Fin de Siècle, Pamela J. Crook 1998.
Last modified March 14, 2011.
Archive for the ‘Art’ Category
The World as it is Today
Posted in Art, Japan, tagged earthquake, King Crimson, Nuclear meltdown, nuclear power, Pamela J. Crook, plutonium, pollution, The Power to Believe, tsunami on March 14, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Caught in Time
Posted in Art, Russia, tagged ethnic diversity, James Clerk Maxwell, Jewish life, Samarkand, Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, Vitaly Naumkin, Walter Frankhauser on October 9, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Russian photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii who lived 1863-1944 had used James Clerk Maxwell’s invention to produce color photographs for his Tsar-endorsed survey of the Russian Empire.
Maxwell (d. 1879) had used three subsequent exposures with red, green and blue filters, respectively. The three images were reversal developed to form three color separating transparencies which could be projected with filtered lanterns on a screen with three different projectors forming a full-colored image when in focus.
Walter Frankhauser, a photographer contracted by the U.S. Library of Congress, cleaned up about 120 of the original high-resolution scans which show a world, now gone, before World War I and the Russian Revolution. They can be seen in an online exhibition.
See, for instance, the picture below, Jewish children with their teacher in Samarkand, now Uzbekistan (1911). From the website:
“Samarkand, an ancient commercial, intellectual, and spiritual center on the Silk Road from Europe to China, developed a remarkably diverse population, including Tajiks, Persians, Uzbeks, Arabs, Jews, and Russians. Samarkand, and all of West Turkestan, was incorporated into the Russian Empire in the middle of the nineteenth century and has retained its ethnic diversity up to the present. Prokudin-Gorskii captures here a group of Jewish boys, in traditional dress, studying with their teacher.”
The picture below shows a Sart woman in purdah in Samarkand, ca. 1910. Until the Russian revolution of 1917, “Sart” was the name for Uzbeks living in Kazakhstan.
A boy in the court of Tillia-Kari mosque in Samarkand, ca. 1910. These pictures have breathtaking resolution and give an unreal impression due to their bright colors, other than, for example, rare original photographs of the 19th century in Vitaly Naumkin’s Bukhara (from the Caught in Time: Great Photographic Archives series).
Last modified October 9, 2010.
Judas’ Kiss
Posted in Art, Christianity, Religion, tagged Andriy Dutka, anti-semitism, Good Friday, Jesus, Judas on April 3, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
On yesterday’s Good Friday, I stumbled across Ukrainian Artist Andriy Dutka’s almost iconic “Judas’ Kiss” of 1990. It can be viewed at Wurzburg’s “Museum am Dom”.
When earnestly considering Judas’ role in the Gospel, his betrayal and kiss were undoubtedly necessary for the redeemer in order to accomplish His mandate as savior of the whole humankind, there should be no room for anti-Semitism. But that is very much apparent in Dutka’s work. While Jesus’ outline is clear, that of Judas becomes indistinct. He is painted cattish, amorphic, false. He represents what Christians have always thought about Jews: the stereotype of the Wandering Jew, which ultimately led to the Holocaust in the 20th century.
See also on this blog: Najasat-e Ahl-e Kitab, a book review on Daniel Tsadik’s account of anti-Semitism in 19th century Shi’a Iran.
Last update April 3, 2010
Intricate Patterns
Posted in Art, tagged carpets, Hans Holbein the Younger, Lorenzo Lotto, Ottoman Empire, Safavid dynasty, Timurid period on February 1, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Mathematic breakthroughs in the 10th and 11th centuries in Baghdad and, for instance, Esfahan may have resulted during the 15th century in an explosion of Islamic Art and Architecture. In particular the use of so called girih tiles, that is a set of polygonal prototiles with well-defined decorating lines may have allowed medieval artists in Iran and Central Asia to create decagonal tessellations with, in few cases, Penrose-similar patterns. Between the mid-14th and early 16th centuries, the Timurids ruled over much of the Islamic world. The highly sophisticated and strictly geometric (‘Islamic’) patterns on glazed tiles covering buildings and monuments became later more and more floral. Exquisite examples of this changing style can be seen in Esfahan’s Grand Mosque and Darb-i Imam, Mashhad’s Gohar Shad mosque, or the Friday Mosque in Yazd.
The Timurids were repelled in Iran by the rulers of the Safavid dynasty (1501–1736 CE) who established the Shi’a branch of Islam as state religion. Many historians regard specific achievements during these centuries as the true apogee in Islamic Art and Architecture. One marvelous example is the Naqsh-e Jahan in Esfahan. Geometric, calligraphic and floral designs cover both religious and secular buildings while ancient roots of the Iranian society, in particular the Achaemenid style of intricately carved wooden ceilings and slender pillars are well preserved in certain palaces, reminding of the grandeur of ancient Persepolis.
Another area where the specific designs of the Safavid period can still be studied is few surviving carpets of that time. Two years ago, Christie’s Auction House has sold an Esfahani silk carpet of about 1600 for an, at that time, record amount of $4,450,500. I was wondering at that time, how many of these inalienable carpets are still hoarded by wealthy Tehran bazaaris in their vast storages.
Well, some of these masterpieces have only survived in paintings of the European Renaissance period (14th to 16th centuries). Famous examples include paintings of Hans Holbein the Younger (ca. 1498-1543) and Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1556). Saudiaramco World has dedicated an article in its recent issue to “Threads on Canvas”, i.e., mainly Anatolian carpets displayed on famous Renaissance paintings (by Tom Verde). Some of the carpet designs are even called after Holbein, and others may have been identified on still existing pieces. In particular Holbein’s portrait of merchant Georg Giese, or Gisze as the painting was entitled by the artist, (1532) is a fascinating masterpiece illustrating much of the life circumstances of the confident young man, for example his engagement (the carnations in a fragile vase placed too close to the edge of the table) and wealth, symbolized by the carpet on the table. The strapwork border and even the design of the central field can actually be seen in an Anatolian carpet in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Another example by Holbein is the famous Ambassadors (1533) which may strike the viewer by its surrealistic anamorphic skull in the lower third of the painting, which is only discernible as such when the picture is viewed at an acute angle. It is what nowadays would be called a gimmick, both to shock, or at least surprise, the viewer and impress him or her for the superior mastering of the complicated technique. Again, the table is covered by an Anatolian carpet with a ‘large-pattern Holbein’ design. A similar existing example can be found in the Museum für Islamische Kunst in Berlin, Germany.
More about carpets of the Ottoman era in general and Holbein carpets in particular may be found here.
© Preussischer Kulturbesitz/ Bridgeman Art Library; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Saudiaramco World
Last update: February 1, 2010
R.D. Parsons’ Rugs
Posted in Afghanistan, Art, tagged Baluchi carpets, Dinie Gootjes, R.D. Parsons, Shir Khosrow Paiwand, Tukoman carpets, Turkotek, women's art on January 30, 2010 | 2 Comments »
For all who are interested in carpets from Afghanistan, Volume 3 of the Antique Collectors’ Club Oriental Rugs series by R. D. Parsons is a must [1]. Parsons not only displays more than 150 color plates with beautiful examples but also provides the fascinated reader with most valuable information about the manufacture of carpets and the people of Afghanistan before and during the 10 years of war with the Soviet Union. Almost twenty years of the brutal regime of the Taliban and the war after 9/11 has, of course, devastated the country and the people further.
R. D. Parsons had published the third edition of his book in 1990. It has tremendously helped me in studying my own pieces over the years [2]. Many color plates had been added since previous editions and respective numbers have got letters, a, b, c. In the Acknowledgements section Parsons thanks Shir Khosrow Paiwand “whose superb collection of old Beluch rugs he so generously placed at my disposal.” These additional carpets have apparently been provided by Mr. Paiwand. Dinie Gootjes now reports on Turkotek that Mr. Paiwand and his younger brother have, as so many Afghans, moved in the meantime to Canada where they maintained their carpet business in Ontario. On December 5, 2009, they opened their new carpet shop in Mississauga in the Greater Toronto Area where they displayed a dozen of the rugs illustrated in Parsons’ book. According to Dinie Gootjes, the pieces have not been shown to the public since the 1980s.
In contrast to claims by Ms. Gootjes, the pictures in Parsons’ book [3] are of higher quality than those she took in Mr. Paiwand’s location. Nevertheless, some of her close-ups are marvelous and reveal the beauty of the pieces.
Notes
[1] A valuable source for the study of Iranian Baluchi carpets is, of course, S. Azadi’s Carpets in the Baluch Tradition, Klinkhardt & Biermann, München 1986.
[2] When living in Kuwait, my western friends and I loved to visit Hussein and Ali’s two-storey rug shop downtown, opposite Mubarakia Souk. Especially Hussein, a young lad from Afghanistan, a Shi’te, as he told us, was an eloquent and talented teacher who almost gave lectures on his main topic, tribal carpets from Afghanistan. He liked to distribute a copy of the map of Afghanistan which was divided into a northern and a southern half. Rugs and carpets from the northern part were called Turkoman, as he explained, while those from the south were Baluchis. He didn’t want to bother us further but rather elaborated his stories about young girls weaving beautiful carpets for their dowry. You may find similar stories in Parsons’ book about the beautiful works of art made by girls and women (p. 37):
“When a girl approached marriageable age – usually in her early teens – she and other women in her family would start to weave carpets, bags and other pieces for her dowry. If a would-be suitor was not considered acceptable, the girl’s father would answer that the dowry pieces were not yet completed. This tactful answer saved any loss of face. On the other hand, if the match was considered suitable, a tacit agreement was reached and the weaving of the pieces accelerated!”
[3] According to color plate 96a in R.D. Parsons’ book, the first rug is an “old TAIMANI rug from the Ghor region region of west central Afghanistan. This harmonious piece, dating from circa 1935, has a classical weaving structure and the colours that are found in the older Charchaghan kilims, i.e., madder, a soft olive green, indigo, gold and undyed brown wool. The upper kilim measures 18cm, the lower 14cm. (161 x 111 cm).”
The second is featured in color plate 95a. “An old FARAH carpet made in two pieces. Although depicting the owzi design which is associated with the Adraskhan production, the back of this carpet has a much rougher feel than comparable Adraskhan pieces, denoting the use of somewhat overspun yarn, a characteristic of the Farah production, which also gives the back a different appearance. A peculiar feature of this piece is its shape, which is almost square. The kilims are wide, the upper measuring 33cm and the lower 31 cm.” (Late 19th century; 215 x 191cm).”
The third piece can be seen in color plate 7a: “A striking example of a finely woven old TAGHAN JUWAL. One of a pair and now backless, this dowry piece is noteworthy for having pale green silk in the secondary guls and for the inclusion of kermes (cochineal) in the center of the primary gul. The light indigo of duck-egg blue colour of the double ram horn motif in the border suggests that this juwal was woven in Taghan-Labijar. (Circa 1920; 152 x 97 cm).”
Last update January 30, 2009
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