INSIGHT INTO A SOPHISTICATED PAINTING TECHNIQUE: THREE
POLYCHROME WOODEN INTERIORS FROM OTTOMAN SYRIA IN GERMAN
COLLECTIONS AND FIELD RESEARCH IN DAMASCUS
Anke Scharrahs
ling was made between ad 1601–1604 for a Christian merchant
in Aleppo, and is signed by a Persian painter. Today it is one of
the highlights in the Berlin collection [3, 4].
In the last decade these three Syrian polychrome wooden interiors have been investigated and partly consolidated or restored.
During these projects, fascinating details of the sophisticated
painting technique have been collected, which will be presented
in connection with field research results for similar interiors that
still exist in Damascus, Sidon, and Hama. Because of their intensive use as reception rooms and repeated renovations through
the last few centuries, most of these rooms have been heavily
restored, lacquered, overcleaned, water damaged or overpainted.
Around the world, only a few examples are preserved with their
original surfaces intact; these will be noted in the conclusion.
ABSTRACT
Technical studies of three Syrian interiors in German collections (‘Aleppo
Room’, dated ad 1601/1604, Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin; ‘Damascus
Room’, dated ad 1810, Ethnological Museum, Dresden; ‘Arabicum’, late
eighteenth century, Villa Gutmann, Potsdam) have provided illuminating
information on now-forgotten decorative painting techniques characteristic of Syrian urban architecture of the fifteenth to the early nineteenth
centuries. The results of these studies are presented together with information derived from studies of the few surviving original interiors in Syria,
Lebanon and south east Turkey. Practical reconstruction experiments were
used to investigate lost techniques and the original surface appearance of
the so called ‘ajamī rooms.
ÖZET
Alman koleksiyonlarındaki üç Suriye odasının (Berlin İslam Sanatı
Müzesi, “Halep Odası”, 1601/04); Dresden Etnoloji Müzesi, “Şam Odası”,
1810; Potsdam, Villa Gutmann, “Arabicum” 18. yüzyıl sonları) teknik
analizi, 15. yüzyıl ile 19. yüzyıl başı arasındaki dönemde Suriye kent
mimarisine özgü, bugün unutulmuş dekoratif resim teknikleri hakkında
aydınlatıcı bilgi sağlamaktadır. Bu incelemelerin sonuçları, Suriye,
Lübnan ve Güneydoğu Türkiye’deki günümüze ulaşabilmiş birkaç özgün
iç mekân bezemeleri üzerine yapılmış araştırmalardan edinilen bilgilerle
birlikte sunulmaktadır. Unutulmuş teknikleri ve “Acemî” (Acem/İran
tarzı) tabir edilen bu odaların özgün yüzey görünümünü araştırmak için
pratik rekonstrüksiyon deneyleri kullanılmıştır.
‘AJAMĪ ROOMS: A SPECIFIC TYPE OF WALL AND
CEILING DECORATION
Nearly every traditional Arab private house had at least one
room which was used especially for the reception of guests and
which was always the most lavishly decorated room in the house.
The interior decoration incorporates stone mosaics and reliefs,
coloured stone paste inlay work (called ‘ablaq) and polychrome
wooden panelling. In Syria the rich painted and metal leaf covered wooden interiors are named ‘ajamī rooms. The Arabic term
‘ajamī means ‘Persian’ or ‘Non-Arabic’ and is used to describe
the technique and the ornaments as well as the interior as a
whole. This decorative style, called pastiglia in Europe, appears
as early as in Mamluk times1. The ‘ajamī decorations became
very prominent throughout the Ottoman Empire and rose to
sophisticated levels in Syria. Today approximately 100 houses
containing ‘ajamī rooms still exist in the Old City of Damascus,
many of which are hidden treasures [5–7]. A few interiors are
also preserved in Aleppo, Hama, Sidon and Antakya.
INTRODUCTION: THREE JEWELS OF OTTOMAN
INTERIOR DESIGN IN GERMANY
Between ad 1899 and ad 1912, three polychrome wooden
interiors from Syrian reception rooms in private houses were
purchased by German collectors of oriental art. All of these collectors were well-known specialists with a deep interest in, and
understanding of, Islamic Art. Karl Ernst Osthaus, an important
cultural reformer, travelled through all the great cities of the
Ottoman Empire at the end of the nineteenth century, collecting artefacts. He spent many weeks looking for a high quality
wooden interior, and in 1899 bought the wall panels and ceiling
which are today exhibited in the Ethnological Museum, Dresden.
This interior, today called the Dresden ‘Damascus Room’, was
moved to Dresden as a gift following Osthaus’s death in 1930.
The last section of the inscription in this room gives its date of
ah 1225/ad 1810–1811.
In 1905, Herbert Gutmann, the president of the German Orient
Bank and consulting specialist to the Islamic Department of
the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, bought parts of two or three
Damascene wooden interiors produced in the late eighteenth
century and installed them in his own apartment in Berlin. After
he moved to Potsdam in 1926, he created a separate part of his
private villa, the so-called ‘Arabicum’. This room contains not
only the parts of his Damascene interiors, but also custom-built
orientalist replacements incorporated into this installation.
Herbert Gutmann used this splendid room — in the way that it
was used in its original context — as a reception room for guests.
The ‘Arabicum’ was the appropriate room for official meetings
with important individuals for nearly fifteen years, including
King Faisal I of Iraq and King Fuad I of Egypt [1, 2].
The oldest surviving and most impressive Ottoman reception
room in the world is the so-called ‘Aleppo Room’ in the Museum
for Islamic Art (Pergamon Museum, Berlin). It was Friedrich
Sarre, a specialist in oriental textiles and the first director of this
museum, who bought the marvellous wooden painted interior in
1912 for the enormous sum of 22000 Reichsmarks. This panel-
ANALYTICAL METHODS
The following results and descriptions of the painting techniques
are based on examinations and scientific analyses conducted by
various laboratories and methods:
• OES (optical emission spectrography [UV-spectrograph
‘Q 24’, Carl Zeiss Jena]) and microchemical tests to
identify pigments and binding media in the Dresden
‘Damascus Room’, ‘Arabicum’ in Potsdam, and selected
samples from Damascene houses carried out by HansPeter Schramm and Maria Schramm, Academy of Fine
Arts Dresden.
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive
X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDX), by Joseph Riederer
and Minodora Ilisiu, Rathgen-Forschungslabor, Berlin
[3, pp. 71–3].
• Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive
1
Damascus was largely destroyed in 1400 after Tamerlan took over the
city. The oldest dated ‘ajamī ceilings in Damascus are in the entrance hall
of the Tawrīzī mosque, dated 1420, and in the iwān ceiling of the Bayt
al-‘Aqqad, dated c. ad 1470.
134
X-ray fluorescence analysis (EDX) of samples from the
‘Aleppo Room’ by Elisabeth Jägers, Bornheim/Köln
was not sanded. The resulting roughness served to adhere the
subsequent layers more effectively. In many rooms, certain panels, doors or parts of beams were covered with coloured ground
layers instead of white: yellow (orpiment), orange (red lead; lead
tetroxide), light blue (white lead and indigo) and green (orpiment and indigo). In certain areas these coloured ground layers
fulfil the roles of a preparation layer and a visible paint layer
at the same time, as has been noted on soffits, window niches,
or window shutters. Furthermore, many rooms contain panels
which are covered with large tin foil areas. These parts often do
not have any ground layer: plain panels such as in the ‘Aleppo
Room’ in Berlin were prepared directly with the application size
for the tin foil. On many frames or panels the pastiglia decoration
was applied directly on to the wood before the whole surface
was covered with tin foil, as is visible in Bayt al-Ḥawrānīya in
Damascus. These technical details, and other features described
below, show how efficiently the workshops planned and executed
the decorative programme.
• Wood analyses: ‘Aleppo Room’, Berlin by Reinder Neef,
Karl-Uwe Heußner, German Archaeological Institute
Berlin; ‘Damascus Room’ Dresden, by Lukas Kraemer,
Museum for East Asian Art Cologne.
WOOD TYPES AND CONSTRUCTION
The polychromed wall panels and ceilings were made from
various wood types including poplar, cedar, cypress, walnut and
terebinth. Systematic wood identification remains to be carried
out. Only a few sections of a few interiors have been analysed
scientifically (‘Aleppo Room’, Berlin; Bayt Nizām, Damascus;
‘Damascus Room’, Dresden; ‘Nur al-Din Room’, New York).
The wood types vary not only between the cities and houses,
but also within individual rooms. In Damascus the framework
and ceilings were most frequently made from poplar, although
cypress frameworks are also found; doors and window shutters
are usually the harder wood, walnut.
The main construction of the ‘ajamī room walls consists of
a framework in which the narrow vertical panels, niches, wall
closets, doors, and windows are integrated. The wood joinery
and tool marks are a further interesting aspect, and these are
addressed in another contribution in this volume by Baumeister
et al. [8].
UNDERDRAWING, UNDERWRITING AND PATTERN
TRANSFER TEMPLATES
The majority of the richly designed pattern was applied using
a template punched with holes and pounced using a bag filled
with charcoal powder. In areas which do not have a repetitive
pattern, the decoration was painted with fine black outlines. A
typical location for this type of underdrawing would be the outlines of cartouches, or the large fruit bowl panels which appear
only singly in a room, for example, above the entrance door.
This freehand drawing is also found in areas of irregular shape
between recurring motifs. A third type of ground preparation has
been found under the raised letters in inscription panels which
are a prominent feature in nearly every ‘ajamī room. From losses
in the lettering today, it is evident that black or red paint or ink
was used to execute the calligraphy on the boards prepared with
a white ground. The writing was presumably carried out by
professional calligraphers directly on the prepared ground layer.
The red paint or ink has only been analysed for a few rooms: in
the Berlin ‘Aleppo Room’ and in the northern upper courtyard
of the al-‘Aẓm Palace in Hama. The letters of most other rooms
were written in black. On the reverse of the panels, the order
of the verses is usually marked with a numbering system using
short strokes or a combination of strokes and circles (the Arabic
symbol for 5).
WOOD PREPARATION: GAP FILLERS, CANVAS
APPLICATION, PREPARATION AND GROUND LAYERS
A common and typical feature of the Damascene ‘ajamī rooms
is the use of organic materials to fill small gaps between the
boards. The cornices and other large elements of the room are
composed of multiple boards mounted in parallel, with each join
between the boards packed with plant fibres mixed with animal
glue as an adhesive. In two cases the plant fibres were identified as hemp by Annegret Fuhrmann, Academy of Fine Arts,
Dresden (Dresden ‘Damascus Room’) and by Nancy Britton,
Metropolitan Museum of Arts (‘Nur al-Din Room’) [8]. Bundles
of adhesive-soaked fibres were also laid across the backs of
the boards, perpendicular to the joins, to provide additional
stabilization. These fibres are visible in the construction of all
of the Damascene rooms discussed here. The texture of these
gap fillers appear similar in many Damascene interiors; they
can have the appearance of being rather carelessly applied, and
produce an uneven and rough surface. After covering the surface
with the rich patterned decoration, however, the variations in the
surface are no longer visible to the casual eye. Another technique
is the application of a canvas textile to cover joins between the
planks; in some rooms, the curved cornices or entire vertical
panel structure is covered. In two rooms of the al-‘Aẓm Palace
in Hama (Syria), paper was applied over wood and canvas, both
to cover nails and joins, and, on one panel, to prepare the ground
for a specific surface decoration [9].
Two different materials have been found as preparation layers
for the wood. Animal glue was usually applied when water-based
paints were used for the surface decoration. In some cases where
tin foil was applied directly on to the wood, a preparation layer
made from natural resin was used.
The painting technique of the ‘ajamī rooms shows a wide
variety of materials and application methods depending on the
richness and type of pattern. The most common layer system,
observed in the Dresden ‘Damascus Room’ and in the Potsdam
‘Arabicum’ as well as in many other Damascene interiors from
the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries, was as follows:
the wood was prepared with a relatively rough white ground
layer of unburned ground gypsum bound in animal glue. The
brushstrokes that are often visible indicate that the ground layer
APPLICATION OF ‘AJAMĪ ORNAMENTS (PASTIGLIA)
The fine black dotted template lines, drawn outlines and written
letters were then overlaid with pastiglia decoration by applying a
thick but flowing paste made from unburned gypsum and animal
glue. In some rooms the pastiglia paste contains red particles
(mostly vermilion) colouring the raised ornaments pinkish, for
example, in the calligraphic letters in the ‘Aleppo Room’ in
Berlin or in the ‘ajamī rooms of the northern upper courtyard in
the al-‘Aẓm Palace in Hama. Reconstruction tests using unburned
ground gypsum and animal glue showed that the correct consistency for the pastiglia mixture depends upon many parameters
such as the proportion of water, glue and gypsum, and the
temperature of the paste as well as the working environment. It
is only if every parameter is correct that the paste will lead to
raised motifs and does not set too rapidly before the ornaments
are finished. If the paste does not contain enough glue, the size
for the metal leaf will sink into the porous structure and will
not form a layer on top of the pastiglia surface. Reconstruction
tests carried out by the author showed that an 11% rabbit skin
glue (11 g dry weight of Kremer rabbit skin glue in 89 ml hot
water plus Kremer ground gypsum) gave the optimal properties
to the ‘ajamī paste.
135
Fig. 1 The ‘Damascus Room’, Ethnological Museum Dresden. Detail of
the main wall showing the contrast between glossy copper-leafed
ornaments and matt painted flower cartouches and green borders.
METAL LEAF AND FOIL APPLICATION
Once the raised ‘ajamī ornaments were dry, the next step in the
production process was the application of metal leaf or foil. Up
to three different metals have been found in one panel: gold and
tin are common, and copper is also used by the middle of the
eighteenth century. The colour of the copper-containing leaf varies from reddish to yellowish shades (Fig. 1). Some metal leafs
and foils were applied over the whole surface, thus covering the
raised sections as well as the flatter areas between the raised
‘ajamī ornaments. In other smaller areas, metal leaf was applied
locally. A linseed oil mordant was used to apply the metal foil
over large surface areas. In some rooms a special underlayer
was used to prepare areas such as the larger gilded cartouches
or the gilded sections in the muqarnas cornices or niches. In
the ‘Aleppo Room’ in Berlin, this preparation layer consists
of vermilion, white lead and gypsum bound in protein. Crosssections show the presence of a thin binding medium between
this preparation layer and the metal leaf. The scientific analysis
of this binding medium is not yet complete, but it is possibly an
animal glue, since the gilded surface is burnished.
A clearly different application technique has been found for
the inscription panels. The cross-sections of calligraphic letters
in the rooms that have been studied do not show any binding
media between the pastiglia paste and the gold leaf. The gypsum
glue paste was utilized as an adhesive itself. Reconstruction tests
show that applying the gold leaf by moistening the pastiglia letters with water was an efficient method which also enabled the
polishing of these letters with an agate burnisher.
The tin and copper leaf covered areas were treated differently: the raised ‘ajamī ornaments were polished to attain a high
gloss, while the surface was left duller in the flat areas creating
a contrast. Folds which formed during the metal application can
be seen clearly in the flatter areas between the pastiglia, also
indicating that these areas remained unpolished. Another surface
decoration technique has been found once so far: punchwork,
which appears on gilded cartouches in the reception room in the
north wing main courtyard of Bayt as-Sibā‘i, Damascus (cadastral number XIII-227), dated ah 1187/ad 1773–1774.
Although the tin foil surfaces were largely covered with
glazes, in sections of some rooms the tin foil remained as a
silver coloured surface. Cross-sections show the tin foil was
not covered to protect the surface from corrosion. The state of
corrosion and appearance of the originally blank tin foil areas in
various rooms differs greatly. In some cases the exposed tin foil
is well preserved after 200 years and remains as a silver-coloured
Fig. 2 The ‘Damascus Room’, Ethnological Museum Dresden. Detail
with cartouche with a city-scape. The copper metal leaf on the
‘ajamī motifs has corroded and has turned green; brown edges
along the inner side of the cartouche are a result of a chemical
reaction of copper ions with the linseed oil mordant (the material
used to apply the leaf).
Fig. 3 Bayt al-Ḥawrānīya, Damascus, Eastern murabba, inner courtyard. Original preserved cornice with bright blue smalt and
greenish corroded copper leaf applications on the carved
ornaments and on the triplet arches in the muqarnas, dated
ad 1787–88.
metal, as in Bayt al-Ḥawrānīya in Damascus. In many other
rooms the tin foil corrosion has changed the colour scheme of the
whole room as the silver colour has disappeared and the metal
has turned instead dull and dark grey, often in rooms with later
varnishes. It would be useful to examine more fully the possible
interactions between varnishes and tin corrosion.
Another corrosion phenomenon has been noted in the copperleaf areas, which appear greenish and have lost their metallic
character. Often these areas appear on first examination to be
green paint (Figs 2–4), but cross-sections show remaining metal
136
identified in the ‘Aleppo Room’ in Berlin), smalt, indigo, verdigris, carbon black. Many paints are mixtures of these pigments.
The following combinations were found by analysis in many
of the rooms: pink — lead white and red (organic) lake; light
yellow — lead white and a little orpiment; red — red lead and
vermilion; light blue — lead white and indigo; also lead white
and lapis lazuli in the Berlin ‘Aleppo Room’; green leaves in the
flowers vases — orpiment and indigo. Although many of the pigments could be analysed, the identification of the binding media
was more complicated. All the rooms preserved in Western
collections have been treated and restored many times, making
it difficult or impossible to find untouched areas for sampling
of every layer from the great variety of patterns and paints.
Further, there are very few written sources on contemporary
materials or techniques; there are only two treatises on Persian
book painting around ad 1600 [10, 11] and not enough detailed
scientific analyses of other rooms. Interviews with Damascene
artists yield only the understanding that much of the knowledge
about the painting techniques of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries has been lost. The decline of the ‘ajamī room production in the 1830s [6] and the predominance of modern pigments
and binding media since the nineteenth century have tended to
obscure any memory of the earlier techniques. Summarizing the
existing analyses and visual observations, it can be said that a
variety of binding media were used, including animal glue, egg,
water-based oil emulsions, fatty acid-based media, and oil–resincontaining binders. Gum arabic has been identified as the binder
for the black ink used to execute the calligraphy.
In many rooms orpiment and smalt in particular are bound
in animal glue or egg white; for the ‘Nur al-Din’ Room at
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), the presence of egg
was confirmed using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay
(ELISA) [8]. The orpiment and smalt are usually roughly ground
in order to produce a glittering effect in the dried surface, and
to create contrast with the shiny or glossy areas. Many other
pigments were applied in an emulsion (a mixture of oil and
water-soluble glues or with egg). These paint layers are always
very stable. In many rooms also fatty acid-based or oil–resincontaining paint layers have been found — mostly used to paint
outlines or small details on top of the tempera paints.
Fig. 4 Bright original colour scheme of a cornice, showing the copper
leaf that has altered to green on the carved ornaments, cartouche
borders and tiny flower centres in the red background, Bayt
al-Qazīha, Damascus.
leaf and the discoloration of the size beneath as a result of the
penetration of copper ions. This discoloration of copper is also
visible in the browned edges of the light areas in painted landscapes or fruit bowl cartouches (Fig. 2).
An unusual case of the use of silver in Syria has been recently
identified in the Qasr al-‘Aẓm in Hama, where two magnificent
interiors in the northern upper courtyard show large surfaces
covered with silver leaf, instead of the more common tin leaf [9].
DYED GLAZES ON THE METAL LEAF
The multicoloured, glossy glazes are an important design feature of the ‘ajamī rooms. On the silver-coloured tin foil, various
types of intensely dyed transparent glazes were applied: yellow,
orange, dark red, and green. In few cases also semi-transparent
or opaque paints were used such as red, blue, or black. Some
coloured glazed accents are found in addition on gold leaf
areas such the centres of red and green flowers or leaves. The
scientific analyses of these original coloured glazes are complicated for the lack of comparative materials and the presence of
varnishes applied later. In most cases, the original glazes are
drying oil–natural resin compositions containing for instance
copal (‘Aleppo Room’ Berlin) or sandarac (Dresden ‘Damascus
Room’). Analyses of some of the very few untouched rooms
that survive in Damascus would be very helpful to improve our
knowledge of this matter. It has been observed in many rooms
that the yellow glaze is often extremely soluble in organic solvents like ethanol or acetone (propanone) resulting in almost
total loss of the yellow glaze as a result of earlier cleaning
treatments. The vertical panels of the Berlin ‘Aleppo Room’ are
a prominent example, as they now appear silver-coloured after
a varnish removal with ‘paint stripper’ in ad 1960. Under all of
the painted details, such as the tiny flowers and their outlines,
the yellow glaze is preserved because it has been protected by
the paint layer. In contrast, the dark red and green glazes are
mostly very stable. The green variety has been identified as a
‘copper resinate’ type of oil–resin varnish.
A UNIQUE SURFACE DECORATION: THE ‘ALEPPO
ROOM’, BERLIN
The painting technique of the ‘Aleppo Room’ panelling is unique
in quality and variety of the materials and application techniques. The detailed description of the fascinating paintings and
the research results about the layers and materials would require
a full monograph and so cannot be described comprehensively
here. The main results have been published in 2008 in the proceedings of the ‘Aleppo Room’ Symposium held in Berlin 2002
[12]. This summary of the essential aspects of the ‘Aleppo Room’
can be divided in four groups with different surface decoration:
1. The cornices, a few vertical panels with white and blue
background, and the horizontal inscription panels were
made in the same technique as described above: with
white or light blue ground layers, pastiglia to raise the
calligraphic letters, gold leaf application in various
techniques, glue and tempera paints.
PAINTED AREAS: LANDSCAPES, FLOWERS,
FRUIT BOWLS, GEOMETRIC DECORATION AND
INSCRIPTIONS
For the next stage, the flat interior surfaces between areas of
pastiglia were painted with flower bouquets, fruit bowls, and
stylized cityscapes, as well as floral and geometric ornaments.
The following pigments were used: lead white, orpiment, red
lead, vermilion, red (organic) lake, lapis lazuli (ultramarine;only
2. The red framework and the vertical panels with red
background are made in a type of ‘lacquer’ technique.
The wood and the two paint layers — red lead first and
on top a thin vermilion layer — were applied in smooth
even layers, and covered with a transparent oil–resin
varnish before the details were painted on the bright
shiny red background (Fig. 5).
137
Fig. 5 The ‘Aleppo Room’, Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin. Detail of
a red panel, main tazar niche, right wall.
Fig. 6 Detail of the right centre panel main wall in the ‘Aleppo Room’,
Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin, showing green glazed tin foil,
and beautifully painted scenes with small gold applications.
3. Many elongated panels are covered completely with tin
foil and decorated with various dyed glazes and paints,
often in complicated layering structures (Fig. 6).
4. The doors and window shutters were covered with two
different transparent coatings directly on the wood — a
glossy oil–copal lacquer on the walnut framework and
a duller shellac coating on the boxwood inlays.
ORIGINAL SURFACE APPEARANCE AND WELLPRESERVED EXAMPLES OF ‘AJAMĪ ROOMS
The special surface aesthetic of the ‘ajamī rooms varied between
shiny and dull metal areas, glossy glaze-like paints, glittering
matt and silky finish colours (Figs 2, 7, 8). Light was reflected
around the room from the numerous polished metal surfaces,
while the walls appeared as if they were formed from soft textiles. In many rooms of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
centuries the contrast of surface shine is intensified by mirrors
of various sizes and locations. The well-balanced nature of the
bright colours, ornaments, and architectural structure demonstrates the high quality of the work and the skill of the artists
involved, and it leaves a deep impression with every visitor.
Today only a few examples are preserved with their original
surfaces, while the majority of the rooms appear brown with
glossy finishes. These darkened (or sometimes bleached varnishes) — mostly identified as natural resins — lead to drastic
colour changes, such as the blackened appearance of the original
bright blue smalt. However, in few rooms the original ideas of
design idea can still be appreciated. These cases include: Bayt
al-Ḥawrānīya (cadastral number XXI 2–961, inner courtyard,
Fig. 7 The ‘Damascus Room’, Ethnological Museum Dresden. Detail of
the large wall closet door, right shutter, contrast between gilded
‘ajamī decoration and duller painted houses.
eastern murabba, dated ah 1202/ad 1787–1788 ); Bayt al-Qazīha
in Damascus (located in Qaimarīya, dwelling of the Qazīha
family, cadastral number IX-100, qa’ā in the west wing dated
ah 1243/ad 1828); Qasr al-‘Aẓm in Hama (two rooms, north
western courtyard, upper floor, dated ah 1195/ad 1780–1781).
138
Original preserved ceilings exist in Bayt aš-Šīrāzī (cadastral number XVIII/1–75, dated ah 1178/ad 1764–1765); Bayt
Farḥi/ad-Daḥdaḥ (cadastral number XI-120) and Bayt Salīm
al-Quwatlī (cadastral number XVIII-408, tazar ceiling in the
north western qa’ā) in Damascus; Bayt Debbanée and Bayt
al-Ajram in Sidon. Visitors to these well preserved rooms are
often surprised and delighted by the extraordinary brightness
and the delicate surface appearance of the original colours and
shining metal leaf.
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in press.
10 Dickson, M.B. and Welch, S.C., ‘The Canons of Painting by Sadiqi
Bek’, in The Houghton Shahnameh, Harvard University Press
Cambridge MA (1981) Vol. I 259–269.
11 Aḥmad ibn Mīr Munshī, al-Ḥusainī, trans V. Minorsky,
Calligraphers and Painters: A Treatise by Qādī Ahmad, Son of Mīr
Munshī (circa ah 1015/ad 1606). Freer Gallery of Art Occasional
Papers Vol. 3 No. 2, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC (1959).
12 Scharrahs, A., ‘Kunsttechnologische Studien zum Aleppo-Zimmer’,
in Angels, Peonies, and Fabulous Creatures. The Aleppo Room in
Berlin, ed. J. Gonnella and J. Kröger, Rhema-Verlag, Münster (2008)
179–183.
AUTHOR
After study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, the author has been
working as a freelance conservator specializing in polychrome wooden
surfaces. Since 1997, research and restoration projects have been related
to Ottoman interiors from Syria, conducted in museums in Berlin,
Dresden, and New York. Field research on the original painting technique has been undertaken in existing houses in Syria and Lebanon
(PhD).
Fig. 8 Contrast between glossy glazed tinfoil on the framework and
matt paintings on the door and inset panels. Home of Jacques
Montluçon, Damascus, dated ad 1790–91, cadastral number
IX-251.
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