Through the “Dragon and the Phoenix” exhibition at the Louvre Abu Dhabi
200 rare pieces tell inspiring stories between Islamic and Chinese cultures
The exhibition narrates various aspects of cultural and artistic exchange between the Chinese and Islamic worlds.
From the source
picture
With more than 200 pieces of art spread over five sections, the exhibition “Dragon and Phoenix - Centuries of Inspiration between Chinese and Islamic Cultures” tells stories between the civilization of the Islamic world and the civilization of the ancient Chinese world, and the history of exchange between them for a period of more than eight centuries.
The exhibition, which was inaugurated yesterday by the Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, Mohammed Khalifa Al Mubarak, at the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum, narrates various aspects of the cultural and artistic exchange that resulted from the meeting of the Chinese and Islamic worlds, as cultural centers, from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries.
The exhibition - which is the second for the Louvre Abu Dhabi this year, and receives its visitors from today until February 12, 2022 - includes five sections, the first four of which follow a historical chronology, while the fifth section focuses on the literary traditions of calligraphy and poetry.
The exhibition sections include a variety of art pieces, including paintings, silverware, ceramics and glassware, manuscripts and luxurious fabrics, decorated with Arabic inscriptions, Chinese decorations, lotus flower, geometric shapes, dragon and phoenix, and many other mythical animals.
Among these pieces is a rare goblet with a buttonhole in the shape of a dragon, made of gold, dating back to the Yuan dynasty in China (1279-1368), as this masterpiece belongs to a high-ranking traveler in northern China, and it is from the Louvre Abu Dhabi collection.
The exhibition also includes luxurious silk fabrics that are among the most distinctive and high-quality collections known in history, such as the Pani Tartarishi (Tatar) silk, a silk with golden threads from the textiles of the Mughal Empire, on loan from the National Museum of Asian Art - Guimeh, and clearly reflecting the influence of the textiles of regions such as Iran and the East Near and Central Asia.
Another notable piece is a silver mythical animal believed to be a dragon, from the collection of the National Museum of Asian Art - Guimea. The piece shows the chiseling technique of gold-plated silver, a rare creation of the Liao dynasty (906/907-1125). ).
The exhibition also highlights the "meeting of the two pens", the brush from China and the reed pen from the Islamic world, through an impressive collection of drawings, manuscripts and ink paintings, with the aim of showing the similarities between the writing traditions of the two cultures, and the spiritual meanings that calligraphy carries.
The exhibition represents a journey through the land and sea trade routes, to explore the relationships that existed between the two civilizations, the artistic influence of each civilization on the other, as well as stories that no one has told before, since the Arab merchants established their first headquarters in Canton in the eighth century until the beginning of the eighteenth century.
The works on display were selected from the collections of the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the National Museum of Asian Art - Guimet, along with artworks on loan from 12 museums and cultural institutions around the world.
Centuries of cultural exchange
The “Dragon and the Phoenix” exhibition highlights centuries of cultural exchange and rich artistic production between the Islamic and Chinese civilizations, and also reveals the great demand between the two civilizations for luxury materials and highly coveted artworks over more than 800 years.
Follow our latest local and sports news and the latest political and economic developments via Google news