This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Fountainhead

Location:

Doha, Qatar

Holding Museum:

Museum of Islamic Art

About Museum of Islamic Art, Doha

Date of Object:

Hegira 4th century / AD 10th century

Museum Inventory Number:

MW.7

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Bronze; Casting, Engraving

Dimensions:

Height: 48.1cm, Depth: 41.1cm

Period / Dynasty:

Umayyad

Provenance:

Spain, Cordoba

Description:

This animal, a hind or female deer, would once have stood beside a pool or fountain in one of the palaces of Umayyad Spain. A very similar piece, now in the Cordoba Museum, was discovered in the ruins of the caliphal pleasure-palace of Madinat al-Zahra, where the historian al-Maqqari mentions there being a marble basin adorned with fountain heads in the shape of different animals. The decoration on the hind’s body gives the impression that it is covered in a sumptuous, tasselled textile.

Selected bibliography:

Allan, James W., Metalwork Treasures from the Islamic Courts, London: The Islamic Art Society, 2002.
Seipel, Joseph H., God is Beautiful and Loves Beauty: The object in Islamic Art and Culture, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2013.
Watson, Oliver, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar, Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2008.

Citation of this web page:

 "Fountainhead" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2024. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;qt;Mus21;4;en

MWNF Working Number: QT 04