Islamic Art and Calligraphy Showcased at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art

By Elaine Pasquini

Leaf from a Qur’an, probably Anatolia, 14th century, Ink and colors on paper.

Elegant calligraphy has been one of the most celebrated forms of Islamic culture since Islam’s founding in the seventh century. Over this past summer, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art honored the artistic form with a special showing on the Great Hall Balcony of selected masterpieces from its Islamic Art Department’s massive collection.

Mosque lamp, Cairo, Egypt. ca 1285. Free-blown glass with applied enameled, gilded and stained decorations.

Overseen by Met curators Navina Haider Haykel and Maryam Ekhtiar, the exhibit showcased the calligraphic art of the Islamic world from Spain to south Asia and beyond. Ranging in date from the 8th to the 19th century, on display were several richly illuminated Qur’anic manuscripts, as well as album pages in a variety of scripts, examples of inlaid metalwork, ceramics, and rare textiles with calligraphic elements. Many calligraphic scripts from early kufic to the later refined nasta”˜liq were shown in a range of media, demonstrating the impact and importance of this most treasured Islamic art form.

Among the showpieces was a 13th century mosque lamp from Cairo created from free-blown glass with applied enameled, gilded and stained decorations. Other items included a vibrantly colored silk textile fragment from 14th century Spain, a cast brass calligraphy-decorated ewer from Iran and an intricately scripted Qur’anic leaf in ink from 14th century Anatolia.

In 2011, when the renovation of the Met’s permanent exhibition galleries is completed, visitors will be able to view the museum’s Islamic collection in enlarged areas. In the meantime, outstanding objects from the collection are on display in various locations throughout the museum.

Near the Great Hall Balcony, for example, is a display of ceramics that shows the interrelationship of Chinese art with artwork from the Islamic world.

Luxury items displayed in the Sasanian Gallery illustrate the important contributions of Iranian artists to early Islamic art, and the Medieval Europe Gallery features ivory pieces by Muslim artists living under Christian rule in southern Italy during the Middle Ages.

Elaine Pasquini is a free-lance journalist based in the San Francisco Bay Area.