“Pyxis Depicting Standing Saints or Ecclesiastics and the Entry into Jerusalem with Christ Riding a Donkey” is a cylindrical storage box made of brass inlaid with silver. The pyxis has many different references to Christian scenes from the Bible, as well as revered Christian figures. The figures of these scenes are depicted through symbolism and motifs that are usually seen in traditional Muslim art. The most important scene of this pyxis is the scene of Saint Andrew, a Christian patron saint of Crusaders. This detail is significant because of the fact that a Muslim artist is drawing attention to a prominent figure in Christian faith that directly contrasted the ideals of Muslim people.
This piece tells us about the interaction of religious cultures that occurred during the crusades. Christian art being created by a Muslim artist is not a common thing one would think to see, however it was apparently not uncommon. A figure like the Virgin Mary shown as seated, cross-legged, and wearing a traditional Syrian turban is something we would expect to see, either, and this too tells us about the different ways that different peoples could visualize "the same" holy figure.
1media/jesus.jpg2021-11-03T13:53:51-07:00Where did this go?6plain2023-01-14T13:37:11-08:00by Paige Naumnik '24
This piece has been selected as part of numerous art exhibitions and, as a result, has traveled the world. It belongs to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It was shown in 1981 in Berlin; in 2012 it was exhibited in Medford, MA, at the Tufts University Art Gallery. In 2016 it was part of an exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art called "Court and Cosmos: The Great Age of the Seljuqs." In 2018 it was exhibited at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, as part of the 2017-18 show "Chrêtiens d'Orient, 2000 ans d'histoire."