Spolia: Adaptive Re-use and Intentional Messaging
Capitalizing Jerusalem - Mu'awiya's Urban Vision 638-680 - Beatrice St. Laurent
Beatrice St. Laurent [+]
Beatrice St. Laurent is a Harvard trained Art Historian and Professor of Art History.
Description
Chapter 7 focuses on the selective use of locally sourced spolia or ruins from recognizable Herodian and Christian buildings with clear intentional messaging. The patron Mu‘āwiya and his planners’ conscious selection of period spolia for prominent display in the new Umayyad monuments of Jerusalem demonstrates historic awareness invoking a message of egalitarianism with Judaism and Christianity proclaiming that message visually to a multicultural and multi-religious population in Jerusalem.