This piece from the early 17th century belongs to the city of Gujarat in India. Between all the different pieces, this one grasped my attention for two main reasons.
The first reason it is because the aesthetics of this element from the Islamic culture are typical and at the same time unique. We notice at the moment that it is a window even though it does not have a glass and we cannot open it, just for the shape and our knowledge of the Indian culture. It is a really typical piece of this culture because it is made by stone as the ancient Indian palaces and it has a common islamic/arabic shape, the undulation on the top ending in a slight peak . The beauty of this piece it is not the shape, the origin, or either the materials; what it really got my attention are the mosaics that are made in the window leaving some empty wholes in between. My thought was how they close the window right?, but this was not a problem in India, the temperatures rise very high therefore they use it as ventilation means, since by that time the new and cool air condition did not exist . The geometry shown in this piece is gorgeous, it brings to an empty and straight wall, movement and beauty. The cream and pacific color gives a little of stillness to the curved and geometrical window.
The second reason why this piece gain my attention, it was because I think it is one of the main elements in the first chapter that unfolds the story of the two brothers in “The Arabian Nights”. While reading page nine, when “Shahzaman told him (Shahrayar) what he had seen from the palace window”, the book started being interesting and that is why when I went to the museum and saw this piece I really imagined what had happened through that window in the book. How Shahzaman was looking through that window and saw that the disloyalty of his wife it was not only happening in his own world, but also to his great brother and king from India and Indonesia. How the window helped him to see the outside world, or the reality in other words. Through the window he could see how the ten slaves dressed like a women were sleeping with his brother’s concubines. What is more this window it was not only the way for Shahzaman to realize about what it is reality but also Shahrayar notice his misfortune and how the human being act.