Visual Arts
World gets a glimpse of Islamic masterworks

By CARL HARTMAN
The Associated Press

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART Tiles depicting a picnic scene were made in Isfahan, Persia, in the 1600s. The work is on loan from London's Victoria and Albert Museum to the National Gallery of Art in Washington for an exhibit titled "Palace and Mosque." A collection of 107 Islamic masterworks both royal and religious starts its international tour at the National Gallery of Art.

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WASHINGTON — A pulpit over 20 feet high, built on orders of a sultan more than 500 years ago, towers over the exhibits in "Palace and Mosque," a collection of 107 Islamic masterworks both royal and religious that started its international tour last week at the capital's National Gallery of Art.

Carvings of religious texts in graceful Arabic script, considered by many Muslims the highest form of art, line the steps to the rostrum. London's Victoria and Albert Museum scoured its 10,000 pieces of Islamic art to come up with the select sample to share with the world.

Highly decorative, Muslim religious art does not portray living figures, human or animal. The second commandment given to Moses forbids making a likeness of anything in heaven or on earth.

"Islam accepts the Hebrew prophets, and though the 10 commandments are not part of Islamic doctrine, many of the same ideas can be found in Muslim religious thinking," said Tim Stanley, the Victoria and Albert's senior curator of Middle East art.

Muslim rulers used religious inscriptions and abstract designs in decorating their palaces and public buildings, but they also liked scenes from legend and royal life.

A brightly colored tile recalls an ancient tale from the Persian "Book of Kings" about an unusual deer hunt. One king, an expert bowman, rode a camel with his favorite slave girl seated behind him and playing a harp. To demonstrate his marksmanship, he made a shot that pinned a deer's foot to its ear. The slave girl objected. Enraged, the king flung her from the camel, which trampled her to death.

More information National Gallery of Art: www.nga.gov

Tiles depicting a lovers' picnic are a signature image of the National Gallery show.

It is the second show of Islamic art this season in Washington, which lacks a major Middle East collection of its own. "Caliphs and Kings" at the Smithsonian's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is largely borrowed from the Hispanic Society in New York. It limits itself to the 700 years up to 1492 when Muslims, Christians and Jews lived and fought but often worked, studied and played together in Spain and Portugal.

A section of the National Gallery show explores the relations between Islamic and other artistic traditions. Middle Eastern carpets made their appearance in Western painting from the Netherlands to Italy. Connoisseurs in the Middle East admired Chinese porcelain so much they developed their own version called fritware, made from sand or finely ground pebbles.

Brass vessels made in northern Europe were exported to the Middle East, where some got Islamic decoration and were re-exported to Europe.

A glass beaker made in Egypt or Syria in the 1200s wound up in a house called Edenhall in northern England. A legend grew that the house would be destroyed if the beaker should break. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translated a poem about it that ends with the death of its owner, the collapse of the house and the shattering of the "Luck of Edenhall."

In fact, the beaker was lent to the Victoria and Albert in 1926. shortly before the house was demolished. It's one of the last items visitors see at the Washington show, which closes Feb. 6, 2005. Admission is free.

The sponsor of the Washington exhibition is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador to the United States.

The tour continues at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, April 3-Sept. 4, 2005; the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo, Oct. 22-Dec. 11, 2005, and the Millennium Galleries, Sheffield, England, Jan. 14-April 16, 2006.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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