Suspended Sculptures: the carved wooden celings of Al-Andalus and their legacies

The carved and painted wooden ceilings of al-Andalus were made to crown intimate and important spaces in palaces and sacred buildings. These architectural wonders were made with exquisite craftsmanship and engineering by craftsmen working within an Islamic tradition, for patrons across al-Andalus, Castile and Aragon. Many were dismantled and dispersed in the early twentieth century. This lecture will focus on five of those ceilings: the Alhambra cupola in Berlin and the four ceilings from the Torrijos palace which are now in museums across the world. It will consider their production, function and subsequent dispersal, and ask what kind of stories they can tell, and why it is important to tell them in the museum.