A forgotten fresco in an Italian church has revealed a surprising medieval practice—Islamic tents were used to cover Christian altars. The 13th-century fresco, recently rediscovered in Ferrara, Italy, is believed to be the only known depiction of this tradition, shedding new light on the connections between Christian and Islamic artistic influences in medieval Europe.
The partially visible fresco, identified by Cambridge and Oxford University historian Dr Federica Gigante, almost certainly depicts a real tent, now lost, which the artist may have seen in the same church. The brightly coloured original tent, covered in jewels, could have been a diplomatic gift from a Muslim leader or a trophy seized from the battlefield.
Gigante’s research, published today in The Burlington Magazine, also suggests that a high-profile figure such as Pope Innocent IV—who gifted several precious textiles to the Benedictine convent church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, where the fresco was painted—may have given such a tent.
“At first, it seemed unbelievable and just too exciting that this could be an Islamic tent,” said Dr Gigante. “I quickly dismissed the idea and only went back to it years later with more experience and a braver attitude to research. We probably won’t find another such surviving image. I haven’t stopped looking, but my guess is that it is fairly unique.”
The fresco provides crucial evidence of a medieval church using Islamic tents in key Christian practices, including Mass, the study suggests.
“Islamic textiles were associated with the Holy Land, from where pilgrims and crusaders brought back the most precious such Islamic textiles,” Gigante said. “They thought there existed artistic continuity from the time of Christ, so their use in a Christian context was more than justified. Christians in medieval Europe admired Islamic art without fully realising it.”
The right-hand wall of the apse in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy. Photo by Federica Gigante
While it is well known that Islamic textiles were present in late medieval European churches, surviving fragments are usually found wrapped around relics or in the burials of important people. Depictions of Islamic textiles survive, in traces, on some church walls in Italy as well as in Italian paintings of the late medieval period. But images of Islamic tents from the Western Islamic world, such as Spain, are extremely rare, and this might be the only detailed, full-size depiction to be identified.
Depiction of a Real Tent Used as Altar Curtains
Gigante argues that the fresco depicts an Islamic tent that actually existed and that, at some point in the 13th century, it may even have been physically present in the convent church, providing a direct reference point for the artist.
It is already known that medieval churches used precious textile hangings to conceal the altar from view either permanently, during Mass, or for specific liturgical periods. When studying the fresco, Gigante noticed that it depicts the corner of a veil, painted as if drawn in front of the altar. She therefore believes that the real tent was adapted to serve as a tetravela, or altar curtains.
Folds of textile with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions in the lower border of the fresco in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy. Photo by Federica Gigante
“If the real tent was only erected in the church on certain occasions, the fresco could have served as a visual reminder of its splendour when it was not in place,” Gigante said. “The interplay between painted and actual textiles can be found throughout Europe and the Islamic world in the late medieval period.”
Gigante’s study notes that the walls of the apse are studded with nails and brackets, which could have served as structural supports for a hanging textile.
Gigante points to the fresco’s “extraordinarily precise details” as further evidence that it depicts a real tent. The fabric shown in the fresco features blue eight-pointed star motifs inscribed in roundels, the centres of which were originally picked out in gold leaf—exactly like the golden fabrics used for such precious Islamic tents. A band with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions runs along the edge of both the top and bottom borders. The textile also features white contours to emphasise contrasting colours, reflecting a trend in 13th-century Andalusi silk design.
The structure, design, and colour scheme of the tent closely resemble the few surviving depictions of Andalusi tents, including one in the 13th-century manuscript Cantigas de Santa Maria. They also match one of the few potential surviving Andalusi tent fragments, the Fermo chasuble, which is said to have belonged to St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Gigante also compares the jewels depicted in the fresco with a rare surviving jewelled textile made by Arab craftsmen: the mantle of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily (1095–1154), which was embroidered with gold and applied with pearls, gemstones, and cloisonné enamel.
Spoils of War
In the 13th century, it was common for banners and other spoils of war to be displayed around church altars in Europe.
“Tents, especially Islamic royal tents, were among the most prized gifts in diplomatic exchanges, the most prominent royal insignia on campsites, and the most sought-after spoils on battlefields,” Gigante said.
“Tents made their way into Europe as booty. During anti-Muslim expeditions, it was common to pay mercenaries in textiles, and a tent was the ultimate prize. The fresco matches descriptions of royal Islamic tents which were seized during the wars of Christian expansion into al-Andalus in the 13th century.”
A Gift from a Pope?
Dr Federica Gigante examining the fresco in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy. Photo by Federica Gigante
From the 9th century, Popes often donated tetravela (altar curtains) to churches, and papal records reveal that by 1255, Pope Innocent IV had sent “draperies of the finest silk and gold fabrics” to the convent of S. Antonio in Polesine.
“We can’t be certain, but it is possible that a high-profile person such as Pope Innocent IV gifted the tent,” Gigante says.
An Andalusi tent taken from the campsite of the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nāsir was sent to Pope Innocent III after 1212, meaning that there was an Islamic tent in St Peter’s Basilica at some point prior to the painting of the fresco.
Gigante suggests that the tent could also have been part of a diplomatic gift made to the powerful Este family, which brokered alliances between the Guelfs and Ghibellines—factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively. The convent was founded in 1249 by Beatrice II d’Este.
“Many people don’t realise how extraordinarily advanced and admired Islamic culture was in the medieval period,” Gigante said.
Federica Gigante’s article, “An Islamic tent in S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara,” will appear in an upcoming issue of The Burlington Magazine. You can read it now from the Univerity of Oxford
A forgotten fresco in an Italian church has revealed a surprising medieval practice—Islamic tents were used to cover Christian altars. The 13th-century fresco, recently rediscovered in Ferrara, Italy, is believed to be the only known depiction of this tradition, shedding new light on the connections between Christian and Islamic artistic influences in medieval Europe.
The partially visible fresco, identified by Cambridge and Oxford University historian Dr Federica Gigante, almost certainly depicts a real tent, now lost, which the artist may have seen in the same church. The brightly coloured original tent, covered in jewels, could have been a diplomatic gift from a Muslim leader or a trophy seized from the battlefield.
Gigante’s research, published today in The Burlington Magazine, also suggests that a high-profile figure such as Pope Innocent IV—who gifted several precious textiles to the Benedictine convent church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, where the fresco was painted—may have given such a tent.
“At first, it seemed unbelievable and just too exciting that this could be an Islamic tent,” said Dr Gigante. “I quickly dismissed the idea and only went back to it years later with more experience and a braver attitude to research. We probably won’t find another such surviving image. I haven’t stopped looking, but my guess is that it is fairly unique.”
The fresco provides crucial evidence of a medieval church using Islamic tents in key Christian practices, including Mass, the study suggests.
“Islamic textiles were associated with the Holy Land, from where pilgrims and crusaders brought back the most precious such Islamic textiles,” Gigante said. “They thought there existed artistic continuity from the time of Christ, so their use in a Christian context was more than justified. Christians in medieval Europe admired Islamic art without fully realising it.”
While it is well known that Islamic textiles were present in late medieval European churches, surviving fragments are usually found wrapped around relics or in the burials of important people. Depictions of Islamic textiles survive, in traces, on some church walls in Italy as well as in Italian paintings of the late medieval period. But images of Islamic tents from the Western Islamic world, such as Spain, are extremely rare, and this might be the only detailed, full-size depiction to be identified.
Depiction of a Real Tent Used as Altar Curtains
Gigante argues that the fresco depicts an Islamic tent that actually existed and that, at some point in the 13th century, it may even have been physically present in the convent church, providing a direct reference point for the artist.
It is already known that medieval churches used precious textile hangings to conceal the altar from view either permanently, during Mass, or for specific liturgical periods. When studying the fresco, Gigante noticed that it depicts the corner of a veil, painted as if drawn in front of the altar. She therefore believes that the real tent was adapted to serve as a tetravela, or altar curtains.
“If the real tent was only erected in the church on certain occasions, the fresco could have served as a visual reminder of its splendour when it was not in place,” Gigante said. “The interplay between painted and actual textiles can be found throughout Europe and the Islamic world in the late medieval period.”
Gigante’s study notes that the walls of the apse are studded with nails and brackets, which could have served as structural supports for a hanging textile.
Gigante points to the fresco’s “extraordinarily precise details” as further evidence that it depicts a real tent. The fabric shown in the fresco features blue eight-pointed star motifs inscribed in roundels, the centres of which were originally picked out in gold leaf—exactly like the golden fabrics used for such precious Islamic tents. A band with pseudo-Arabic inscriptions runs along the edge of both the top and bottom borders. The textile also features white contours to emphasise contrasting colours, reflecting a trend in 13th-century Andalusi silk design.
The structure, design, and colour scheme of the tent closely resemble the few surviving depictions of Andalusi tents, including one in the 13th-century manuscript Cantigas de Santa Maria. They also match one of the few potential surviving Andalusi tent fragments, the Fermo chasuble, which is said to have belonged to St Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury.
Gigante also compares the jewels depicted in the fresco with a rare surviving jewelled textile made by Arab craftsmen: the mantle of the Norman King Roger II of Sicily (1095–1154), which was embroidered with gold and applied with pearls, gemstones, and cloisonné enamel.
Spoils of War
In the 13th century, it was common for banners and other spoils of war to be displayed around church altars in Europe.
“Tents, especially Islamic royal tents, were among the most prized gifts in diplomatic exchanges, the most prominent royal insignia on campsites, and the most sought-after spoils on battlefields,” Gigante said.
“Tents made their way into Europe as booty. During anti-Muslim expeditions, it was common to pay mercenaries in textiles, and a tent was the ultimate prize. The fresco matches descriptions of royal Islamic tents which were seized during the wars of Christian expansion into al-Andalus in the 13th century.”
A Gift from a Pope?
From the 9th century, Popes often donated tetravela (altar curtains) to churches, and papal records reveal that by 1255, Pope Innocent IV had sent “draperies of the finest silk and gold fabrics” to the convent of S. Antonio in Polesine.
“We can’t be certain, but it is possible that a high-profile person such as Pope Innocent IV gifted the tent,” Gigante says.
An Andalusi tent taken from the campsite of the Almohad caliph Muhammad al-Nāsir was sent to Pope Innocent III after 1212, meaning that there was an Islamic tent in St Peter’s Basilica at some point prior to the painting of the fresco.
Gigante suggests that the tent could also have been part of a diplomatic gift made to the powerful Este family, which brokered alliances between the Guelfs and Ghibellines—factions supporting the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, respectively. The convent was founded in 1249 by Beatrice II d’Este.
“Many people don’t realise how extraordinarily advanced and admired Islamic culture was in the medieval period,” Gigante said.
Federica Gigante’s article, “An Islamic tent in S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara,” will appear in an upcoming issue of The Burlington Magazine. You can read it now from the Univerity of Oxford
Top Image: Dr Federica Gigante in front of the fresco in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy. Photo courtesy Federica Gigante
Subscribe to Medievalverse
Related Posts