Monastery Door from Seville, Spain-Age:  1600’s – Passport papers included.

From Seville, this magnificent door’s geometric ornamentation exhibits the Moorish influence.  The Moors’ religion prohibited the use of the human figure in architectural decorations;  so, in their desire to attain beauty of ornament, they chose mostly geometric and floral designs.  Iron embellishments, a forte of theirs, were often added as an additional type of decoration.

This Monastery door comes in two pieces: the demilune overdoor and the rectangular door.  Numerous examples of framed geometric shapes with iron nail heads prevail  throughout the design of the front of the door.  An iron door knocker centers the door.  There are horizontal back boards supporting the designs.  The back of the door has vertical boards with two horizontal iron straps, one near the top and one near the bottom.  The demilune overdoor has stylized radius boards emanating from another demilune shape with a heart cutout.  In Church symbolism, the heart represents love.  There are two more radius cutouts above the heart.

Monastery doors of this age are very rare.  This door could be used in numerous ways within the home.

Condition:  Previous restorations, losses of wood in areas, losses to some moldings.