Mosque Lamp
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Object Label
Painted in Paris at a time when Robert Henri was determined to make his professional mark as a young artist, this work—in a dark, smoky palette deliberately recalling European Old Masters—features his favorite model, Berthe Terrier. Although he intentionally allied his art with revered tradition, Henri also added a contemporary mood by portraying Terrier with a bold, almost defiant expression.
X-radiographs reveal that Henri repainted this work extensively as he struggled to capture his model’s anatomy. At an earlier stage (see illustration), the placement of the shawl exposed much more of her shoulders and bust. Such focus on the nude reflects the artist’s early academic training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where Thomas Eakins’s Realist tradition was still strongly felt.
Caption
Mosque Lamp, 13th–14th century. Colorless glass; blue, green, red, yellow, and white enamels; and gold; free blown, applied, enameled, and gilded; tooled on the pontil, includes base, now detached: 12 x 8 in. (30.5 x 20.3 cm) without base, now detached: 9 1/2 x 8 in. (24.1 x 20.3 cm) base (now detached): 2 1/2 x 4 in. (6.4 x 10.2 cm) mount: 9 1/2 × 8 × 8 in. (24.1 × 20.3 × 20.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of William H. Herriman, 21.484. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 21.484_PS11.jpg)
Collection
Collection
Title
Mosque Lamp
Date
13th–14th century
Dynasty
Mamluk
Period
Mamluk Period
Medium
Colorless glass; blue, green, red, yellow, and white enamels; and gold; free blown, applied, enameled, and gilded; tooled on the pontil
Classification
Dimensions
includes base, now detached: 12 x 8 in. (30.5 x 20.3 cm) without base, now detached: 9 1/2 x 8 in. (24.1 x 20.3 cm) base (now detached): 2 1/2 x 4 in. (6.4 x 10.2 cm) mount: 9 1/2 × 8 × 8 in. (24.1 × 20.3 × 20.3 cm)
Inscriptions
In Arabic in thuluth script, "العالم / "al-`aalim" / "the wise," repeated around body three times.
Credit Line
Bequest of William H. Herriman
Accession Number
21.484
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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