Twenty-six Islamic artworks from the Louvre Museum will touch down at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, next month. Opening September 26, From the Louvre: Masterpieces of Islamic Art will display carved rosewood doors, jade cups, an oil painting of Persian ruler Fath-Ali Shah Qajar, and other culturally significant objects traveling to the United States for the first time.
The artworks span 12 centuries of Islamic history and include treasures from the Ottoman Empire in Turkey, the Mughal Empire in South Asia, and the Umayyad dynasty in Spain. Many of the pieces were originally functional, and most graced the households of the elite.
Simon Rettig, associate curator of Islamic art at the National Museum of Asian Art and co-curator of From the Louvre, told Hyperallergic that the presentation of these objects aims to exceed “a monolithic overview of Islamic art.”
