STONE AND PLASTER.
In the preceding chapter we have endeavoured to point out the chief
modes of decoration in mosques and houses, and the parts selected for
ornament. This selection seemed a little capricious. It was natural that
the sanctuary, or east end of the mosque, should be the special subject
of the artist’s skill, but it is undoubtedly a defect that this skill
should have been devoted so exclusively to this and other fixed points
of the building. The bareness of the three other transepts of the mosque
of Sultan Hasan is only rendered more conspicuous by the marble and
other decoration of the east end, and even there the elaborate ornament
of the dado is likely to throw the plainness of the roof into the
greater prominence. So in the treatment of the exterior, the portal
engrosses the attention of the architect, to the comparative neglect of
the walls. This is, however, characteristic of Cairo art, and it has its
merits. It would have been less usual to devote so much skilful work to
the selected portions if the whole surface had been similarly treated;
we should have had a general meagreness of ornament. We have now to
consider the details of the ornament of which the position alone was
indicated in the last chapter.
We saw that in the great mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn the chief ornament
consisted in borders of floral designs running round the arches, forming
friezes above them, and connecting them at the spring. These were made
of plaster or stucco, worked with a tool when in a moist state, and
never cast in moulds. The difference is very striking; the softness and
flexuous grace of the hand-moulded patterns being in strong contrast to
the hard uniformity of the Moorish mechanical castings. The borders of
Ibn-Tūlūn are the earliest examples that have been found of the
geometrical designs and scroll work which afterwards became so
characteristic of Saracenic ornament. “The scroll-work may possibly be
traced to Byzantine work, but in this building it has assumed an
entirely distinct character. It is the ornament which thenceforth was
gradually perfected, and its stages may be traced in the mosques and
other edifices of Cairo through every form of its development. But in
this, its first example, it is elementary and rude, and therefore all
the more remarkable. Its continuity is not strongly marked, its forms
are almost devoid of grace. In later and more fully developed examples,
each portion may be continuously traced to its true root—constituting
one of the most beautiful features of the art—and its forms are
symmetrically perfect.”[30] The principal pattern of the stucco or
plaster borders of the mosque of Ibn-Tūlūn consists in a modification of
the “knop and flower” pattern which is so familiar in every branch of
decoration. Almost the same design is found in ancient Egyptian wall-
paintings at Thebes, and also in the Assyrian ornament of Khorsabād.[31]
Plaster ornament is a sign of early date, though it would be difficult
to assign a satisfactory reason for this. The art of carving marble had
certainly been known in Egypt long before the Saracens set about
building mosques, and the Copts have marble pulpits and other works of
early date. Nevertheless, as a fact, the earlier mosques are generally
ornamented with plaster designs. The century after that of Ibn-Tūlūn is
represented by the Azhar, built in 971, of which the only certainly
original remnants consist in the central arcades of the sanctuary, and
these are adorned with Kūfy friezes of the true Fātimy character, and
arabesque ornament, all in plaster; in the eleventh we have that of El-
Hākim (1012), which was decorated in plaster, though few traces of this
now remain. After these two Fātimy mosques[32] there follows a wide
interval before any considerable mosque offers sufficient remains to
enable conclusions to be drawn. What was formerly visible of the
Kāmiliya, built by El-Kāmil, nephew of Saladin, in 1224, showed plaster
decoration; and the simple arabesques of the mosque of Edh-Dhāhir
Beybars, _extra muros_ (1268), are of the same material. But the most
perfect example of plaster ornament in Cairo is in the mausoleum of
Kalaūn, A.D. 1284. Here the borders of the tall arches supporting what
was once the dome, the borders of the clerestory windows above, and an
infinity of other decoration, are wholly of plaster, and nothing more
delicate and lace-like can be imagined. The bud surrounded by leaves
again forms a central idea, but it is developed until it is scarcely
recognizable, and the designs are chiefly characterized by a broad
treatment of large foliage, worked round into a scroll-like continuous
pattern. Continuity is a leading quality of these designs: it would be
difficult to break off at any given point in the borders.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.—ROSETTE IN MOSQUE OF SULTAN HASAN.
Fourteenth Century.]
Plaster work continued to be used by En-Nāsir Mohammad, the son of
Kalaūn, in his two mosques, but this appears to have been nearly the
last occasion (1318) of the general employment of plaster in a
considerable mosque. Before the building of Sultan Hasan, in 1356-9,
stone had begun to take the place of plaster (see fig. 14). Sultan
Hasan’s mosque is entirely of stone facing, though, as we have seen,
brick was used for the roofs of the arches or transepts, and similar
internal surfaces. The ornaments, whether geometrical, scroll, or
arabesque, are cut in stone or marble. The chief border of the portal
consists of a bud and leaf pattern (fig. 8, page 67), obviously
developed from the simple outline seen in Ibn-Tūlūn, and not nearly so
complicated as the borders of Kalaūn. Probably stone was a new material
to the sculptors, and was found less easy to manipulate than plaster,
and the design was consequently simplified as far as possible. The
rosettes at the foot of these borders are particularly fine; broad in
design, yet simple and easily disentangled. The leading idea (fig. 15)
is a circle of buds or flowers, joined by intertwined leaves and
tendrils, and arranged in a radiating pattern round a central whorl or
star. The pure self-contained arabesque is hardly found in Sultan Hasan;
but the geometrical pattern arranged in a square is seen in a very fine
manner. A double line, interlaced, forms the border of the square, and,
at the interlacings, lines shoot out so as to form a broken pentagon,
and other lines projected from this pentagon meet in the shape of a
five-rayed star. The junctions of the lines are however somewhat forced;
they are not natural prolongations, such as we see in the later and more
perfect developments of the geometrical ornament, but break off at
unexpected angles.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.—STONE PULPIT IN MOSQUE OF BARKUK.
Early Fifteenth Century.]
The stone pulpit (fig. 16), erected in 1483 by Kāït Bey, in Barkūk’s
mosque in the eastern Karāfa, a unique work, is among the most splendid
examples of stone chiselling that can be seen in Cairo. Its shape is
triangular, like the wooden pulpits to be described hereafter: but,
instead of the sides being filled with geometrical mouldings containing
numerous panels chased and inlaid with ivory, the whole of the pulpit is
of stone slabs, and the geometrical designs and the ornament which fills
the interstices are all chiselled in stone. The design springs from a
rosette of sixteen six-sided panels, the lines of which produced in
radiate form towards the centre make a star-like ornament, which is
filled with an arabesque design; and being similarly produced outwards
cover the whole surface with a network of interlacing lines, which
eventually combine into other half-rosettes bisected by the edges of the
pulpit.[33] The interstices between these interlacing lines are filled
with admirably drawn floral arabesques consisting of little more than a
single conventional flower with a simple border formed by developments
of its extremities or with that of a simple rosette flower. The
triangular side is divided from the bannister part by a looped double
line and a border of delicate floral scrollwork; and the bannister
portion, or side of the staircase, is of six large square panels divided
by narrower upright panels of floral scrollwork, and a central panel of
arabesque. The large panels are ornamented, four with arabesque
patterns, and two with geometrical designs arranged round a central
star. The whole side of the pulpit is made in about twelve slabs, which
are so well joined that only in two or three parts are the joints
distinctly visible. The canopy and other parts are also carved stone.
[Illustration: FIG. 17.
FIG. 18.
GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENTS FROM THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY (_c_)]
It is, indeed, in the buildings of the Sultan Kāït Bey (1468-96) that
both the pure arabesque and the finest geometrical ornament are seen in
their perfection. This prince of Cairo builders allowed no portion of
his edifices to be neglected, and the countless ornaments which were
lavished upon his mosques and other erections were all cut in good
limestone or marble. The arch of the sanctuary in his mosque _intra
muros_ is a good example of the richness of this ornamentation. It is
about 30 feet from the floor to the keystone, and is placed in a square
wall about 39 feet high. Nine courses of plain stone, alternately
coloured red, form the pier of the arch, on which is a capital formed of
three tiers of stalactites. From this the arch springs with a slight
projection beyond the capital, owing to its incurved horse-shoe form.
The arch is formed by twenty-three courses of stone, on either side,
alternately red and white, and a red keystone. Each of the white stones
is carved with arabesque and geometrical patterns, arranged alternately.
The arabesques are of a prevailing type, consisting of a trefoil or
fleur-de-lis surrounded by leaves very beautifully interlaced. The
design is, however, varied, and I doubt if any two stones would be found
to tally exactly. The geometrical patterns consist of interlacing lines,
forming irregular pentagons and hexagons, with little apparent regard to
symmetry, though they are all related to one another in the general
plan. The arch is enclosed in a raised moulding, which forms a loop at
the top, in which is carved a whorl of eight rays. The spandrils of the
arch are filled with a bold arabesque design, enclosed in trifoliate
borders, and in the centre of each is a circular medallion inscribed
with the name and titles of the Sultan and a prayer for his success,
arranged in three lines. These medallions are frequently seen in Cairo,
and are generally filled with the name of Kāït Bey, though other Sultans
adopted the same method of putting a seal on their works. It is
interesting to note that a similar arrangement of the Sultan’s titles
within a medallion is seen on the fourteenth century glass lamps, and
also on the gold coins of the Burgy or Circassian Mamlūks. A broad band
of Arabic inscription, from the Korān, divided by arabesque panels,
forms a frieze at the top, over which is a carved cornice. The whole
effect of this arch, and of all the internal decoration of this
beautiful little mosque, is extremely rich and finished: and it would be
hard to point out a space unoccupied by some delicate design.
[Illustration: FIG. 19.—ARCHED ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY. ⅐th.
Fifteenth Century.]
Among the buildings of Kāït Bey, none is more fruitful in designs
chiselled in stone than his Wekāla or Khān, on the south side of the
Azhar mosque. This magnificent building was only a sort of hotel for
travelling merchants, but its external ornamentation is superb, and in
no single building in Cairo do we find so many varieties of arabesque
and geometrical design in such perfect preservation. The Wekāla consists
of a spacious rectangular court, surrounded by lodgings for the
merchants and their beasts. Unhappily, the interior is in confusion, and
has long been deserted: heaps of crumbling stone and rubbish cumber the
court, which was once no doubt surrounded by walls as carefully built
and ornamented as the exterior. The front, however, facing the Azhar, is
fortunately in a fine state of preservation, and deserves a thorough
study. When I was in Cairo in 1883, I took casts of the ornament of this
front, and was fortunately able to bring back paper squeezes, fortified
with layers of gipsum, of every distinct ornament on the whole façade.
From these squeezes plaster casts have been made, and a set of these are
exhibited in the gallery over the architectural court of the South
Kensington Museum. The difficulty of obtaining every variety of design
was less than it would have been in a work of an earlier date; for by
the time of Kāït Bey the beauty of uniformity had been learnt, and the
honest custom of the old workmen, never to repeat a design, had given
place to a decorative system which while it encouraged variety approved
of a certain symmetry and recurrence in the patterns. The whole number
of designs in the long front of the wekala of Kāït Bey does not exceed
twenty-two, if the end and doorway are not reckoned, although round the
shops which run along the ground-floor of the façade there are no fewer
than 120 panels of ornament.
The front of the Wekāla is decorated only on the ground-floor; the upper
stories, save for small windows, are left unadorned. The ground-floor,
however, makes amends for the shortcomings of the superstructure by its
wealth of ornament. It consists of a row of thirteen shops, divided
between the seventh and eighth by a splendid arched gateway,[34] the
finest feature in a singularly fine building. This gateway is set in a
recess, the jambs of which are coloured in the usual red and white
stripes. The arch is broad, giving an opening of about eight feet, and
pointed, and the edge is composed of stalactites in three tiers, with
their surfaces carved with arabesque designs. Round the facing, above,
runs a beautiful scroll border, like a wreath of roses, which forms a
loop above the keystone, within which is inscribed the name of God. The
same scroll border frames the spandrils. The recess in which this arch
is set is brought back to the face of the front by vaulting; but in this
case, instead of the common rows of stalactites, or simple arching, the
depth being considerable, the vaulting is effected by a deep trefoil
arch, of which the vault is formed by three smaller bays supporting an
upper bay. The side bays below are filled with stalactites, which seem
to constitute natural corbels on which the superstructure rests; and the
surfaces of the stalactites and the spare spaces at their sides are
covered with arabesques. The base of the upper bay is worked with little
shell patterns, and its back is ornamented with a sparse scroll ribbon,
resembling somewhat the rose border below, arranged in zigzags. The
alternate courses of the stones forming the edge of the upper bay are
also carved, and the whole trefoil outline of the vaulting is enclosed
in a double line, looped at intervals, outside which the spandrils are
filled with arabesque designs.
[Illustration: FIG. 20.—GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY.
⅑th.
Fifteenth Century.]
The shops on either side of the great gateway are not unlike most other
shops in Cairo. They are uniform recesses about six or seven feet high,
and four to five wide; but they are surrounded with ornaments such as
few other shops in Cairo can boast. Over the shop, forming a species of
eave or fringe to the recess, is a wooden panel (_a_) bearing the name
of Kāït Bey, in medallion form, with other carved or lattice panels,
most of which have been destroyed or stolen. One or two are now in the
South Kensington Museum. Over each shop is first an oblong panel (_b_)
of shallow arabesque carving, the full width of the recess forming the
shop, and rather over two feet high. At each side (figs. 17, 18) of
this, dividing it from the similar panel over the next shop, is a narrow
upright geometrical panel (_c_). Over each of the horizontal panels is a
sort of arch (_d_), composed of nine small upright panels, (fig. 19)
arranged so as to form an arch on the lower side and a straight line at
the top, of the same width as the horizontal panel below. The four side
panels (_e, f, g, h_) are counterparts each of the opposite one, though
each is different from its neighbour, and the same four panels, with
their counterparts or reverses, do duty for all the arched panels
(except two or three which are covered with a continuous arabesque
device, instead of being thus subdivided into nine pieces); the
keystones (_i, k_) however are not identical over the several shops, but
three different patterns are used. Between each of these arched panels
and the next is a circular medallion (_e_) with the name and titles of
Kāït Bey, of the kind already described. The subjoined outline will
explain the arrangement:—
[Illustration: FIG. 21.—ELEVATION OF PART OF THE SHOP-FRONTS OF THE
WEKALA OF KAIT BEY.]
At the right-hand corner of the Wekāla is a Sebīl or fountain with two
large grated windows, one at the front, the other round the corner, each
set in a border of wooden scroll-work, and surmounted by arabesque
panels; and at the corner an engaged column is hewn in the wall, with a
round base composed of two drums like a dice-box, a shaft of ten drums,
carved with arabesque and geometrical patterns and an Arabic
inscription, and a stalactite capital; and above and on either side of
the capital are geometrical panels (fig. 20) in the wall.[35]
[Illustration: FIG. 22.—ARABESQUE ORNAMENT OF WEKALA OF KAIT BEY. ⅑th.
Fifteenth Century.]
Between the Sebīl and the shops is a small doorway, leading up to the
school which surmounts the fountain. This little door has a square above
it marked out by a double line, looped at intervals, and subdivided into
nine rectangular compartments by the same means, each of which has its
geometrical device, matching on opposite sides, except one in the
centre, which is occupied by a small grated window. Over this square is
a splendid rosette (fig. 25) of arabesque ornament, enclosed by four
spandrils of the same pattern. Beyond the sebīl, the portion of the
Wekāla which stands back from the street is occupied by another door,
surmounted by a trefoil vaulted arch, over which is a meshrebīya window.
[Illustration: FIG. 23.
FIG. 24.
GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENTS OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY. ⅑th.]
Many of the ornaments of this noble building are engraved in this
volume. The illustration (fig. 19) shows the arch (_d_,) with its nine
panels, seven of which exhibit the true self-contained arabesque,
complete within the space it occupies, and formed by the knot-like
interlacing of two loops, ending in trefoil heads; whilst two show the
characteristic geometrical design of Kāït Bey, triangular (essentially,
though with a fourth angle in the base) figures linked together, and the
intervals ornamented with cinquefoils. The two varieties of side panels
(_c_) are shown in figs. 17 and 18. Some of the larger ornaments, e.g.,
half of an arabesque panel and half the geometrical design over the
corner column, are shown in figs. 20 and 22, where figures of four sides
are linked together and ornamented with stars. The rosette over the
small door and two small upright panels adjoining it are shown in figs.
23-5, and two examples of geometrical and arabesque patterns from the
same façade appear in figs. 26 and 27.
[Illustration: FIG. 25.—ROSETTE OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY.
Fifteenth Century.]
The stone and plaster work of Cairo is, as has been seen, chiefly
surface decoration, of an even or flat tone, which has little or no
constructive meaning, and seems to be more or less derived from the
patterns which were used for the decoration of textile fabrics. The
stalactite or pendentive bracketing, however, is strictly constructive,
and forms a strongly marked characteristic of Saracenic art (see fig.
10). Its first and principal use is for masking the transition from the
square of the mausoleum to the circle of the dome. “In their domes the
Arabs adopted, and improved on, the constructional expedient for
vaulting over the space beneath, and passing from a square apartment to
the circle of the dome, used by both Byzantines and Persians. The church
of St. Sophia, at Constantinople, presents fine examples of its
Byzantine form; but in later edifices of that style, constructional
difficulties seem to have confined the architects to small domes. The
buildings of the Sassanian dynasty also contain pendentives.[36] . . The
Arabs, with their peculiar faculty for cutting away all superfluous
material, naturally arched the overlapping stones that filled up the
angles of the building; and, by using _pointed_ arches, overcame the
difficulty of the Byzantine architects to which I have alluded. The
pendentive was speedily adopted by the Arabs in Egypt in a great variety
of shapes, and for almost every conceivable architectural and ornamental
purpose: to effect the transition from the recessed windows to the outer
plane of a building; and to vault, in a similar manner, the great
porches of mosques, which form so grand a feature characteristic of the
style. All the more simple woodwork of dwelling-houses was fashioned in
a variety of curious patterns of the same character; the pendentive, in
fact, strongly marks the Arab fashion of cutting off angles and useless
material, always in a pleasing and constructively advantageous
manner.”[37]
[Illustration: FIG. 26.—ARABESQUES OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY (⅛th).]
[Illustration: FIG. 27.—GEOMETRICAL ORNAMENT OF THE WEKALA OF KAIT BEY
(⅛th).]