User:SDofflemyer/Mshatta Facade

***Note to peer reviewer: This sandbox contains additions to the existing Wikipedia article: Mshatta Facade

Physical Description

The stonework of the castle-like complex some 30 kilometers south of Amman in the Moab desert, that is, to the east of the Jordan River. The monumental structure was built on a square plan with a side length of 144 m (472.4 ft.). The exterior wall, flanked at approximately 19 m (62 ft.) intervals by towers or strong half-round piers, was completely erected, whereas the rest of the complex was probably left at least partly unfinished. In the interior the plan features three long, rectangular units, with only the architectural detailing in the middle section being advanced to a certain degree. To the north, remains of a palace complex with a domed hall and a three-aisled basilical elevation survive, while to the south at least the foundations of a more compartmentalized entrance section were laid.

The decorated façade is from the exterior wall of this entrance structure, making it the most visible side of the architectural complex. This wall section highlighted a building whose exterior surfaces were otherwise entirely undecorated, and pointed to the grand central complex behind it. In situ, its relief decoration extended symmetrically to the left and right of the wide gateway across a width of approximately 47 m, or 154 ft. A smooth plinth supports a richly decorated base and, above it, a wide, almost three meters (9.8 ft.) tall band that is organized by zigzag and rosette motifs and crowned by an entablature. This creates an architecturally bordered sequence of altogether 20 inverted and 20 upright triangles and – by the doorway – half-triangles.

All the surfaces are filled with detailed ornamentation: on the left side animals, humans and mythical creatures are squeezed in between dense vine tendrils and foliage, partly in heraldic arrangement. By contrast, the right side is decorated only with geometric and vegetal forms. However, the upper parts of the left half of the façade and larger sections of the right half remain unexecuted. In some places scoring tracing points to the apparently abruptly abandoned work process. The partly visible layout of daily workloads, as well as stylistic and compositional differences, suggest that a large number of workmen worked side by side across the entire length of the façade. The cornice, and the zigzag band and the rosettes were apparently installed as pre assembled components, whereas the reliefs in the triangles were decorated in situ by several workmen working alongside one another. The limestone was originally white as snow in its cut surfaces, which would have made the light-dark contrast between relief and ground much sharper than it is today.

Mshatta Façade, interior wall, Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany

Influences of Classical and Antique Design

Mshatta Façade, floral motif detail, Pergamon Museum, Berlin, Germany

The façade reveals some decorative motifs that can be identified as quintessentially classical or late antique: the base, for example, consists of a torus sandwiched between two concavities. Additionally, one can find among the relief carvings palmettes, acanthus leaves and vine tendrils, comparable examples of which exist in the Byzantine tradition. The zigzag band with its classical, highly regularly arranged acanthus leaves and the framing bands and cornices are each by themselves quite conventional in design. The unusual, almost kaleidoscopic effect of the façade in close-up view conveys itself initially through the rosettes, which, while regularly alternating between sexfoils and equilateral octagons in terms of outline, are each designed differently in their details. In their sequence they tie the façade together – almost literally so in the corners where the towers protrude, into which they are fitted like hinges. Yet their individual designs are so distinct and detailed that they undoubtedly also convey symbolic content. This may hark back to Sasanian tradition, where the rosette motif had royal connotations.

Historical Context of the Mshatta Façade

In its prime, this Desert castle appeared as a fortress. The warring climate of the time period is possibly to blame for this. Though this structure was a palace meant for royal use, its fortification shows that the structure could also be used as a stronghold in times of war of strife. This unrest of the era is likely to blame for its appearance upon discovery and excavation starting 1840. According to historian Anna Ballin, "in his opinion it was a quasi-atavistic yearning for the desert that led the first caliphs to abandon the cities for the freedom of the boundless desert, where they built the grand villas whose fortified appearance inspired the name “castles in the desert.” Most of the Umayyad castles and estates were concentrated in the relatively fertile regions of the steppe along the Euphrates, in places such as Raqqa, Balis, and Rusafa (Sergiopolis), the favorite residence of Caliph Hisham, and on the central plain of Jordan (the Balqa), on the fringes of the steppe, where Yazid II(r. 720–24) and al-Walid II preferred to live. These residencies are along popular paths that lead to larger civilizations, for example in Damascus. In reality, how- ever, there still is a "problem" of the Mshatta, not only because its decoration has not really been explained, but also because even its date, for which a sort of scholarly consensus seemed to have been established, may be far from assured. A summary of that consensus would run as follows: Mshatta is a palace built toward the end of the Umayyad dy- nasty, most likely by order of al-Walid ibn Yazid, caliph for a few months. He relates the construction of Mshatta to the love triangle between Khosrau, his beautiful wife Shirin and the builder Ferhad, who, according to tradition, leaped to his death due to his unfulfilled love for Shirin. This episode originates in ancient Persian literature, and was later popularized also in the West through accounts related to the Arabian Nights. World War II resulted in the façade being further fragmentized and subsequently reconstructed elsewhere. Fragments were used in other structures in nearby villages.

Mshatta --Umayyad desert castle in Jordan. Remnants of the facade.

Mshatta Façade- First Museum Installation

This first installation is well-documented by photographs in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum (Bode Museum) in Berlin, Germany, in 1903. These images show that the blocks of light and dark of the floor tiling and the transverse arches of the vaulted ceiling oppressed the decorative frieze from two sides and that the narrow door opening distorted its horizontal proportions . Compared to photographs that were taken in situ, it also becomes evident how radically the thickness of the wall had been reduced to the surface carrying the decoration. The delicate relief did not necessarily benefit from the frontal lighting through the windows in the opposite wall, but the very angle and framing of these photographs reveal, moreover, the main problem of the presentation. The long narrow space obviously did not offer the viewer a position from which to take in the object as a whole. Precarious as the installation of the Mshatta façade at the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum was largely independent of the question of a more exact date and cultural historical classification, as a clear affirmation of Wilhelmine-era museology and its focus on the monumental. From this perspective it must have appeared as a particular failure that it had not been possible to bring the whole façade to Berlin, hence adding to the difficult spatial situation the problem of an asymmetrical state of preservation. In spite of all this, the presentation clearly reflected a sense of Mshatta’s monumental character.

Controversy

Controversy of the dispersal and original exhibition had arisen as the object was deconstructed and reconstructed in the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin, thus taking it out of its original location. This was due to the initial conquests of European imperialism, and thus the creation of Universal Museums. This lead to the connoisseurship of Islamic Art with the rise of commercial galleries, and, ultimately, the new wealth in bourgeois society. Such galleries in Paris played a significant role in the formation of taste, and by presenting a range of items as de luxe objects, they helped to break down preconceptions about “fine” and “applied” art. The rise of art nouveau also challenged these hierarchies. The basis of connoisseurship was careful observation and a visual memory for details. Stylistic categories were established, though sometimes with minimal concern for history or geography. The approach tended to separate objects from their settings, and there was hankering after the finest pieces.

There were instances of collusion in Western acquisition with the Mshatta Façade. In 1899, Kaiser Wilhelm II, German Emperor requested Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II to the removal of the carved stone façade of the ruined desert palace of Mshatta, located in present‐day Jordan. Although Osman Hamdi Bey(1842–1910), the director of the Imperial Museum in Istanbul, voiced an objection, Abdülhamid II opted to avoid a diplomatic crisis by presenting the façade as a gift to the German emperor, who had it transported to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, then opening in Berlin. At that time, Mshatta was believed to be pre‐Islamic in date, but, by 1910, the German archaeologist and Iranologist Ernst Herzfeld (1879–1948) had demonstrated its early Islamic, Umayyad origin. Such diplomatic gifts from the Ottoman sultan were made to further alliances with Germany.

While collecting has brought together objects in new configurations, it has also been responsible for dispersing related objects. The Mshatta façade was shattered into a heap of fragments, and was subsequently reconstructed. Another form of destruction has been the dismemberment of manuscripts for economic gain.  Despite this dispersal, the façade was promptly made accessible to the public with its first exhibition in 1903, as it was argued that Germany wanted to make its interests well known in the Middle East.