Bacini with animal decorations

This large piece with green, brown and yellow tones is ornamented with an animal scene representing a bird swooping down on an antelope. It belongs to the group of bacini, these Islamic ceramics incorporated in the external decoration of Italian and southern French churches from the third quarter of the tenth century. This practice of including elements of terracotta or stone[1] in architectural decoration can be evidenced from the second century BC and lasted at least until the Ottoman period. The bacini phenomenon should be placed in the context of multiple trade, political, and by extension, cultural relations which existed at the time between Christian Europe and the Muslim Near East[2].

The shape of the plate, on a ring-shaped foot and with a streamlined profile can frequently be found in the group of bacini from the eleventh century. The technique of painted decoration in green, brown and yellow applied on enrobed clay under a transparent glaze, was used from the end of the ninth century in Ifriqiya (Tunisia), then under an Abbassid influence[3]. The spread of Mesopotamian ceramic techniques in Muslim Occident and more widely in a number of regions under Abbassid control is clearly evidenced in this period[4].

This decoration is to be quite frequently found among the bacini of the eleventh century and indicates Ifriqiyan or Sicilian production. Some vegetal elements fill in the zones around the main scene. The inside edges carry a pseudo-epigraph; on the back, they are adorned with a band of heart motifs which can be found on the ceramics from Ifriqiya from the tenth-eleventh centuries which come from the palace of the Hammamid princes[5], as well as on certain Arab-Norman Sicilian pieces.

The very dynamic style of the animals recalls certain pieces from the digs of Sabra al-Mansûriyya[6], a residence founded near Kairouan in 947. Linked to the thematic choice, this style was widely used in the decorative arts of this dynasty, on a variety of items. The painted decoration of the Palatine Chapel in Palermo contains similar scenes. The same can be said of pieces discovered in an Andalusian context[7]. The position of the animals, their physical characteristics (round bodies, small head, ears back) are comparable even in detail to Fatimid productions; thus, the shape of the animal’s hoof is underlined by a stylised vegetal motif, as in Egyptian metals[8] and in the materials from oriental Iran from the tenth century. A dense square motif covers the bodies according to a principle used in Ifriqiya from the Aghlabide era[9] (800-909); this “guillochage” was to become characteristic of Sicilian productions. The bends in the necks of the two animals are underlined by curved lines as on a fragment from North Africa in the Benaki museum[10] and on other pieces from the Qal’a of Bani-Hammad.

As for the decorative theme, the animal combat whose origins seem to date back to the beginning of time, it is classic in Islamic art. It often takes its place in decorative programmes relating to princely pleasures, such as hunting, a symbol in itself of princely power. It was to last for centuries[11], extending past the borders of the Islamic world. In the thirteenth century, we can observe it on Limousine enamels[12].

Everything in this piece emphasises the artistic unity of the period between Ifriqiya, Egypt, Sicily and Spain under Muslim domination.

[2] From the tenth century, trade relations can be evidenced between the Aghlabids of Tunisia and the Italian towns of Amalfi, Salerno and Naples. Pisa and Genoa played a more and more important role in Mediterranean trade during the Crusades (1095-1219).

[3] Sicily and Ifriqiya were then under Aghlabid domination, a vassal dynasty of the Abbassids of Mesopotamia.

[4] In fact, we can observe the same colour range on Iranian Abbassid ceramics, for example on the cup decorated with pastilles from Susa, ninth –  tenth centuries, musée du Louvre, inv. MAO S. 434.

[5] Berber dynasty which reigned over Ifriqiya after the departure of the Fatimids to Cairo in 967. Fragments of ceramic found in the Qal’a of the Bani Hammad display the same decoration.

[6] Antelope cup, Ifriqiya, Sabra digs, enrobed clay ceramic with decoration painted under glaze, Tunis, Musée du Bardo, inv. D 106.

[7] The cup preserved at the Campo arqueologico de Mertola (Portugal), inv. CR/VM/0001, discovered in the palace of the citadel of Mertola, displays similar characteristics, even if we cannot precisely determine its place of manufacture.

[8] Lion attacking a gazelle, Egypt, ninth and tenth centuries, bronze, Ham, Keir Collection, inv. 36.

[9] Bird cup, Ifriqiya, Raqqada digs, second half of the ninth century, enrobed clay ceramic with painted decoration under glaze, Tunis, Musée du Bardo, s.n.

[10] Bowl fragment, clay ceramic with green and brown decoration under yellow glaze, Athens, Benaki Museum, inv. 461.

[11] Plate with combat between phoenix and lion, Iran, Mach’ad ?, beginning of seventeenth century, London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. 2897.1876.

[12] Medallion of the casket of Saint Louis, 1226-1270, champlevé enamel, Paris, musée du Louvre, inv.MS253.