Islamic art is seen in beautiful manuscript illumination, miniature painting, and textile design. Manuscripts are adorned with intricate patterns and colorful illustrations. Many include gold leaf detailing. Miniature paintings depict religious scenes, courtly life, and literary works. Carpets and textiles ...
From the rich intricately woven textiles of Persia and the painted ceramics to silk carpets from Kashmir and exceptionally crafted weapons from Damascus – Miraj Islamic Art Centre in Dubai has a wonderful collection of statement pieces once used and owned by emperors and sultans. There are thirteen...
On the other hand, the demand for illustrated books and paintings ebbs and flows with the changes in political atmosphere. Another mainstay of Middle Eastern art is the textile, especially in silk weaving and carpets. The arts are functioning today in the Islamic world but are struggling to ...
The shamsa, also appears frequently on carpets, metalwork, on the interiors of domes over mosques and tombs, and other decorative art in Islamic art. The shamsa medallion often has symbolic meaning, for example, sometimes it symbolises the central unity of God, the vault of heaven and so on...
Among the fine carpets and rugs is a beautiful mid-16th-century silk prayer rug (est. £300,000-500,000), a royal commission from the court of the Safavid shah of Iran when artistic production reached a peak of technical refinement. It is one of very few in existence, with the las...
Indian miniatures inspired Rembrandt, just as European paintings were imitated by Islamic, especially Mughal, artists. Persian carpets were among the most-coveted gifts for princes and princesses. A bias against the cultures of the East persisted, however, until after the 18th-century Age of ...
paintings can be attributed to the fact that several painters probably were involved in the illustration of the manuscript and that the artists drew from a wide variety of different stylistic sources (e.g., Chinese, European, local Iranian traditions). Its main importance lies in the fact that...
The production of metalwork, wood inlaid with ivory, Ushak carpets, and textiles flourished under the Ottomans, both in Istanbul workshops sponsored by the sultan and in numerous provincial centres. The influence of those ornamental objects on European decorative arts from the 16th through the 19th...