The Damascus Chamber of Dresden

A Gem of Ottoman Interior Design in Dresden
an exhibition by the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden
to December 31, 2010

The Damascus chamber is a brightly painted wall- and ceiling panelling decorated with various metal foils. It was once taken from a traditional Arabic residential house in Damascus. The panelling decorated the guest entrance and was the most luxuriously fitted room of the entire house. In 1899, Karl Ernst Osthaus, an important German art collector and cultural reformer, bought the panelling, which comprised of more than 100 pieces. He wanted to exhibit it in a room in his private museum, today being the Folkwang Museum in Essen. His interest, however, changed and he started to collect impressionistic paintings instead.

The panelling was at risk of being forgotten in the attic of his residence. After his death in 1930, the panelling was brought as a present to the Völkerkunde Museum in Dresden and was supposed to be stored in the Dresden Zwinger. Lucky, plans changed. Otherwise, the panelling would have been burnt in the Second World War. In 1997, the precious wooden panels and ceiling covers were taken from storage and were presented to the public. Ever since, the Damascus Chamber has been restored and rebuilt by stages. Only few museums in the world possess such an Arabic entrance hall. Similar rooms are only shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, at the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art in Honolulu and at the Museum for Islamic Art in Kuala Lumpur. There are two other rooms in Germany: the so-called Arabicum in the Villa Herbert Gutmann in Potsdam and the Aleppo chamber (dated 1601-04), the most famous of its kind at the Museum für Islamische Kunst on the museum island in Berlin.

After its restoration, the Damascus chamber of Dresden will present the original colourfulness and splendour of these entrances. Then, the subtly balanced colours and foil metals, which had been applied with high artistic sophistication, can be admired: polished leaf gold and leaf copper in contrast to dull blue colour made off powdered glass, silver tin foil with transparent green varnish in contrast to coarsely grounded, sparkling yellow auripigment and shiny orange minium. Through illumination effects on contrasting surfaces, the colourful and yet perfectly balanced ornamentation creates the impression of textile wall decoration. The balance of colours, shapes and architectonic arrangements bears witness to the high artistic knowledge, which seems unreachable today. Even after usage for centuries and the ageing of surfaces, it leaves a strong impression on the viewer.