Christian churches in the Middle Ages may have used Islamic embroidery to cover their high altars. This is confirmed by a 13th-century fresco rediscovered in Ferrara, Italy.
Reported by UNN with reference to 30science and The Burlington Magazine.
A team of expert archaeologists led by Federica Gigante analyzed a 13th-century fresco discovered in Ferrara, in the Benedictine monastery of San Antonio in Polezina, Italy. As it turned out, it depicts an altar covered with an Islamic veil, a real discovery that, according to experts, places Islamic art at the center of medieval Christianity.
The authors suggest that this 700-year-old fresco is the only one of its kind to survive, offering valuable evidence of a little-known Christian practice.
The brightly colored original tent, covered with jewelry, could have been a diplomatic gift from a Muslim leader or a trophy captured on the battlefield.
Gigante's research, published today in The Burlington Magazine, also suggests that Pope Innocent IV, who donated several precious fabrics to the church of the Benedictine monastery of San Antonio in Polezina, Ferrara, where the fresco was painted, may have given just such a tent.
Islamic textiles were associated with the Holy Land, from where pilgrims and crusaders brought the most valuable Islamic fabrics. They believed that artistic continuity had existed since the time of Christ, so their use in a Christian context was more than justified. Christians in medieval Europe admired Islamic art without fully realizing it
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