Late Antique and Early Islamic Architectural Fragments at Metropolitan Museum Suggest Importance of Pattern, Color and Light #PatternColorLight Our Coverage Sponsored by Bergen Linen
Panel from a Door or Minbar (detail), late 8th–first half 9th century. Iraq. Islamic. Wood (pine); carved. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1931 (31.63)
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Exhibition Dates: July 20, 2015–January 3, 2016
Exhibition Location: The Hagop Kevorkian Fund Special Exhibitions Gallery, Gallery 458
Although most buildings in the Near East from late antiquity and the early Islamic period (between around 500 and 1000) do not survive fully intact, the fragments that do remain help shed light on the ingenious ways that artisans transformed architectural surfaces to create sumptuous interiors and monumental façades. Three aesthetic principles that were especially important to the design of architectural ornament in the Byzantine, Sasanian, and early Islamic traditions will be highlighted in the exhibition Pattern, Color, Light: Architectural Ornament in the Near East (500–1000), opening July 20 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The display will feature some 30 items from Egypt, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, all from the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum.
The exhibition is made possible by The Hagop Kevorkian Fund.
A number of items from important archaeological sites will be included. Items believed to be from Byzantine-period monasteries at Bawit and Saqqara (both in present-day Egypt) were purchased around 1910; materials from Abbasid Samarra (present-day Iraq) were excavated by Ernst Herzfeld and purchased by the Museum in the 1920s; artifacts from Sasanian Ctesiphon (present-day Iraq) were excavated by a joint expedition of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the Metropolitan Museum in 1931–32; and artifacts from an early Byzantine necropolis in the Kharga Oasis (present-day Egypt) were excavated as part of a survey undertaken by the Metropolitan Museum that began in 1908 and continued until the 1930s.
The Near East witnessed significant political and social changes in the five centuries between 500 and 1000. Most importantly, the rise of Islam as a new world religion and the collapse of the Sasanian Empire in the seventh century led to a reorientation of the political map, with the Muslim Empire replacing Sasanian Iran as Byzantium’s major political rival.
Nonetheless, certain artistic ideas in the decoration of buildings persisted. Vegetal and geometric patterns were a major component in the decorative programs of the period, as is evidenced by carved friezes, column components, and wall panels from several Near Eastern sites. Large, colorful textiles and carved bone plaques and a wooden frieze with traces of polychromy indicate the vital role of color in interiors. Jewel-like effects were produced through the play of light on mosaics, glass tiles, and plaques made of semi-precious stones, which usually survive in fragmentary form. These enduring aesthetic concepts that informed architectural style for more than half a millennium are explored in the exhibition’s three themes: pattern, color, and light.
A reconstruction showing the historical polychrome decoration of a carved wooden panel—based on analysis of remaining bits of pigment—was created for the exhibition by staff in the Museum’s departments of Objects Conservation, Scientific Research, and the Photograph Studio.
The research will be discussed on October 15 in a gallery conversation for general audiences. Speakers will include Matthew Saba, Andrew W. Mellon Post-Doctoral Curatorial Fellow, Department of Islamic Art; Mechtild Baumeister, Conservator, Department of Objects Conservation; and Christopher Heins, Associate Imaging Specialist, The Photograph Studio.
The exhibition is organized by Matthew Saba with Sheila Canby, the Patti Cadby Birch Curator in Charge, Department of Islamic Art.
