In the context of a Christian worship space in medieval Italy, we can understand the Relief with Addorsed Ducks is likely to have been a decorative panel that adorned a piece of early Christian liturgical furniture (either pulpit or ambo), or the spot from where a priest would deliver a sermon. Although the textiles that inspired the aesthetic frameworks of this relief panel were created and woven in the Eastern, and predominantly Islamic, world, we now find similar designs in Christian spaces. A closer look at the iconographic elements and natural imagery of the relief panel serves to convey and define the symbolic messages of unity, divinity, and regeneration.
UNITY: The symmetrical design of the panel imposes a sense of unity in the composition, bringing together the intricately carved natural imagery of the ducks and the ornate repetition of the vegetal motifs that surround them. The ducks, sitting addorsed, reject this sentiment of unity in their existence as a pair. They create two halves of one whole panel and disrupt the otherwise unified organization, showing the complex nature of early medieval craftsmanship.


DIVINITY: This visual image of a duck with a floating ribbon around its neck was a typical motif exhibited by the design work of the Sasanian empire, who were in power in the Middle East during the sixth century. The Sasanians controlled this area before the early Muslim conquests, and certainly before the First Crusade. These images above shows a 6th-century frieze wall painting decorating the front of an earthen bench that ran around the cave wall at the Buddhist Kizil Monastery Complex in Kucha, or modern day China. During this time, Kucha was a commercial hub for the Silk Road. As the Relief with Addorsed Ducks is thought to be from medieval Sorrento, Italy, a similar designwork found as far away as China is a testament to how far the designs and exchange of production techniques truly traveled. The frieze shows ducks in pearled roundels facing each other, holding garlands of jewels and pearls in their beaks. They are also wearing floating ribbons and pearl collars around their necks. Some scholars argue that this symbol serves as a symbolic garland or crown to connect the piece, its function, or the birds themselves with imperial power. Known as pativs, the divine power and glory assumed by the ruler could then be understood as translated to motif reflected in the panel. In addition to the focus object of this exhibition page, the Relief with Addorsed Ducks, the Dumbarton Oaks collection owns another marble panel centrally designed by a duck wearing the ribbon symbol. 


 
REGENERATION: The medallion or roundel form surrounded by a frame of pearl beadings indicates a signature characteristic of eastern Sasanian designs. The circular pattern is indicative of continuity and the cyclical nature of life itself. Many of the eastern medallion textiles and stucco work featured an encircled image of the Tree of Life. The motif of the Tree of Life is known to be sacred to many religions and cultures that may have been in contact with each other during Silk Road travels. In a Christian space in medieval Italy, the tree would have been understood in connection with Christ and the Cross. Confronted images of various animals typically accompany these depictions of the Tree of Life, and it is interesting to note the addorsed position of the ducks in the Relief with Addorsed Ducks.