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***Morgan Casket. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
It’s a very interesting piece, because it has an entirely medieval body—you could go down to the Byzantine department and see caskets of a very similar shape and kind—but the figures on the corners wear turbans and robes that are clearly Arab.
When you look at the casket very closely, you see all kinds of fantastic beasts, evidence of a shared vocabulary between medieval Christian and Muslim imagery. You see that griffin there, whose wing turns into a bird’s head and whose tail turns into a kind of deer’s head? The furry one, with ears? He’s really an extraordinary character. But others are quite naturalistic. The ibex looks like the ibex we know.
review from here
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***Morgan Casket. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917. Image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

It’s a very interesting piece, because it has an entirely medieval body—you could go down to the Byzantine department and see caskets of a very similar shape and kind—but the figures on the corners wear turbans and robes that are clearly Arab.

When you look at the casket very closely, you see all kinds of fantastic beasts, evidence of a shared vocabulary between medieval Christian and Muslim imagery. You see that griffin there, whose wing turns into a bird’s head and whose tail turns into a kind of deer’s head? The furry one, with ears? He’s really an extraordinary character. But others are quite naturalistic. The ibex looks like the ibex we know.

review from here

high-res image

Source: theparisreview.org

    • #casket
    • #ivory
    • #Bestiary
    • #arabic
    • #Muslim
    • #Christian
  • 3 months ago
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Blog dedicated to the Middle Ages. Art, literature, architecture,music, general history, geography, warfare, way of living, language and culture... Mostly Europe with a touch of Asia. Enjoy! If you'd like to know more send me your e-mail address or contact details for msn or Skype, and we can talk more. edit: In time, things drifted a little into the early Renaissance as well. :) Read the Printed Word!  dwelling on the past ... Banner by http://aisling-r.tumblr.com

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