 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Featured here is one of the many works in the Government Art Collection, accompanied by further information about the work and the artist. The selection of works will change on a regular basis, so please come back again.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
July 2006
Interior of a Mosque or Mimbar of the Great Mosque at Damascus |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Artist |
|
|
|
|
Frederick LEIGHTON |
|
| Title |
|
|
|
|
| Interior of a Mosque or Mimbar of the Great Mosque at Damascus |
|
|
|
|
| Medium |
|
|
|
|
Oil on canvas |
|
| Dimensions |
|
|
|
|
31(H) x 24.5(W) |
|
| Acquisition |
|
|
|
|
Purchased from Christie's, June 2003 |
|
| Number |
|
|
|
|
17815 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Description
Leighton visited Damascus in 1873 and made many studies of the city's architecture and inhabitants. This work is a sketch for a larger painting entitled 'Portions of the Interior of the Grand Mosque of Damascus', which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1875 and is now part of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston. Orientalism in nineteenth-century western painting covered a variety of themes, from genre to topography and the depiction of contemporary events, in a broad range of locations from north Africa to the near east. Purported authenticity was as much a feature of Orientalism as was idealised exoticism, and the depiction of biblical narrative in near-eastern settings was complemented by genre studies of religious rituals and communal prayer. Leighton's interest in Orientalism extended to the design of the Arab Hall at his house in Holland Park, London, completed in the late 1870s, around the time that Leighton was elected President of the Royal Academy.
The Great Mosque in Damascus was built between 706 and 715 under the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I. This atmospheric study of the Mosque focuses on the mimbar, used for delivering announcements and sermons, depicted here with the traditional cupola crowning its raised platform and the entrance to its flight of steps marked by a beautifully coloured doorway. |
|
|
|
|
Back to main Featured Work page.
|
|
|
|
