July 12 – August 5, 1984

Maltwood Art Gallery

Brilliant colours and imaginative, playful decorations can be seen on the Muslim domestic objects found throughout the Islamic world, from the Alhambra Palace in Spain to the luxurious merchant homes in Iran. Glazed blue and gold ceramics, painted tiles inscribed with love poems, sumptuous textiles, velvets embroidered in metallic threads, chandeliers encrusted with silver, and glass lamps with polychrome enamelling are some of the exquisite pieces from the permanent collection of The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. These articles were created for the needs of everyday life in the Islamic royal courts and bourgeois households of the 8th to the18th centuries.

The objects in this exhibition display a rich decorative treatment of the surface in uniquely Islamic motifs and patterns such as Arabic script, geometric and floral interlace and arabesques, including also human and animal figures. Although works of art in their own right, as they were creatively and skillfully executed, they had neither religious nor purely decorative function, but were manufactured for utilitarian purposes.

The ceramics testify to the magnificent decorative elements and varied techniques used by the craftsmen. Similarly, the metalwork displays a superb aesthetic quality through its inlaid, engraved and enamelled decorations. While the Muslims inherited the art of glass-making from other cultures, they brought it to a new level of refinement. The application of guilding and enamelling gives an unexpected multicoloured effect to the glass works and some are unusually shaped by pinching and pressing methods. Especially interesting are the intricate designs composed of figural and floral representations which characterize the woven fabrics of the courtly robes and household furnishings.

This exhibit discloses the important status given to utilitarian objects within the history of traditional Islamic art.