[MR] FWD: Silks, Metalwork and Art from the Ottoman Empire Now at the Smithsonian

[Trephina la Broderesse]

This was posted on another list.  Since it is in DC I thought people
going to KWAR or other events in the area - or those who live in the
area - might be interested.

YIS,
Tréphina
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The weekend before Atenveldt and Gleann Abhann's coronations, the first-ever
international exhibition devoted to imperial Turkish robes, or kaftans,
dating to the 16th-17th centuries, opened at the Smithsonian Institute's
Sackler Gallery. The display, which opened October 29, will run through
January 22.

Entitled "Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey," the
display features 68 objects, including a set of imperial clothing from the
Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, the largest repository of Islamic
textiles in the world. Some of these robes were worn by Sultan Selim
(reigned 1512-20), Sultan Suleyman (reigned 1520-66) and his son Bayazid
(executed 1561). Also on display are ecclesiastical copes and chausables,
hats, trousers, cushions, floor coverings and "several large, inscribed
textiles," ranging from silks to velvets.

See: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/StyleStatus.htm.

Concurrently, a second display at the Sackler Gallery, "Fountains of Light:
Islamic Metalwork from the Nuhad Es-Said Collection," is also on display,
and will continue indefinitely. This display features 27 "inlaid brass,
bronze and steel objects dating from the 10th-19th centuries" from
Afghanistan, Anatolia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Uzbekistan from one of
the finest collections of Islamic metalwork in private hands in the world.

See: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/fountainsLight.htm.

The third display is "Arts of the Islamic World," which also runs
indefinitely at the Greer Gallery. It features "the three principal media
for artistic expression in the Islamic world: architecture (both religious
and secular), the arts of the book (calligraphy, illustration, illumination,
and bookbinding), and the arts of the object (ceramics, metalwork, glass,
woodwork, textiles, and ivory)" and range from the 9th-17th centuries and
represent Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, North Africa, Syria, Turkey and
Uzbekistan.

See: http://www.asia.si.edu/exhibitions/current/artsofIslamic.htm.

These three sumptuous displays are in addition to the Sackler & Greer's
regular collection of over 2,200 items dating from the 9th-20th centuries,
including: Ceramics from the 9th-13th centuries; Egyptian and Syrian
metalwork from the 13th century; A collection of 9th-19th century Korans
(intact volumes and detached folios); 14th century Syrian glass; and a
collection of illustrated and illuminated manuscripts, including the Divan
(collected poems) of Sultan Ahmad Jalayir, ca. 1400; Haft Awrang (Seven
Thrones) by Jami, dated 1556-66; and six illustrations from the 14th-century
Mongol Shahnama (Book of Kings), one of the most important illustrated texts
of the Islamic world.

See: http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/islamicHome.htm.