Page 20 - 2021 April 1, ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs, Christie's London

Signature

This is a remarkable work of art, a bucket signed by the most famous maker working in Venice. However in 1970 Hans Huth demonstrated that this was
of all of this exceptionally decorated group of late 15th or early 16th century almost impossible given the laws controlling craftsmen in the city, a view
metalwork. It brings to a total of eleven the number of pieces that are signed that has not been strongly challenged since. (Hans Huth, “’Sarazenen’ in
by him and completely accepted as his work. Until the appearance of this Venedig?” in Festschrift für Heinz Landendorf, Cologne/Vienna, 1972, pp.58-
bucket there were three salvers, six boxes of various forms and a single 68). Different authorities have proposed various alternative origins, including
bucket (Sylvia Auld, Renaissance Venice, Islam, and Mahmud the Kurd, Cairo, Diyabekir, Tabriz and Western Iran. While the majority view is probably
a metalworking enigma, London, 2004, p.12 lists the details of eight, to that they were made somewhere in the Mamluk Empire, there are still
which one salver and one round-bottomed box have been added). The elements of the argument that remain unsettled. The cohesiveness of the
style bears all his hallmarks, from the intricately worked background group, the fact that this group and not the other is clearly the main influence
scrolls, the clear simple frequently straight silver overlaid lined dividing on the Venetian craftsmen working in the style, indicating that it was only
panels, and of course the prominently placed signature of the master, really this group that was exported to Venice, and potentially onwards, the
Mahmud al-Kurdi. It has survived in very good condition, with the fact that no examples of the group are known with old provenances within
majority of the silver remaining in place, reminding the viewer quite how the Islamic World, the fact that many of the shapes are only known in
impressive the work on these vessels is. European prototypes (salvers and buckets of these proportions) the virtual
absence of inscriptions other than the signatures (there are a very few
While it is now considered an antiquated term, it is still useful to refer to
inscriptions identified by Abou-Seif which indicate a Mamluk origin either of
the larger group of vessels decorated in this and related styles as ‘Veneto-
the craftsmen or of the manufacture), the very prominence of the signatures,
Saracenic’. No better term has been proposed that could replace it, and what
as seen here on the bucket, and the fact that one vessel bears a signature
is does clearly indicate is that these are vessels which frequently straddle the
transliterated into Western characters, makes the explanation of “a variant
European and Islamic traditions. When choosing to write about this entire
school of Mamluk metalwork” slightly unsatisfactory.
group of metalwork, Sylvia Auld, who has probably studied more in this area
than anybody else, divided it into two separate main Islamic sub-groups, Wherever the group was made, the style’s best known and most prolific
allowing a third sub-group of items which were probably made in a very proponent, as well as one of the two most accomplished, is the master
similar style but in Italy by Italian craftsmen (Auld, op.cit.). She was by no Mahmud al-Kurdi. Auld has noted that it is frequently possible to determine
means the first to distinguish between the two Islamic sub-groups; James the designs that master Mahmud uses from the design he chooses for
Allan had done so in his article twenty years earlier (James Allan, “Cairo, the centre bottom of a bowl for example. When examining the current
Damascus or Venice”, in Metalwork of the Islamic World, the Aron Collection, bucket however she observed considerable greater variety of motifs than
London, 1986, pp.48-61). Others have also written on aspects of the subject, normal “a single motif is not, however, found on this bucket, although
especially Doris Behrens-Abouseif (“Veneto-Saracenic Metalware, a Mamluk individual elements are repeated”. A considerable amount of the surface
Art”, in Mamluk Studies Review, Chicago, vol.IX, no.2, 2005, pp.147-172), is his ‘trademark’ extremely finely engraved scrolling interlace, in various
Rachel Ward (“Veneto-Saracenic Metalworks: An Analysis of the Bowls forms. However the underside of the base has a roundel that has engraving
and Incense Burners in the British Museum”, in Trade and Discovery, the leaving much of the metal plain, far more in the taste of the Italians than
Scientific Study of Post-Mediaeval Artefacts from Europe and Beyond, London, any Islamic prototype. Having described in detail the different bands of
1995, pp.235-257) and Souren Melikian-Chirvani (“Venise, entre l’orient et decoration, Auld continues “It is difficult to convey the delicacy of the
l’occident”, Bulletin d'études orientales, 1974, T. 27 (1974), pp. 109-126, who work; a magnifying glass is needed to appreciate it. It represents many
gives details of earlier writing on the subject). All have addressed in some hours of detailed work. And, indeed, part of the purpose of the bucket
way the difference between the smaller group of vessels decorated with must have been to delight an appreciative owner and to demonstrate his
very fine scrolling grounds, associated with all the signatures of the master taste and affluence. The metals in themselves are not expensive but are
craftsmen Mahmud al-Kurdi, Muhammad, and Zain al-Din and the much carefully arranged to make the most of colour and contrast. It is the skill
larger group of vessels decorated very frequently with pronounced knotted in the execution of the work which gave (and gives) the object its value. It
motifs of broader drawing. The origin of the second group is now relatively is true too that the name of Master Mahmud must have added worth in
securely placed in the Mamluk empire, probably refining that to Damascus, the land of his employment. This is demonstrated by the prominence of
as proposed by James Allan. The origin of the first group, to which our bucket the signature. It is already exceptional to have so large a corpus of signed
belongs, is not so secure. Originally it had been proposed, and accepted for works by a mediaeval master; to be able to add yet another is truly exciting”
decades, that the vessels of this group were made by Muslim craftsmen (communication to the owner, January 2019).

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