5:22AM
Venice and the Middle East
By 
Ursula Lindsey | Culture
Ursula Lindsey | Culture
Yesterday I went to the Met to see this exhibit on "Venice and the Islamic World." While not perfect, the show was facinating. Did you know the first Koran was printed in Venice in 1537? Or that Venetians learned the art of glass-blowing from the Arab world, Syria in particular?
There are many examples throughout the exhibition of the ways in which craftsmen in Venice and Muslim countries imitated each other's work, competed, and at times produced strikingly similar objects. There are also examples of the kinds of luxury items (and I mean LUXURY: we're talking robes embroidered with gold, linen boxes made of crystal) that Venetians traders brought to and from the Middle East.
It was impossible not to think of these by-gone trade routes as terribly romantic and surprisingly cosmopolitan--the show reminded me of Amitav Gosh's "In An Antique Land," a wonderful book that partly traces Gosh's research into the Indian Ocean trade and into a family of Arab Jewish merchants who lived between Tunisia, Egypt and India (it also gives a wonderful portrait of Gosh's life in a small Egyptian village).
And although there wasn't nearly enough Venetian painting in the show, the canvases, illuminated manuscripts and portraits (many Sultans commissioned Venetian painters to portray them), also reminded me of Orhan Pamuk's "My Name is Red," a great novel that deals with the crisis in the world of Ottoman miniaturists provoked by the encounter with Renaissance painting.
There are many examples throughout the exhibition of the ways in which craftsmen in Venice and Muslim countries imitated each other's work, competed, and at times produced strikingly similar objects. There are also examples of the kinds of luxury items (and I mean LUXURY: we're talking robes embroidered with gold, linen boxes made of crystal) that Venetians traders brought to and from the Middle East.
It was impossible not to think of these by-gone trade routes as terribly romantic and surprisingly cosmopolitan--the show reminded me of Amitav Gosh's "In An Antique Land," a wonderful book that partly traces Gosh's research into the Indian Ocean trade and into a family of Arab Jewish merchants who lived between Tunisia, Egypt and India (it also gives a wonderful portrait of Gosh's life in a small Egyptian village).
And although there wasn't nearly enough Venetian painting in the show, the canvases, illuminated manuscripts and portraits (many Sultans commissioned Venetian painters to portray them), also reminded me of Orhan Pamuk's "My Name is Red," a great novel that deals with the crisis in the world of Ottoman miniaturists provoked by the encounter with Renaissance painting.
Reader Comments (6)
Glad you enjoyed the show! There is so much to be seen in the exchange. For example, in Tuscany, the clock towers are like the minarets in North Afirca, like the Katoubia, for example. We eat polenta which is so much like couscous, Music from the medieval Tuscan courts sounds a lot like melhoun and other elements. We are so much more connected through music, visual elements, architecture, food, etc. than we consciously know. Which is why my cousins say L'Africa se comencia a Roma! Around the Mediterranean, we are cousins, or even siblings of another mother.What unites us is greater than what separates us, if we would let it.
I love Gosh's book. If you have a chance, read Travels With A Tangerine.
Sounds v cool. There was a gem of a little exhibit at the Smithsonian some years ago about renaissance influences on Mughal miniatures, I guess some Mughal emperor had commissioned paintings of Christian themes from European artists visiting his court, and encouraged his artists to learn from them, so you had these very Mughal-style depictions of Madonna & child, etc. There are also Persian drawings and paintings of Biblical themes at the Freer/Sackler.
Hi zazou. Thanks for rounding the post out with all your examples. I've also heard Africans (in Senegal) tell Italians they are "Africani d'Europa."
"Africani d'Europa"... that's funny! Well, just the South (just kidding).
[...] Arabist explains the ties between Venice and the Middle East: “Did you know the first Koran was printed in Venice in 1537? Or that Venetians learned the art... Deborah Ann [...]
Ursula, I loved the exhibition which I saw in January at the INSTITUT DU MONDE ARABE in Paris. It showed such an intesreting exchange of knowledges and how Venice in particular used and improved different arts imported from the Middle East.