A flower stem with twelve red carnations, the top left one without petals, flanked at the foot by two three-petalled flowers. The flowers are in a little vase and arranged symmetrically along a central axis. Two highly stylized, six-petalled flowers flank the vase. The flower bouquet is set within a perforated background, which is slightly recessed. Surrounding the main composition is a canopy-like architecture consisting of columns with twisted shafts in yellow and green that support a finely structured arch in shades of blue and green.

Coarse-grained gypsum plaster; colourless glass; coloured glass (several shades of green and blue, yellow, two shades of purplish red).

The window is well preserved. The slightly porous surface of the stucco grille shows signs of weathering. The window was thoroughly restored in 2003. During this intervention, the remains of earlier repairs were largely removed. The restoration measures included cleaning the dirty and weathered surface of the stucco lattice (laser cleaning, density: 1.5 J/cm2 at 1064nm), bonding cracks with acrylic resin, and filling lacunae in the stucco lattice with acrylic filler. The repairs were retouched with pigmented acrylic emulsion. In addition, fragile areas were strengthened with gauze and acrylic resin. The original wooden frame was cleaned with solvent and reinforced by adding an aluminium frame. At the time of restoration, around 95% of the original glass was preserved. Missing pieces were replaced with new ones, which were attached with cellulose nitrate.

This stucco and glass window corresponds iconographically and technically to one of the standard types of qamariyya widespread in Egypt during the Ottoman period. Similar windows have survived in several of the collections studied (see for instance IG_7, IG_166, IG_178, IG_255, IG_356).

The representation of flowers in a vase aroused the interest of Western artists and architects, as is attested by a significant number of book illustrations, sketches, and paintings (see for instance IG_43, IG_118, IG_149, IG_153, IG_437, IG_443, IG_461), as well as by the replicas of such windows installed in Arab-style interiors across Europe (IG_54–IG_59, IG_64, IG_91, IG_431).

It is a widespread motif in Islamic arts that can be found across numerous media, such as ceramics, wood panelling, wall paintings, textiles, and stucco and glass windows, over a long period of time, in both sacred and profane contexts. Among the most sophisticated examples are the stucco and glass windows from the apartments of the Crown Prince at the Topkapı Sarayı (early 17th century CE, date of the windows uncertain) and the Sultan’s Lodge (Hünkâr Kasrı) of the Yeni Camii (1661–1663 CE, date of the windows uncertain), both in Istanbul.

The Benaki window stands out from most of the examples studied, because the vase does not contain a bouquet composed of different flowers, but one central flower stem with twelve carnations. The detailed and naturalistic rendering of the carnations, especially the depiction of the blossom, also differ from the standard representation of flowers in a vase. The canopy-like structure framing the central composition, also present in IG_355 and IG_357 in the same collection, is not found in any other of the specimen examined. However, the motif here depicted is very common in medieval book illumination, for example.

According to the museum records, the window dates to the 14th or 15th century. However, the stylistic and material characteristics make a later production date more likely. Firstly, the window was in a relatively good state of preservation before restoration in 2003, despite the poor weather resistance of the stucco lattice. If the window had been installed in a building in the 14th or 15th century and been exposed to the weather during more than five centuries, we would have expected it to be more heavily weathered. Secondly, the historicist approach visible in the depiction of a canopy-like structure, and the naturalistic treatment of the carnations, suggests that the window was made in the 19th century. Moreover, the pieces of glass show the characteristics of cylinder-blown sheet glass, a technique that was uncommon in the Islamic world at that time and more commonly used in Europe. Interestingly, the Hungarian architect Max Herz (1856–1819) states in 1902 that sheet glass was imported to Egypt from Europe from the 19th century, because local sheet-glass production had come to a standstill (Herz, 1902, p. 53).

The Cairo-based Cypriot art and antique dealer Phokion Tanos (1898–1972) donated the window – along with twelve other qamariyyāt (11049–11059, 20969, 20960, see IG_336–359) – to the Benaki Museum in Athens, probably in the 1940s.