Gold

A Glimpse of Paradise: Gold in Islamic Art

October 9, 2010 - April 2011

"According to the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, and Hadith, the collected sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad and his companions, paradise is a lush garden filled with musk-scented streams, channels of milk and honey, and palaces built from gold and silver bricks. The righteous, bedecked with beautiful gold bracelets and silk garments, enjoy delicious foods served by angels from gem-encrusted gold vessels. While gold ornaments and implements are abundant in the afterlife, the wearing and hoarding of gold during one’s lifetime is generally cautioned against because it may inspire an impious attachment to extravagances. Royalty of the past nevertheless adorned themselves with luxurious gold-woven textiles and gilded jewelry, perhaps to remind themselves of the rewards waiting in paradise, although these shimmering embellishments also served to show off their wealth and power, a less virtuous benefit.
A Glimpse of Paradise explores the unique status of gold in Islam through a small group of objects drawn from the Museum’s collection. The diverse selection includes a fourteenth-century Qur’an folio from Central Asia or Turkey with gold decoration added in India, and a resplendent eagle-shaped pendant made in Iran during the nineteenth century. As these works show, gold has been put to multiple uses in the arts of Islam, serving both as a sign of the divine and as an ornament for earthly pleasure."

Sultan 'Ali 'Adil Shah II, c. 1670
Indian
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Image: 10 × 5 9/16 inches (25.4 × 14.1 cm) Sheet: 10 3/8 × 6 1/8 inches (26.4 × 15.6 cm)
125th Anniversary Acquisition. Alvin O. Bellak Collection, 2004
2004-149-38

Label:
During the reign of Sultan 'Ali 'Adil Shah II of Bijapur (reigned 1656-72), ruler of one of the five Islamic kingdoms of the Deccan, the threat of Mughal military domination increased. In painting, however, the Deccani preference for fanciful, decorative compositions reasserted itself over the Mughal naturalism that had filtered into Bijapuri painting during the previous three decades. The sultan stands in a strange landscape; a small hill gives way to a mysterious field of gray that ends abruptly at a group of pink and blue rocks where birds perform aerial tricks. 'Ali 'Adil Shah is oddly drawn, his fingers distorted to follow the shape of his shield, rather than the form of human anatomy.

source Philadelphia Museum of Art

Nils Voelker, The Art of Heavy Breathing

Watch video on Vimeo. Link here.

December 2009

Silk, Background and Production

"Silk has set the standard in luxury fabrics for several millennia. The origins of silk date back to Ancient China. Legend has it that a Chinese princess was sipping tea in her garden when a cocoon fell into her cup, and the hot tea loosened the long strand of silk. Ancient literature, however, attributes the popularization of silk to the Chinese Empress Si-Ling, to around 2600 B.C. Called the Goddess of the Silkworm, Si-Ling apparently raised silkworms and designed a loom for making silk fabrics.

The Chinese used silk fabrics for arts and decorations as well as for clothing. Silk became an integral part of the Chinese economy and an important means of exchange for trading with neighboring countries. Caravans traded the prized silk fabrics along the famed Silk Road into the Near East. By the fourth century B.C. , Alexander the Great is said to have introduced silk to Europe. The popularity of silk was influenced by Christian prelates who donned the rich fabrics and adorned their altars with them. Gradually the nobility began to have their own clothing fashioned from silk fabrics as well.

Initially, the Chinese were highly protective of their secret to making silk. Indeed, the reigning powers decreed death by torture to anyone who divulged the secret of the silk-worm. Eventually, the mystery of the silk-making process was smuggled into neighboring regions, reaching Japan about A.D. 300 and India around A.D. 400. By the eighth century, Spain began producing silk, and 400 years later Italy became quite successful at making silk, with several towns giving their names to particular types of silk."

Silk Facts

The exact history of silk dates back to to the 27th century BC in China. That means that silk is over 5,000 years old, making it one of the oldest fabrics, with linen and wool, that is still in popular use today.

The Silk Road: Linking Europe and Asia Through Trade

"Originally, the Chinese trade silk internally, within the empire. Caravans from the empire's interior would carry silk to the western edges of the region. Often small Central Asian tribes would attack these caravans hoping to capture the traders' valuable commodities. As a result, the Han Dynasty extended its military defenses further into Central Asia from 135 to 90 BC in order to protect these caravans.

Chan Ch'ien, the first known Chinese traveler to make contact with the Central Asian tribes, later came up with the idea to expand the silk trade to include these lesser tribes and therefore forge alliances with these Central Asian nomads. Because of this idea, the Silk Road was born.

The route grew with the rise of the Roman Empire because the Chinese initially gave silk to the Roman-Asian governments as gifts."

Silk Road, NY Times Article

"This is the crux of the matter, for most bodies found in this region have what are called Caucasoid features. And though many objects here are clearly associated with later Chinese traditions — like the delicate figurines of women making pottery (from the seventh to ninth centuries) — others come from cultural worlds that can still not be clearly identified."