Watercolour illustrations of 9th century Abbasid wall paintings of birds Reconstructed from fragmen
Watercolour illustrations of 9th century Abbasid wall paintings of birds Reconstructed from fragments excavated at Samarra, Iraq by Ernst Herzfeld in 1911-1913. The sketchbook is Herzfeld’s; the wall paintings are from the Reception-Hall Block in the Main Caliphal Palace of al-Mu’tasim (r. 833-842), abandoned in 892. There are lots of birds depicted, a few other animals (I think there’s a lion, a bull, and an antelope in the last image), and quite a few illustrations of vegetal borders and geometric patterns on walls in the sketchbook as well.(Metropolitan Museum of Art eeh1687) -- source link
#watercolour illustration#ernst herzfeld#archaeology#abbasid art#samarra#wall paintings#wall decorations#herzfeld papers#birds#abbasid#islamic