Pair of Doors (early 1400s): Art, History and Details

Pair of Doors (early 1400s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Typical of Muslim-inspired ornamentation, these doors reflect a love of geometric decoration stemming from a non-realistic artistic tradition. They consist of applied wood strips that form eight-point stars, flowers, and geometric interlace designs. Such designs are reflected in the tiles, ceramic vessels, and metalwork of Muslim-occupied Spain. The origin of the doors is not known, but they may have belonged to a palace or domestic residence. In 711, the Moors had invaded and conquered nearly the entire peninsula. During the next 750 years, independent Muslim states were established, and the entire area of Muslim control became known as Al-Andalus. Muslim philosophers and scientists developed knowledge in areas like medicine, optics, algebra, chemistry, and geometry, as seen here.

Object facts

• Title: Pair of Doors
• Date: early 1400s
• Culture: Spain
• Type: Furniture and woodwork
• Technique: gilded and painted wood (pine)
• Dimensions: Overall: 170.2 x 86.4 cm (67 x 34 in.)
• Collection: MED - Gothic
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1915.565

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.