Usually, hands shape media into a sculpture.But when Blindaid lead, Scott gave me some metal to make a sculpture from, I thought I’d instead use the medium to shape my hand into a sculpture. My examining hands used to be a natural, sensual and automatic part of my life. Now my hands are so much …
The first ever exhibition of Islamic art in the Courtauld Gallery is centred on a gorgeous metal inlaid handbag. There’s a life-size display recreating the lavish court scene on the inlaid decoration of the lid: an Il-Khanid court scene, with a richly dressed couple surrounded by a retinue of well-dressed attendants in feathered hats. There …
There’s a solo exhibition on in Jerusalem, reflecting on, and challenging the collection of the L.A. Mayer Museum for Islamic art there. Sadly I can find out very few details about it – but I wanted to share two films with you. The first one has the venerable Professor Ettinghausen and two other art historians, …
I’ve been reading Roger Bulliet’s fascinating book on agriculture and trade in early Islamic Iran. Bulliet suggests that the Muslim Arabs didn’t only bring Islam to Iran – but also the money and will to dig qanats and build villages to house workers to grow cotton as a cash crop. Khurasan, and the central plateau …
Recently, I introduced the BL digitised manuscript of Mantiq al Tayr (conference of the birds): mainly by praising both the manuscript in the Met, and a very cute cartoon film of the story. If you didnt watch the cartoon first time round, please dont miss it now! Coming back to the BL manuscript, though, the …
The current SOAS exhibition on Zoroastrianism has lots of great things – the video of the Yasna ceremony is especially interesting. But this week I want to pick out a very small reproduction of a very large mosaic: of three Parthian “wise men” or Magi. Here’s an image of the whole thing, in Ravenna – …
Silk found in various Viking ship burials has been long been known to be Persian – and thought to represent looting from English and Irish churches and monasteries. Recent research, however, has suggested that it probably represents an extended trade network carrying goods from Persia all the way to the Vikings. Vedeler suggests this largely …
Every day at dawn and dusk (and whenever a sick pilgrim gets healed), kettle-drums are beaten and long metal trumpets are blown in Mashhad. The 1910 photo here shows the naqqāra-ḵāna: the name used for the ensemble of musicians as well as the place where the performance takes place. Click here (and then on ‘live …
The British Museum has a small and very lovely exhibition on now of British fourth century silver – looking at the Great Dish from the Mildenhall treasure. There’s an intimate recreation of a late Roman dining room, with a stibadium (curved couch) for you to recline on, in exactly the right position for eating from …
Last week, I showed you the super-expensive so-called Clark-Corcoran carpet, and commented that – with these prices – none of us are likely to be actually seeing it face-to-carpet, so to speak. There are some other carpets that are even less likely to be seen: the 17 large-format classical carpets, including the iconic white-ground Safavid …