User:CarlyGoldberg/sandbox

From The Metropolitan Museum of Art page, under Islamic Art:

"The Metropolitan Museum owns one of the world's largest collection of works of art of the Islamic world. The collection also includes artifacts and works of art of cultural and secular origin from the time period indicated by the rise of Islam predominantly from the Near East and in contrast to the Ancient Near Eastern collections. [Addition #2] The biggest number of miniatures from the "Shahnama" list prepared under the reign of Shah Tahmasp I, the most luxurious of all the existing Islamic manuscripts, also belongs to this museum. Other rarities include the works of Sultan Muhammad and his associates from the Tabriz school "The Sade Holiday", "Tahmiras kills divs", "Bijan and Manizhe", and many others.

The Met's collection of Islamic art is not confined strictly to religious art, though a significant number of the objects in the Islamic collection were originally created for religious use or as decorative elements in mosques. Much of the 12,000 strong collection consists of secular items, including ceramics and textiles, from Islamic cultures ranging from Spain to North Africa to Central Asia. The Islamic Art department's collection of miniature paintings from Iran and Mughal India are a highlight of the collection. Calligraphy both religious and secular is well represented in the Islamic Art department, from the official decrees of Suleiman the Magnificent to a number of Qur'an manuscripts reflecting different periods and styles of calligraphy. Modern calligraphic artists also used a word or phrase to convey a direct message, or they created compositions from the shapes of Arabic words. Others incorporated indecipherable cursive writing within the body of the work to evoke the illusion of writing.

Islamic Arts galleries had been undergoing refurbishment since 2001 and were reopened on November 1, 2011, as the New Galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia. [Addition #5]. Until that time, a narrow selection of items from the collection had been on temporary display throughout the museum. [Addition #1] However, the museum has confirmed to the New York Post that it has withdrawn from public display all paintings depicting Muhammad and may not rehang those that were displayed in the Islamic gallery before the renovation. As with many other departments at the Met, the Islamic Art galleries contain many interior pieces, including the entire reconstructed Nur Al-Din Room from an early 18th-century house in Damascus. [Additions #3 and #4]. "

Additions from me:


 * 1) "Curators aimed to create a space which both humanizes and contextualizes Islamic art within an American cultural environment which has seen increased levels of Islamophobia in a post-9/11 world. One way in which this was achieved was the selection of numerous works of iconic art, spanning a wide variety of media. This even included depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, which have been cause for vocal debate from varying sources."
 * 2) "The massive size of the Islamic Art collection is partly due to donors whose significant contributions occurred even before a department of Islamic Art existed at the museum. The first were art dealers, many of them men of Middle Eastern heritage. They functioned similarly to curators in the museums of today, in the purchasing and organizing of exhibitions and in generating interest in their chosen specialty. Additionally, generous donations from early 20th-century collectors, each taking an interest in unique areas of Islamic art, also contributed greatly to the museum's vast holdings. These early tastemakers were influenced by the growing wave of attention received by the "exotic" cultures of the Middle East in the late 19th century, including the 1893 World's Fair in Philadelphia which brought and sold thousands of items from Egypt, Persia, and other cultures to Americans."
 * 3) "This newly redesigned gallery begins by prominently featuring a tenth-century ceramic bowl from Nishapur with a large Arabic inscription, not a Qur'anic verse as some Western audiences would assume, but of a witty saying reminding the viewer that prosperity is achieved by careful planning and work. The bowl's striking visuals and intriguing message confront visitors' own expectations and assumptions about Islamic art as a whole."
 * 4) "Calligraphy and its importance are highlighted throughout the museum's redesign. As the Qur'an is thought to be the verbatim word of God, an emphasis on decorative Arabic text flourished in order to emphasize focus on the beauty of the text itself."
 * 5) "The gallery's new title was designed to call attention to both the geographic diversity with the world of Islamic Art and the nonreligious nature of some of the collection's works. However, the temporal and geographic boundaries may also be seen as a euphemism for Islamic rule, as that is what they encompass in the case of 'Later South Asia'."