Dr Federica Gigante examining the fresco in the Church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, Italy (Credit
A long-lost masterpiece from the 13th century has emerged from the shadows in Ferrara, Italy, unveiling a stunning secret of medieval Christendom. This extraordinary fresco—untouched for 700 years—stands as the sole surviving depiction of a forgotten ritual: the use of opulent Islamic tents to veil the sacred high altars of Christian churches. A relic of cultural fusion and hidden tradition, this artwork offers an unprecedented glimpse into a practice long buried by time.
A partially visible fresco in the Benedictine convent church of S. Antonio in Polesine, Ferrara, has been identified by Cambridge University historian Dr. Federica Gigante as likely depicting a real, now-lost tent that the artist may have witnessed firsthand. This brightly colored, jewel-encrusted tent could have been a diplomatic gift from a Muslim leader or a captured war trophy. Dr. Gigante’s research, published in The Burlington Magazine, further proposes that a prominent figure like Pope Innocent IV—known to have gifted valuable textiles to the church—might have been the original owner of such a tent.
“At first, it seemed unbelievable and just too exciting that this could be an Islamic tent,” said Dr Gigante. “I quickly dismissed the idea and only went back to it years later with more experience and a braver attitude to research. We probably won’t find another such surviving image. I haven’t stopped looking but my guess is that it is fairly unique.”
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The fresco provides crucial evidence of a medieval church using Islamic tents in key Christian practices, including mass, the study suggests.
“Islamic textiles were associated with the Holy Land from where pilgrims and crusaders brought back the most precious such Islamic textiles,” Gigante said. “They thought there existed artistic continuity from the time of Christ so their use in a Christian context was more than justified. Christians in medieval Europe admired Islamic art without fully realizing it.”
While the presence of Islamic textiles in late medieval European churches is well documented, surviving examples are typically found as wrappings for sacred relics or within the tombs of the elite. Traces of these fabrics appear in Italian church murals and paintings from the period, yet depictions of full-scale Islamic tents—particularly from the Western Islamic world, such as Spain—are exceedingly rare. This newly identified fresco may be the only known example of its kind. Painted between the late 13th and early 14th centuries, it illustrates a grand canopy draped over the high altar. The artist reimagined the church’s apse as a magnificent tent, enveloping three walls in rich blue and gold fabric and crowning it with a dazzling, double-tiered conical canopy, adorned with jewels, in a style reminiscent of Islamic design traditions.
