The Madina Collection of Islamic Art at the LACMA
Introduction The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced recently that it had acquired “the remarkable Madina Collection of Islamic art. The collection contains works of various media dating from the late 7th through 19th centuries from the vast areas that comprise the Islamic world, from Southern Spain to Central Asia” (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). While the museum already had quite an extensive collection of Islamic art, this particular exhibit truly adds the collections as a whole.
The Madina Collection of Islamic Art The first item to be examined is a bowl from the 14th century, from either Egypt or Syria (Los Angeles County Museum
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It is very rounded and almost appears as though it is to be only held, and never set down. There is a design around the rim of the cup. The design is a repetitive design and appears to be an almost universal type design that could be attributed to any culture. It is something of a floral, or leaf design and looks to be gold rather than silver as is the rest of the cup. It is a very balanced and beautifully simple piece. http://collectionsonline.lacma.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record&key=17763
There is a finial from the 14th century Northern Iran, perhaps from Mazanderan (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). This piece is intricately carved from wood and possesses traces of paint (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). It measures 14 inches tall and 6 inches in diameter at its widest point. It is wide at its base and tapers off, not completely to a point, at the top. It is a very solid as well as very patterned piece of art, or architecture. Like the previous items discussed or examined, it seems to have a very symmetrical feel to it, as there is not necessarily a picture to be seen, but a repetitive element that is seen throughout the piece, or all around the piece in this case. The carving appears to be open carving in that there are holes in the finial where there is no wood as part of the carved out design. This piece can be viewed at the following website:
The Beaker with Ibex Motifs is a prehistoric pottery art work, found in near-perfect condition during a 1906-1908 excavation of a Susian necropolis in Susa, Iran. The Beaker with Ibex Motifs is a large vessel with dimensions at 28.90 x 16.40 cm. Used by the first inhabitants of Susa, this beaker is a the first example of a funerary item. The identity of artist is unknown, however, it is thought the beaker was created sometime between 4200 and 3500 B.C.E.
One of the artifacts found was a white plate with purple and yellow flowers. It was found that the plate was made in Rome Italy, it was made by the Treci family. The Treci family was a small company that made pottery. The plate was used for certain dessert they do not know what kind though. The story of the Treci family is they moved to Oregon in the 1960’s to start a new life. When they got to Oregon they settled by the Deschutes river. They lived there for almost twenty years until there was a huge forest fire and it killed the whole family. The plate was used to try to put out the fire and it got broken.
The artifact I chose during the museum tour was the artifact called Parthian Rhyton. The Parthian Rhyton is from Iran from the time 150 BC – AD 225. It is made up of Silver with mercury gliding. This artifact reflects the style of its culture by having the goat in an attack position with the head down lets up this piece reflects power and strength. The piece identifies it as being from a particular civilization and time of the naturalism of the goat, with its carefully detailed horns and swirling coat, is characteristic of such vessels in the subsequent Parthian period (247-224 AD), along with the highlighting of such details the vegetal design at the throat of the vessel with mercury gliding. The visual clues
The Ancient Egyptian artifact that I chose to analyze and is the most interesting piece I have seen in the museum is the Cartonnage of Nespanetjerenpare. The artwork itself was larger than me and that was one of the reasons why this artwork was very interesting to me, since I am a fairly tall individual. It was created during the Third intermediate period that was around Dynasty XXII or the twenty second Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and was possibly acquired from Thebes. The dynasty was also known as the Bubastite dynasty which was approxamently from 945-718 B.C.
This sculpture falls in the modern art category and the style is abstract expressionism. This sculpture is very large it is actually 110cm. The artist that created this sculpture was one of the many fine French Sculptors, he was one of the younger generation who started out as a Symbolist painter as well as a tapestry designer but he got an eye disease around the age of 40 and he had to give these things up but then found love for sculpting . This artist had a love for Greek sculpture but he rejected some of what it stood for. This piece of
Description/Source: This artifact shows a ceramic bowl that was used by the Mayans in everyday life for pottery making and used in everyday art.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA as it is commonly known, is among the world’s largest art collections in North America, and to be specific enough the most prevalent artwork in the western United States (Compton 165). This massive art museum has a collection of over 100,000 artworks, which extends from the ancient times to present days (Gilbert and Mills 174). These collections, which are mainly from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin-America and America itself, are grouped into several departments within the museums buildings, depending on the region, culture, media, and time period. This paper analyzes the different genres of art and explains the main features that make the Islamic artworks
The Chavin civilization built this sculpture around 900-200 BCE. The Chavin civilization was known to mix human with feline features in their sculptures. The sculpture has a handle and spout almost like a teapot and has a feline creature on towards the bottom of it. The sculpture is an art piece that the Chavin civilization would have kept in their temples.
The Brooklyn Museum hosts around 1.5 million works of art of different variations. One particularly fascinating genre is the Ancient Egypt exhibition. On the third floor, the exhibit is split into two sections: Early and New Kingdom, which is separated by a conjoined gallery. Entering into the conjoined gallery, artifacts from both eras are encased in rectangular glass. On the left, is the entrance to the New Kingdom Wing. In this section, a string of spotlights illuminates each encasement with a golden warm hue. Inside some cases are miniature shaved skulls placed upon a singular black pole. In others are lapis jewelry, and fragments of etched clay pottery. Further into the exhibit is yet another enclosed space. The walls are painted midnight black and the lighting is dimmed. There are rows of laid canvas wrapped mummies and tablet remnants all separated in glass.
As my chosen work of art is the The Mihrab, it was a remarkable experience to visit the The Metropolitan Museum of Art. After a two hour long commute, which includes two train switch and one wrong train, my friend and I were finally able to locate this museum. As lavish as it is on the outside, it also does not disappoints on the inside. The Metropolitan Museum left me spellbinding with its aura of artistic treasures from multiple eras. However, my favorite work of art belongs to the Islamic art period, the Mihrab. The Mihrab is a semicircular niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the qibla—that is, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca—and it contains typical patterns and calligraphy from the Islamic art period.
In Robert Irwin’s excerpt from Islamic Art in Context, Irwin outlines why he believes that the Muslims of this medieval era in Islamic art would have looked at many of the arts, such as painting, sculpture, and the decorative arts, with distaste. He clarifies what Muslims at the time believed about the depiction of living things, how that belief evolved, and why; claiming that the issue of the non-representational nature of Islamic art is not as clear-cut as people often assume. As for how this excerpt compares to what was shown in the lectures, there is a similar lack of living creatures that are depicted in the art. Irwin looks more closely at the line between what is a depiction of a living creature, however, which was not specifically covered in the class lectures about Islamic art. The defining line between what is acceptable and what is not in Islamic art is very blurry, and Irwin explains some of the grey area citing both the Koran and hadiths, as interpreted by various religious scholars, as well as some other writers that were known at the time.
Maqsud of Kashan, carpet from the funerary mosque of Shaykh Safi al-Din, Ardabil, Iran. On page number 158 and figure number 5-15. This piece of art work is one of two special carpets woven for a funeral service of a wealthy royal Islamic individual. The main theme would have to be for honoring the dead or death. It also could be a theme based on cultural identity of the deceased. The style is of Persian influence on the Islamic artist. The form of this art work is a rectangular rug made from wool and silk. The design has a sunburst center that represents the inside of a dome. The woven carpet has an illusion of a heavenly scene with beautiful flowers and leaves floating about what appears to be water. There is a unique perspective within the carpet using two lamp shades that would appear from the side that has the smaller lamp that the two are of the same size, but in reality one is much smaller than the other. The subject of this art work is a medallion carpet from art of the Islamic world. This specific detail has been noted as if the designer purposely created a flaw because he believed that only God could create perfection. The flowers and leaves about the blue background symbolizes the heavens. The texture of this carpet would be a smooth wool texture. The carpet included a short poem describing who commissioned the art work and it reads as follow; Except for thy threshold, there is no refuge for me in all the world. Except for this door there is no
noted by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, “The art of the ancient Near East exhibits a great
There exist three basic components of traditional Islamic art: calligraphy, geometric patterns, and floral and vegetal motifs. These three stylistic tools are beautifully rendered and masterfully integrated into complex works of art, but there is no question that artistic expression is severely limited under these categorizations. However, this limitation stems from Islamic theology and concept of art. The main reason for the limitation imposed on visual art is the Islamic theological prohibition of figural imagery. Social laws presented in the Hadith prevented the representation of figures because any imitation was deemed idolatrous. Also, art is considered to be decorative and imitative. Script and patterns are used to decorate
Every religion in this world has their own culture and thereby their own creative forms, like art, dance, architecture, music and craft. Like the tradition varies from each religion to religion so as their Art. I chose to compare Art forms of Islamic Art and Hinduism Art, as Art have always exited me and inspired me in many ideas, and secondly arts have its own history and reasoning.