clearly written in an dant literary evidence for other centres tive stage. Here they are considered both admirably easy style, is not merely a serious where rock-crystal was worked - notably as epigraphic documents and as evidence scholarly contribution to a fascinating but in Iraq where the tradition established by for textile history. Those in the Victoria difficult subject but an excellent (if expen- late Sasanian workshops survived right up and Albert Museum are almost all linen. sive) introduction for the interested amateur. to the late tenth or eleventh century2 - con- Even discounting their destination for the J.M. ROGERS siderably complicates the precise attribu- Caliphal wardrobe or for presentation as Schoolof Orientaland African Studies, tion of the hundred and eighty or so extant robes of honour (khilca),regular inspection Universityof London rock-crystals of medieval Islamic date. must have been essential for coordinat- In Contadini's view the the and continuity ing exceptionally large heterogen- A. CONTADINI: 'Islamic ivory chess pieces, draughts- in Mesopotamian and Iranian glass from eous work force - spinners, weavers, dyers, men and dice', in Islamicart in theAshmolean Museum, ed. the Sasanian to the cAbbasid period is also fullers, sizers, and embroiderers or painters. j. ALLAN, Oxford [1995], pp. 111-47. relevant because of the similarity of cutting That is to simplify. An intractable prob- 'A1-SilI's memoir of the cAbbasid Caliph al-Radi techniques. The Museum's most famous lem is the existence of another manufactory, (934-40 A.D.) relatesthat he was the finestconnoisseur piece, a ewer (plate 7) which she dates to the tirdz al-cdmma(a public tirdz, whatever of rock-crystalcarving of his time. sherd of this dated the period 1036-61, has significant con- that may mean). This category covers, 3A type khamasami'awa..., hence 504, 507 or 509 was in G. temporary parallels in eleventh-century Contadini helpfully suggests, textiles made (1110-15 AD) published to court WIET: 'Inscriptionsmobili res de l'Egyptemusulmane', relief-cut and cameo-cut glass, some of it specifications but without official CCXLVI excavated at Fustat. In fact a cameo-cut JournalAsiatique, [1958], pp.237-85, esp. inscriptions, accessible to a wider public, pp.237-39. glass ewer now in the Corning Museum, such as the richJewish merchants of Fustat, 4The 'documentaryevidence' to which she refersfor an saddled, however with a dealer's prove- in whose inventories they sometimes appear. attributionto Fatimid c.940 A.D. is bet- nance to Persia, is a virtual copy of it. Even The difference thus relates not to quality ter describedas argumentumab ignorantia. if the provenance is accepted, however, it but to the lower social status of those who 5F. DEROCHE: The cAbbasidtradition, Azimuth and Oxford tells us little of what contemporary Iranian bought the pieces. Her well-informed dis- [1992], no.19. On the other hand, she ignores prima rock-crystals might have been like. cussion is an important contribution to a facie more relevant material, such as the Palermo Contadini observes that the treat- controversial It raises in Koran of 372/982-3 (ibid., no.81). rightly subject. particular see LEROY: et ment ofFatimid ceramics has so far concen- the of the 6Copte 13(a); j. Les manuscritscoptes coptes- relationship tirdz organisation arabes Paris This trated on lustre wares and to and control of official illustris, [1974], pp.113-48. omission, overwhelmingly Byzantine Coptic it is fair to say, reflects the marginal rrle of Byzantine their chronology and stylistic history. After fabrics (though the status of 'Coptic' tapes- or art in Contadini's - she a Coptic study although brief discussion of unglazed pottery and tries vis vis'Alexandrian' silks needs further gives full importance to the Hellenistic legacy, of which of incised monochrome frit-wares - a late discussion). it was, very probably, the vehicle, in Fatimid decoration.

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