Ewer of Saint-Denis

The ewer, which was carved from a single piece of crystal, is one of the finest surviving examples of rock-crystal work from Fatimid Egypt. It was once kept in the Treasury of the Abbey of Saint-Denis, which was enriched by abbot Suger at the beginning of the twelfth century. It is one of the mythical objects—together with other pieces from the Treasury, such as ‘the Eleanor Vase’, which arrived in France via a Muslim king from Saragossa, and the Cup of King Khosrau, known as the ‘Cup of Solomon’, offered by a Carolingian king—that linked the East to the West in the High Middle Ages.

The ewer has quite a narrow, pear-shaped body resting on a small circular base. The straight handle was once surmounted with a thumb-piece in the form of an ibex. There is a vegetal motif on the ewer’s body, which is composed of two twisted stems that evolve into various decorative elements; on either side are two birds of prey whose plumage is rendered by small discs and ‘diamond-shaped work’. They are followed by two other diamond-shaped vegetal motifs that evolve into symmetrical half-palmettes. Below these is a wide band of winding branches, which run horizontally round the ewer’s base. All these decorative elements were carved in low-relief. There is a votive Kufic inscription near the neck.

An elegant lid in gold, made in southern Italy at the end of the eleventh century, was added to this object, which was produced in the Muslim workshops in Cairo at the turn of the tenth century. Ornamented with twisted filigree strands, rosettes, and intricate ‘vermicelli’ filigree, this lid covers the almond-shaped opening of the spout and ‘Christianizes’ the object, which—like the rock-crystal ewer from the Church of Milhaguet—was used in the liturgy of the Mass, during particularly solemn ceremonies.

Although it was produced in Egypt, the ewer’s characteristics take us further east, as it has many similarities with the precious arts of IranLouvre Museum[1]; during the Islamic period, metal and glass ewers, and certain Iranian pieces from the ninth century (cameo glass technique[2]) took the same form. and the ceremonial of its courts. Its form is inspired by Sassanid Iranian goldwork. The ibex thumb-piece, for example, is also found on a silver ewer in the

Decorations consisting of animals next to a vegetal motif, comprised of twisted filigree strands and half-palmettes, recall the ancient iconographic traditions of Mesopotamia and ancient Asian civilization. This theme, which had already been used in Mesopotamian cylinder seals, is found in the Mazdean (Persia) ‘Tree of Life’, whose interwoven and upright  branches—around which were organized (like the caduceus) hostile forces, often symbolized by felines and birds of prey—unified Heaven and Earth. It is a noble vocabulary par excellence, which exalted royalty and spread throughout the Islamic world[3].

There are five other large ewers with these decorative elements, featuring quadrupeds or birds, which, together with the ewer of Saint-Denis, form a definite group[4]. A rock-crystal crescent[5], which isn’t part of this group, mentions the name of the Fatimid caliph al-Zahir (1021–1036) and confirms the links between this production of luxury items and the dynasty’s kings.

[2] An example of a cameo glass object, excavated at Fustat, shows the similarities shared by these recipients, which were made for princely use, in Iran, Iraq, and Fatimid Egypt.

[3] Hence the ivory pyxis from Madinat al-Zahra with eagles either side of a candelabra-shaped vegetal axis (the Cloisters collection in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, inv 1970-324-5).

[4] Ewers from the cathedral of Fermo (Italy), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the Pitti Palace in Florence, and two others in the Treasury of Saint Mark's in Venice.

[5] Previously kept in the Ecclesiastical Treasury of Vienna, and now kept in Nuremberg, in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (L.75/21).