Fountain Head

This fountainhead was once standing alongside other brass pieces on a central courtyard basin, possibly decorating a royal residence in Al Andalus. Executed in gilded bronze and cast in the shape of a peacock, the body is highlighted with serrated tail-feathers that were cut at a later stage. The object is part of a group of animal sculptures cast in copper alloys that were manufactured in the Western Mediterranean. It shares the same provenance with another comparative piece in the shape of a Hind in the MIA collection (MW.7.1997), and this may assume that they both belonged to the same original setting, possibly in the royal city of Madinat al-Zahra. The gilding is similar to the decoration on another cast metalwork in the shape hind in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, as well as the figure of a peacock in the Pinacoteca di Cagliari.