The Leire Casket. Cordoba. 1004-05. Museo de Navarra, Pamplona.
In the first two lectures of this three week course (which coincides with the Royal Academy of Arts major exhibition Spain and the Hispanic World) Ian Cockburn, who specialises in medieval Spain, introduces the material culture of the Islamic World.
Study morning - includes two lectures, Q&A and a coffee break.
Lecture One | Islamic Carved Ivory Caskets: Crossing Religious Boundaries
This course begins with a discussion about the material culture of al-Andalus to evoke a richly sophisticated world. The exquisite carved ivory caskets and pyxides produced in al-Andalus were secular objects, given as gifts between members of the Caliphal court. They were covered in Islamic inscriptions and imagery depicting everything from simple arabesque vegetation to scenes of royal hunting and feasting. Many of these caskets later fell into Christian hands and were re-purposed as reliquary containers for Christian saints, despite their overtly Islamic inscriptions and decorative programmes, evidencing the surprisingly porous boundary between these opposing cultures.
Lecture Two | Luxury Silk Garments from al-Andalus
The silk industry thrived in Muslim-controlled al-Andalus, producing elaborate textiles that were coveted equally by the Muslim and Christian nobility of the period. They were decorated with a fascinating range of Islamic iconography, that referred back to well-known imagery from classical civilizations, as well as cross-referencing other areas of Andalusian material culture. Some of these garments have survived in relatively good condition, many because they were used as burial vestments and coffin linings for Christian kings and senior clergy.
You may also like to book for: Week Two and Week Three of this course.
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This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live, or on-demand for three weeks afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.