March 30 -- The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili Muslims, is a generous man. He heads a network of non-profit development agencies and plans to open a museum for his collection of Islamic art in Toronto in 2013.
Until the building is completed, he is loaning the art to museums around the world. The current beneficiary is Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau, where “Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum” is showing through June 6.
The 73-year-old philanthropist, in an introduction to the catalog, says he believes that tensions between Islam and the western world are less about a “clash of civilizations” than “a battle of mutual ignorance.” Exhibiting his collection, which spans a vast area from Spain to China, is a way to fight that ignorance.
Koranic scripts, inscribed in gold and bordered with gouache arabesques in blues and reds, originate from Iran, Turkey and India. Verses are written on a sea shell from the 18th century, and in tiny letters across a piece of green Indian cotton bordered in gold and blue.
The most astonishing script is on a gilded chestnut leaf whose filaments shine like filigree jewelry. The calligraphy is shaped to resemble a boat with oarsmen. It is a virtuoso piece of 19th-century Ottoman craftsmanship -- and so fragile and delicate, it’s hard to imagine how it survived.
Persian Epic
Two lacquer book covers from 16th-century Iran, inlaid with gold and mother-of-pearl, show flowers, birds and deer among the branches of a tree.
Illustrations from scenes of the Persian epic “The Book of Kings”, written by the poet Ferdowsi in about 1010 A.D., depict a king sitting on an elephant and inspecting his troops.
The colors, design and motifs of the gouache-and-ink decorations of flowers and animals called to mind Rajasthan’s exotic palaces.
(“Treasures of the Aga Khan Museum” is on show at the Martin-Gropius-Bau through June 6. For more information, go to http://www.berlinerfestspiele.de.)
Carpet Obsession
The Aga Khan and the Hungarian-British lawyer Edmund de Unger must have found themselves competing for the same Islamic art treasures in their collecting careers. Now the two rival (or complementary) collections are on display in the same city.
De Unger has promised his Keir Collection to the Museum for Islamic Art, housed in Berlin’s Pergamon Museum, as a long- term loan after his death. The museum is home to the 17th- century Aleppo room from Syria and the eighth-century facade of Mshatta palace from a Jordan desert town.
An exhibition of the first 112 of 1,500 objects that De Unger plans to loan to Berlin provides a taste of what is to come. His passion for Islamic art began with carpets; every floor in his home was covered in them -- three-deep.
De Unger turned to lusterware -- glazed metallic ceramics which he describes as “the greatest gift the Islamic potter has made to mankind.” He also acquired metalware, books and rock-crystal ornaments, including an exquisite bead in the shape of a crouching hare from Egypt, about 1,000 years old.
The collector’s tales, as recounted in the catalog, are the stuff of novels: De Unger describes seeking shelter from the rain in a Paris bookstore and finding a 14th-century Jalayrid (Mongolian rulers of Persia and Iraq) manuscript. To avoid setting off alarm bells with the owner, he added four other uninteresting books to his purchase.
(“A Collector’s Fortune; Islamic World Masterpieces in the Keir Collection” is on show at the Pergamon Museum. Information: http://www.smb.spk-berlin.de.)
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