WASHINGTON – Though East is East and West is West, the twain do meet in a virtual exhibit the National Gallery of Art has mounted only on its Web site.
“Artistic Exchange: Europe and the Islamic World” – available at www.nga.gov/exhibitions – offers 24 works in full color, all from its own collection, to show how Islam influenced European art over 600 years.
The paintings and other objects are not found in one single place in the gallery. To lure visitors to its rich permanent collections, organizers are putting out a map to indicate where each piece in the online show can be found during a trip to the gallery near Capitol Hill.
The gallery wants the online exhibit to complement a show of more than 100 masterpieces of Islamic art that it has borrowed from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and put on display in Washington. Both opened at the same time last month.
The National Gallery has plenty of European art, but a few oriental carpets given by one of its founders are the only Islamic objects it owns. The London museum has 10,000 such works.
European artists from Scandinavia to Italy imitated Arabic calligraphy, painted Turkish rugs in pictures of the Virgin Mary and even molded Islamic designs into Christian religious objects.
A Madonna by Giotto di Bandone, one of the earliest of the great Italian painters, wears a robe with gold bands that bear imitation Arabic lettering. In a portrait of an Italian cardinal, he rests one hand on a luxurious Turkish carpet.
Crusaders came from a Europe where hands still took the place of forks. When they reached the Middle East, they were impressed with the Muslim practice of washing hands before and after meals. Bronze pitchers for the purpose in the form of humans or animals became popular in Europe. The exhibit shows one about a foot long – a falconer on horseback – that was made in England or Scandinavia.
Centuries later a sexy “Odalisque” – a slave or concubine from a harem – won impressionist Auguste Renoir a coveted place the annual official French exhibit, called the Salon. He shows her surrounded by ceramics, pillows and clothes, apparently European products inspired by Islamic designs.
Associated Press
Auguste Renoir’s “Odalisque” is part of a special exhibit showing the influence of Islam on European culture. The exhibit is only available on the National Gallery of Art’s Web site.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
