This decorative wooden wall hanging, hand painted for home decor on a rustic piece of basswood was inspired by the illustrations of a 13th century copy of an encyclopedic work on animals in the Kitab al-Haywanat (Book of Animals or the Na't) written by the Baghdadi physician for the Abbasid caliphs, Ibn Bakhtishu in the 9th century. This elephant painting is derived from the illustration in this manuscript for the encyclopedic entry on elephants. This piece comes ready to hang with a brass chain. Technique: painting material: basswood finish: shellac hanging hardware attached The Arabesque Wooden Wall Hanging With Medieval Elephant Mixed-Media Painting From Ibn Bakhtishu's 13Th-Century Zoological Encyclopedia