Arabian Astrolabe; 19th century.

Arabian Astrolabe; XIX century.
Bronze.
Provenance; Morocco.
Measurements: 42 x 30 x 10 cm.
The piece is composed of a richly decorated openwork plate, inside which are housed several mobile engraved spheres, forming an object of great technical and visual complexity that combines scientific function, traditional craftsmanship and symbolic value.
Formally, the astrolabe presents a symmetrical and axial structure, organized around a central circular body flanked by four other spherical elements arranged in a balanced manner. The surface of the frame is densely ornamented with inscriptions in Arabic script, arranged in concentric bands and cartouches, along with geometric and stylized vegetal motifs.
Stylistically, the piece is in the tradition of Islamic scientific instruments developed since the Middle Ages, especially between the 9th and 15th centuries, when the Islamic world played a fundamental role in the transmission and expansion of astronomical and mathematical knowledge. However, its nineteenth-century chronology reveals a historicist and continuationist character, typical of workshops that, even in modern times, maintained techniques, typologies and formal models inherited from previous centuries. This phenomenon of stylistic survival is common in the Islamic sphere, where the continuity of craftsmanship and scientific knowledge prevails over the Western notion of stylistic rupture.