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MFAH Houston announces agreement with The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait

India, Turban Ornament

India, Turban Ornament
Second half of 17th century, gold with champlevé and overpainted enamels, emeralds, and diamonds
The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait.

MFAH announces agreement with Al-Sabah Collection Sixty examples of Islamic masterworks from the al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, will be on loan in Houston to initiate a long-term exchange of objects, staff and expertise.

January 26, 2013 – January 26, 2014.

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Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The privately held al-Sabah Collection, one of the greatest collections of Islamic art in the world, will place some 60 objects, ranging from carpets, ceilings and architectural fragments to exquisite ceramics, metalwork, jewelry, scientific instruments and manuscripts, on long-term loan in a dedicated gallery at the MFAH. The Museum will reciprocate with staff exchanges and training and, at a future date, exchange of works of art and exhibitions. The initial term of the renewable agreement is five years, and the first display is expected to be on view for at least one year, beginning January 26, 2013.

This display, which contains objects from the 8th to the 18th centuries, made in the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, will demonstrate the development of new aesthetics in Islamic visual culture, based on calligraphy, geometric ornamentation and the arabesque. The primacy of the written word, exemplified by early illuminated manuscripts of the Qur’an in Kufic script, will be seen in ceramics, stone capitals, textiles and inlaid metal work. Intricate geometric ornamentation decorates a 15th-century Spanish ceiling panel; a Mamluk rug made in Egypt; manuscripts and works on paper; and glass and metal vessels. Arabesque decoration, derived from scrolling vines and other vegetal motifs, will be seen on 17th-century Ottoman textiles, Iznik pottery and tiles from Persia and Central Asia. Finally, selections of Mughal paintings, illuminated manuscripts and ceramics made in north India and Iran in the 17th century, as well as examples of spectacular Mughal jewelry, will complete the display.

The al-Sabah Collection is widely recognized as the greatest holding of Mughal jewelry in the world. The loans to Houston include an engraved emerald weighing more than 85 carats, a very important inscribed spinel (ruby), an emerald-and-diamond turban ornament, enamel vessels and jeweled jade court daggers. These jewels were previously seen in Houston in 2002 at the MFAH in the exhibition “Treasury of the World: Jewelled Arts of India in the Age of the Mughals (TOW)“, drawn exclusively from The al-Sabah Collection.

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MFAH Houston announces agreement with The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait