Carved Wooden Panel

This rectangular shaped wooden panel is carved in deep relief with a symmetrical design of interlaced scrolling foliage forming a series of vertically-stacked cusped arches. It most certainly once formed part of a larger set of door panels, such as the twenty-eight panels found on the wooden doors of George of Antioch’s 6th century AH/12th century CE church of Santa Maria dell’Ammiraglio in Palermo, Sicily; themselves reportedly salvaged from an earlier 5th century AH/11th century CE mosque, when the island was under Fatimid rule. Much of the economics and trade of the Fatimid wood industry remains undocumented, yet carved wooden panels appear in situ in both Egypt and Sicily. No doubt a flourishing wood carving industry existed during this period, one so prized that pieces were salvaged and later repurposed into buildings and furnishings. Whether this particular panel was carved in Palermo or Cairo, it nonetheless attests to the fact that wood was considered a luxury commodity befit for carving and decorating churches, mosques, and secular buildings.