Milan fetes Islamic art
Baku, December 1 (AZERTAC). Milan is feting Islamic art and civilisation and its influence on the Western world with a new show which gathers the most precious pieces of a collection owned by members of Kuwait`s ruling family, Ansa news agency reported. Over 350 works are on display at Milan`s Palazzo Reale museum for the exhibit `Art of the Islamic Civilization` until January 30, 2011. Carpets, textiles, fine metal work, illuminated manuscripts, ceramics, precious jewelry and other priceless antique decorative art pieces shed light on Islamic culture and, indirectly, on Western culture, including the origins of chess, Persian carpet motifs, and arabesque patterns. Curator Giovanni Curatola selected artwork from a collection of over 30,000 pieces assembled from 1975 onward by a royal couple of the al-Sabah dynasty in Kuwait, the family that has ruled there since the mid-1700`s. Sheikh Nasser Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, son of Kuwait`s current Emir, and his wife, Hussah, daughter of a past Emir, built the bulk of the collection over a period of eight years, which then became the permanent collection for a dedicated building of the Kuwait National Museum in 1983. The al-Sabah collection, which includes one of the world`s most treasured collections of antique Islamic jewelry, was seized by Iraqis during the invasion of Kuwait in 1991 and later restored to Kuwait. Like the al-Sabah collection itself, the Milan exhibit seeks to encapsulate the development of Islamic art from its origins to maturity as Islamic empires spread and flourished over centuries and across continents. Pieces on show span from the 8th to the 18th century, from Spain to India, and march chronologically through the development of three Islamic empires: the Moghuls of India, Ottomans of Turkey and Mahgreb, and the Safavids of Persia. The exhibit traces fundamental themes of Islamic art like calligraphy, arabesque and geometrical ornamentation, and the cultivation of stylized rather than realistic representation, and Islamic art as an expression of religious devotion as well as aesthetic ideals. A 9th-century parchment leaf from Tunisia displays Koran verses in long, swooping black Kufic script punctuated with perfectly proportioned red dots. Just below it, a 10th century parchment from western Iran shows gold leaf applied with such intricacy that the spaces between interlaced geometrical patterns are the size of a pin head. Sculpted rock crystal chess pieces from 9th century eastern Iraq are accompanied by text explaining ancient Indian origins of the game.
`Checkmate` (`scacco matto` in Italian) is "Shah Mat" in Arabic, meaning "The king is dead." An enormous 18th century pile carpet from Iran shows a stylized woven garden, a symbolic paradise and highly influential motif with pre-Islamic origins. The exhibit also offers several examples of Islamic figurative art to dispel the common perception that Islam prohibits iconography. It also traces the suppression of figurative images, especially from public view, to the highly influential thinker Muhammad ibn Isma`il al-Bukhari (810-870). Oriental jewelry on display highlights the mastery of the form during the Moghul dynasty in India, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries. It also offers an exotic view of jewelry, with items like a jade hookah inlaid with emeralds and rubies, a mango-shaped gold perfume-opium flask dotted with rubies; gem-incrusted thrust daggers and sabers; precious turban pins; emerald arm bands and a pearl and gem forehead ornament. "Both the exhibition and catalogue complete the artists` processes by providing the opportunity for them to truly share their passion with those beyond their workshops," wrote Sheikha Hussah Sabah al-Salem al-Sabah.
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