The partially-visible fresco, identified by Cambridge University historian Dr. Federica Gigante, almost certainly depicts a real tent, now lost, which the artist may have seen in the same church. The brightly colored original tent, covered in jewels, could have been a diplomatic gift from a Muslim leader or a trophy seized from the battlefield.
Gigante’s research, published today in The Burlington Magazine, also suggests that a high-profile figure such as Pope Innocent IV—who gifted several precious textiles to the Benedictine convent church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, where the fresco was painted—may have given such a tent.
“At first, it seemed unbelievable and just too exciting that this could be an Islamic tent,” said Dr. Gigante. “I quickly dismissed the idea and only went back to it years later with more experience and a braver attitude to research. We probably won’t find another such surviving image. I haven’t stopped looking but my guess is that it is fairly unique.
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-rediscovered-fresco-reveals-islamic-tents.html
Author: rbrown9
The painting Islamic Scientists was one of the last that Syrian artist Mahmoud Hammad produced before his death in 1988. It is also perhaps his most ambitious. The work tackles a vast timeline, condensing centuries of Islamic history into a 120cm x 180cm canvas.
Yet, the painting has a marked blind spot. The canvas is populated entirely by men – with no reference to the achievements of the female thinkers and intellectuals of the Islamic Golden Age.
A new companion piece, A Wonderful World, by Iraqi artist Afifa Aleiby aims to address this oversight. Commissioned by the Barjeel Art Foundation, it will be officially unveiled during a ceremony at Sharjah’s House of Wisdom on Sunday. A Wonderful World will be displayed beside Hammad’s Islamic Scientists, which is also part of the foundation’s collection and has been displayed at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation since 2014.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art-design/2025/02/23/mahmoud-hammad-islamic-scientists-women/
Yet, the painting has a marked blind spot. The canvas is populated entirely by men – with no reference to the achievements of the female thinkers and intellectuals of the Islamic Golden Age.
A new companion piece, A Wonderful World, by Iraqi artist Afifa Aleiby aims to address this oversight. Commissioned by the Barjeel Art Foundation, it will be officially unveiled during a ceremony at Sharjah’s House of Wisdom on Sunday. A Wonderful World will be displayed beside Hammad’s Islamic Scientists, which is also part of the foundation’s collection and has been displayed at the Sharjah Museum of Islamic Civilisation since 2014.
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/art-design/2025/02/23/mahmoud-hammad-islamic-scientists-women/