Connected World - Dar Menebhi Palace, Marrakech

Leonardo - Vitruvian Man

The Marrakech Museum is in a lovely restored small palace, the Dar Menebhi Palace, from the 19^th century, near the Ben Youssef mosque. More interesting than the exhibits is in fact the palace itself, a classic example of Islamic architecture. There is much to be explored here, not least the striking distinction between the ‘outer’ and the ‘inner’ life that is suggested - the outside is plain, austere and protective, while the inside is a glorious feast of open courtyards, intricate decoration, five distinctive living areas and above all colour. Here I am going to focus on these 5 living areas and their colours. 

Hamam - Red Door

 

But first a journey through space and time. It is quite usual to see the human as a living pentagram, as Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man of 1487 (now in Venice) famously demonstrated; and to continue our journey rapidly to China and to perhaps 1000 BC or earlier, we find that the human pentagram is ascribed colours for each of the five points as part of their ancient healing and acupuncture system – Green, Yellow, Blue, Red and White. The importance of the five colours to human life and wisdom is found in many other places too, as an example the Hindu Upanishads from India of c 500BC. ‘I have found the small path known of old that stretches far away ..... It is adorned with white and blue, yellow and green and white’. Today this five coloured human system is still an important aspect of energy healing techniques, from China to the West. 



Entrance - Green



KItchen _ White Emphasis

And here in an Islamic palace in Marrakech, remarkably, it also can be found. First of all in my explorations I discovered the five main parts of the palace, 1. the entrance hall, leading to 2. the main open courtyard and living areas, then 3. the kitchens, and 4. the Hamam (bathing and cleansing), and finally 5. The special or more religious hall off the courtyard – highly decorated and tiled, and aligned in the same direction of the Mihrab that points to Mecca.

Courtyard - Blue Detail

I always wonder about colour wherever I am, it is a great revealer of underlying influences. Firstly I noticed that there seemed to be virtually no red anywhere ... until I came to the Hamam where red was everywhere! Then I remembered that in the entrance hall the main sense was one of green ... and then to the kitchen which while still using green, had far more white over all the walls and ceilings. The use of colour was not bald single colours in a room, as we are wont to use, but more subtle, often with several colours but with one emphasised. And so it was in the main multicoloured courtyard, which had an subtle emphasis on blue in the tiling – until I realised that of course it would have emphasised far more originally as there would also be a highlight of water and fountains, and of course the blue sky (the open space was now covered over). Finally as I stepped into the more special areas on the floor tiles the emphasis  changed to a lovely golden yellow.

Special Hall - Yellow Rosettes



I sat in the beautiful courtyard quite amazed. Were these colours intentional, Instinctive, accidental? Certainly the five colours with the five living areas were quite clear, relating to the five coloured processes of life of the human pentagram and possibly also to the five prayer times of the Islamic day? As you walk from one living area to the next, if you are sensitive to these things, you can feel the different influences and energies of each quite distinctly. I was left musing on the how this fundamental ‘law’ of human design appeared in so many parts of the world across so many eras, and here too in Islamic architecture in Marrakech.