(Jazz music playing)
Hi. I am Max Hollein,
Marina Kellen French Director
of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Welcome to Bank of America's Masterpiece Moment.
Today I would like to talk to you
about one of my favorite works from our collection,
the "Damascus Room,"
and tell you what inspires me
and why I believe it is truly a masterpiece.
To me, one of the most incredible things about The Met
is that, walking through the galleries,
you can feel transported
to different times and places all over the world
- perhaps nowhere more than in the Museum's period rooms,
which range from an ancient Roman bedroom
to a twentieth-century living room
designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Minnesota.
So I am standing here outside the "Damascus Room,"
which dates to 1707 from Syria,
an important province of the vast Ottoman Empire.
Not only is it an architectural jewel,
but it is strikingly well preserved
and among the earliest surviving rooms of its type.
This space was designed as a reception room,
and one can easily imagine that it was part
of a monumental house of a powerful, affluent family.
The complex construction
provided an elegant atmosphere for welcoming guests
into this remarkably large setting,
with its harmoniously balanced proportions
and refined decoration.
Common for such reception rooms,
called "qa'as," of its time,
the space is divided into two areas:
a raised square seating area, or "tazar;"
and a small antechamber, or "'ataba,"
with a door on the side.
This door connects the room with a large courtyard
that commonly dominates Syrian houses
and around which spaces and rooms are articulated.
The opening from which visitors view the room today
in the museum would originally have been
a wall with a cupboard.
The floors are paved in colorful marble and other stones,
while the wooden paneling and ceilings of the room
are elaborately decorated.
These areas are worked in luxurious gesso relief,
called "'ajami,"
incorporating reflective gold and tin leaf,
transparent colored glazes and bright egg tempera paints,
now darkened over time,
to create a variety of surface effects.
Poetic Arabic inscriptions
along floral motifs
are finely applied on the wood.
And near the ceiling,
polychrome glass set in stucco form floral-patterned windows,
which delightfully filter the light.
The art resides in the fineness of the details,
decoration or calligraphy,
and the complexity of the patterns,
considered a high art form
and characteristic of Islamic art.
The opulent decorative repertoire
and expensive materials
suggest that the "Damascus Room"
was designed for the home of a powerful merchant,
to host his visitors or other important male guests.
Luxurious objects, such as Eastern ware
or fancy Chinese porcelain,
would be displayed in the built-in shelves
-all aimed to impress the guests
with Near Eastern hospitality.
Imagine you are among the audience,
seated on the low cushions.
You taste delicious appetizers served in small bowls
and presented on a large round tray;
you sip from a glass of rose water,
while listening to a musical performance.
The air is imbued with incense or other enchanting perfume,
and the sound of the water resonates in the room.
The flowers on the wall recreate a virtual garden,
blossoming all year long.
The Arabic poetry decoration recalls the Gardens of Paradise
and invokes blessings for the owner and the Prophet Muhammad.
This luxurious chamber thus becomes a metaphor
for a heaven on earth,
a place where all the senses would engage
and a welcome reprieve from the hectic city.
Damascus was a bustling metropolis
with a rich antique past that stood out
as a prosperous commercial center
on the Silk Road and the route to Mecca.
This room reflects that cultural heritage.
Records indicate that it came
from a private house in the area southwest
of the famous Great Mosque in Damascus,
known for its splendid mosaics.
In 1925, part of this neighborhood
was destroyed in a French aerial bombardment
aimed at suppressing a Syrian resistance movement.
The room was probably salvaged
from the wreckage of the airstrike
or from a later campaign
to widen the narrow streets.
By the early 1930s, the room had been removed
from its original setting
and was sold to an Armenian-American dealer,
who brought it to New York.
He added the fountain in the lower antechamber,
which is a couple of centuries older from the Mamluk period.
Made of opus sectile finely cut mosaic stonework,
it reflects the spirit of such reception rooms,
and particularly the ones in noble residences,
which include a similar fountain.
Period rooms like this one have a unique power
to evoke the spirit of an era
and the people who once created and inhabited these spaces.
I hope you will have a chance to visit The Met
and experience your own journey through time.
I want to thank you for taking the time to watch today
and to learn more about The Met's "Damascus Room."
I encourage you to join the conversation
and discuss this unique installation
with friends and family.
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