2. Gallery Index
  3. 2019 Europe Museums
  4. Germany
  5. Museum Island, Berlin
  6. Pergamon Museum

The Aleppo Room, center door

Germany, Museum Island, Berlin, Pergamon Museum

The Aleppo Room

The wall panelling, with its patterns painted in the most remarkable detail, comes from the banqueting hall of a private house in Aleppo's Christian district. Two inscriptions give the years 1009 and 1012 according to the Islamic calendar (1600 - 1601 and 1603) as the date of execution. The former owner and patron of the paintings, Isa b. Butrus ("Jesus, son of Peter") is also named in the inscriptions.

He was a merchant and broker by trade in the Syrian town of Aleppo. That he belonged to the Christian community is quite apparent from the selection of texts and the figurative illustrations. There are two Psalms in Arabic on the inscription panels above the sides of the windows as well as the doors leading into the adjacent rooms, or conceal wall cupboards Mother Mary and the baby Jesus are portrayed five times, and Saint George twice. One of the panel boards in the main niche alternately displays scenes from the Old and New Testaments, such as Jesus' Last Supper and Abraham's sacrifice.

In their colors and composition, the paintings in the Aleppo Room are arranged symmetrically to an axis leading from the entrance to the main niche opposite This is true both of the panel boards with their ornamental decoration (whose floral style is borrowed from prevailing Ottoman art styles) and of the figurative decoration. Alongside Christian motifs, there are also scenes with worldly contents, revealing the influence of Persian painting. The high-quality execution clearly shows their close relationship to the book illumination of the same period.

The Aleppo Room was brought to Berlin after its purchase, in 1972 by Friedrich Sarre, the first director of the collection.

Supplementary images:

Center door of the Aleppo Room, located at the Pergamon museum.
Taken on  Wednesday 07th of August 2019
Device: Google
Model: Pixel 3 XL
Source:  Berlin, Germany
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