Vase with heraldic eagles

The baluster form of this vase was frequently used in the Near East for receptacles intended to hold medicinals. The pseudo-epigraphic formula set out around the neck suggests a prophylactic inscription which reinforces this hypothesis. Whatever its function, the technique used in its production is characteristic of northern Syria, in particular, of Ayyubid Jezireh (1171-1260). The paste is quartz-based; the decoration is protected by a layer of transparent alkaline glaze, crazed in places and thickening towards the base. The palette, predominantly black and blue, includes some reddish pigment, probably based on iron oxide which intensified with firing.

However, the three double-headed eagles arranged on the body of the vase are the most striking aspect of the decoration. Their vigorous and rapid delineation recalls heraldic figures. A single black stroke joins them to the sinuous stems on which they rest. Their hollow chests enclose a red-brown almond. Around them are light blue accents.

The influence of the Seljuk Turks has often been identified with this type of representation; they had settled in neighbouring Anatolia at this period and in the second half of the eleventh century, they dominated the whole of the Middle East. Although champions of Sunni Islam, the Turks, originating from Central Asia, had conserved, in their customs, their social organisation and their language, traces of shamanism. According to their ancient beliefs, the bird, the bearer of the soul, united man to the Sky-God; called the ‘Tengri’, his name was invoked alongside that of Allah[1].¹

These beliefs inherited from the Altaic culture fused, in many respects, with the beliefs of the Persians, the people of the Centre of the World, for whom the polar axis, the sky and its messenger birds were powerful religious symbols. Certain fragments of Iranian silks from the twelfth century, while Muslim, reflect a Zoroastrian theme with a haloed figure borne away by a double-headed eagle, probably representing the simurgh. At the period when this vase was produced, this traditional image seems to have been revived by the Seljuk Turks who associated it with the conception of power and protection. In Anatolia, the double-headed eagle is found sculpted in bas-relief on the ramparts of Diyarbakir, the Artukid fiefdom. It appears again on certain revetment tiles in the Qubadabad Palace of the Seljuk sultan Ala al-Din Kayqubadh I (1219-1237). In the beginning of the thirteenth century in the Islamic East, it came to denote a rank (a heraldic figure), a blazon denoting a lord and his entourage and was adopted in all branches of the decorative arts.

In parallel with the Near East, the theme recurs frequently in the Islamic West; in Norman Sicily and in Spain where it replaced the Roman eagle. From there, it reached the South of France, attested by a fragment of Hispanic silk with a double-headed eagle discovered in a church in the Pyrenees. In Byzantium itself, under the Paleologues (1261-1453), double-headed eagles were depicted on imperial objects, in particular, on upholstery and ecclesiastical vestments. The motif which was frequently used in ceremonial garments then spread via the Balkans into Northern Europe. During the Middle Ages, it became the emblem of the Holy Roman Empire, of Austria-Hungary and of Russia.