Lustre and luxe from Islamic Spain: Liquid Frontiers and Entangled Worlds

Fragment of a textile motif carpet, Spain, second quarter of the 15th century. Bruschettini Foundation for Islamic and Asian Art, Genoa

Lustre and luxe from Islamic Spain. Liquid Frontiers and Entangled Worlds highlights the cultural syncretism between the Islamic and European worlds in the Mediterranean basin, offering visitors a new perspective on a centuries-long story of artistic and linguistic transformation and influence as expressed in the weave of fabrics and gleaming surface of pottery. The exhibition includes works from public and private collections including the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, the Fondazione Bruschettini per l'Arte Islamica e Asiatica, Genoa,  and the Galleria Moshe Tabibnia,Milan, placed in dialogue with those from the permanent collection of the Museo d’Arte Orientale.
Vivid carpets, colourful textiles and lustrous ceramicsof varied provenance dating from between the 10th and the 16th centuries introduce visitors to little-explored territories, open new paths of knowledge and reflection and highlight the relationship between the Iberian Peninsula and Islamic worlds in the context of the Mediterranean.

Among the works on view, is a fragment of a border of a carpet from the collection of the Instituto Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, dated between the late 15th or early 16th century and representative of the group of ‘Mudéjar’ carpets with heraldic coats of arms, which must have been particularly splendid. In the band on the left with a blue ground, we find heavily stylised pseudo-Kufic elements that form squares containing a tree or a vase of flowers flanked by stylised birds in alternation with figures of animals, including a rampant lion, a bull and a hare. At the top, we see a depiction, the upper part of which is unfortunately cut off, of a ‘man’ with a dappled red body, covered in fur, holding a kind of shield in one hand and in the other, which we cannot see, probably a sword or a lance, like in other exemplars with the same scene. On the right, we instead find geometric, stylised floral motifs, also on a blue ground, arranged in a grid of lozenges outlined in red. This object will only be on view until 12 February.

From the Fondazione Bruschettini, there are two fragments of a wreath carpet, dating to the early 16th century, which together form a circular wreath typical of the group of Alcaraz carpets categorised as ‘Renaissance’ and called ‘coronas’ carpets in Spanish, with a graphic, linear design in three colours – the red of the ground, the green of the decoration and the yellow of the outlines – and a marble capital sculpted in relief from the Umayyad period (second half of the 10th century) attributable to Cordoba, capital of al-Andalus. This highly refined architectural element is embellished with deep, decisive and delicate decorations that reveal expert mastery of carving techniques. The acanthus leaves are an echo of the artistic and technical legacy of late antiquity in combination with the repertoire of artists and artisans of the caliphate. The design of the capital is illustrative of the transition of decorative styles that led to the abstract aesthetic that developed during the early period of the Muslim presence in Spain.

The exhibition is accompanied by a downloadable booklet.