Inspired by the east: how the Islamic world influenced western art

School of Veronese. Portrait of Sultan Bayezid I. c.1580. © Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

Western artists have long been intrigued by the Islamic world. This sweeping new exhibition at the British Museum covers more than five centuries of artistic interaction, beginning with portraits such as this depiction of a Sultan and continuing through the tradition known as Orientalism to the present day. The earliest European interest in the Middle East was religious, focusing on pilgrimages to places mentioned in the Bible. Jerusalem was the most important, and was shown in great detail on a pull-out map in a book dating from 1486 that recounts the visit of a German knight to Palestine and Egypt. Diplomats established embassies, and there was much interest on both sides. One, in the Austrian service, wrote in 1581: “The Turks were quite as much astonished by our manner of dress as we at theirs.” Their presence provided work for both European and local artists, keen to portray the exchanges.

Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, Dinner Given by the Grand Vizier ©Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia

The exhibition has two fascinating paintings by Jean-Baptiste Vanmour, who arrived in Constantinople in 1699 and remained there for the rest of his life. In 1725 he recorded a procession and the subsequent dinner given by the Grand Vizier for a European delegation (above). (The ambassador, in a bright red coat, has his back to the viewer.) Other travellers stocked up on Ottoman artefacts, which were seen as exotic luxuries and much admired.

Glazed and gilded pottery, Iznik (Turkey), 1600–25.© Trustees of the British Museum

By the 1600s, Western craft workers were trying to imitate items such as this Iznik plate, but found it difficult to match the delicacy and vibrancy of colour of the originals. From the 19^th c onwards, as travel became easier, goods were more available – some imported, others copied. They were displayed in homes and artists’ studios, which often included tiled “oriental” interiors.

Among them was Leighton House in London, the home of the Victorian painter Lord Leighton, who commissioned these Islamic-style tiles from the British ceramicist, William de Morgan. But the real boom was in paintings.

Charles Theodore Frere, Great Pyramid of Giza, ©Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia

Recurring images included famous sites such as the pyramids, glimpses of everyday life and religious devotions.

Frederick Arthur Bridgman, The Prayer. 1877. © Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia

Some artists, such as John Frederick Lewis, donned “Middle Eastern” garb and included romantic self-images in their pictures. (His wife later left the colourful sash he wound around his head in this picture to the Victoria and Albert Museum, describing it as from Constantinople, and about 1000 years old. It was, however, both contemporary and Indian.)

John Frederick Lewis, Portrait of a Memlook Bey, 1863 ©Islamic Arts Museum, Malaysia

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of Orientalism is its imaginary scenes of the harem, often used as an excuse to portray nude women. These had to be invented – harems were private, domestic spaces, and outsiders were not admitted.

David Wilkie, A Circassian woman, 1840 ©British Museum

One British artist, David Wilkie, was allowed to sketch a young Circassian woman in the harem of an exiled Persian prince, but he recorded she was fully dressed, with no expression, and silent – no titillation there. So the exhibition – perhaps because many of its items are from the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia, where it will go on show next year – is rather short of the latter. The fascination with a highly fantasised Orient also found its way into books such as the Arabian Nights, and operas, films and even pantomines like Aida and Aladdin. To balance this, the exhibition has a section showing how some artists from the Islamic world turned the Orientalist gaze back on itself, with photographs and even maps, reusing such imagery for their own ends.

Raeda Saadeh (b.1977), Who will make me real? 2003. Courtesy of the artist and RoseIssa Projects / © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

While interest in these arts and crafts has declined, the show concludes with four contemporary reactions to the imagery of Orientalism. Most striking is a self-portrait of artist Raeda Saadeh, reclining like an odalisque, but dressed in Palestinian newspapers, perhaps to draw attention to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. All in all, an informative and visually arresting look at a cultural relationship that has endured for more than five hundred years.

Inspired by the east: how the Islamic world influenced western art. British Museum, London, to Jan 26, 2020. Entry £14 (concessions available). 
https://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/east.aspx

I am Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria

The title of this fascinating new British Museum exhibition comes from the claim of Assyria’s last great ruler, Ashurbanipal (reigned 669 – 631 BC). To say you are king of the world might seem like an exaggeration, but this man ruled an empire that stretched from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the mountains of western Iran. As we see in the more than 250 exhibits, some never seen in the UK before, he expanded by treaty and conquest what had been inherited from his forebears. He ruled from his massive capital at Nineveh, in present-day Iraq, where temples and palaces were adorned with sculptures of lions and human-headed winged bulls, such as this one from the palace of Nimrud (above) and an elaborate system of canals brought water to his pleasure gardens and game parks (below).

The lighting of the exhibits is imaginative. Special effects are used to project colours on reliefs, picking out the details and showing how they first looked. These three gods (below) once decorated the throne room in Nineveh.

Ashurbanipal's empire was highly organised and efficient, arranged in provinces, each administered by a governor he had appointed. A system of royal roads criss-crossed the territory, allowing a sophisticated mail system to deliver orders swiftly. Obedience was rewarded, but there were brutal punishments for those who disobeyed; in one relief a surrendering general is about to be beheaded and in another, prisoners have to grind their fathers’ bones before being executed. His older brother, given the province of Babylonia to govern, rebelled against him and died in the attempt. Lord Byron painted a picture of the regime’s fearsome war machine in his poem, The Destruction of Sennacherib. (Ashurbanipal was Sennacherib’s grandson.)

The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold...

Ashurbanipal was ruthless. Millions of displaced people were forcibly resettled to cultivate barren land, build cities and produce luxury goods. But unlike his predecessors, he didn’t go into battle himself, instead sending a general to command his forces. He preferred to display his bravery and skills as a warrior in carefully organised lion hunts (where there was plenty of backup) and had them recorded in wall reliefs (above.) He prided himself on being literate and cultured, and is portrayed with a stylus tucked into his belt. On display is a practice letter to his father, composed in cuneiform on a clay tablet while still a boy. Elsewhere, he boasts about his achievements: “I am able to recognise celestial and terrestrial omens and can discuss them in an assembly of scholars ... I have carefully examined inscriptions on stone from before The Flood.” 

He created a huge reference library in Nineveh, aiming to unite under one roof all the traditional knowledge inherited from earlier times. This covered instructions for contacting the gods, letters, historical texts and administrative matters – all things he believed would help him rule. The exhibition has a whole wall of surviving fragments (above).  It must have helped – he held the throne for almost 40 years, longer than any of his ancestors. In later life, he enjoyed banquets and relaxing in his garden. Here, servants bring snacks of grapes, pomegranates and dates to a feast.

After he died, his son took over, but the empire began to fall apart with civil wars and invasions. In the ensuing battles, the palace was systematically demolished and the library burnt down. However, 30,000 clay tablets survived in the ruins, baked hard by the flames. The exhibition displays a whole wall of them (above). Their cuneiform writing, giving a detailed picture of life and beliefs in the ancient world, was first deciphered in Victorian times; researchers continue to study the fragments.

Nineveh was rediscovered in the 1840s. A young British explorer, Austen Henry Layard, began excavations with initial financing by the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, which then occupied the area. The Ottomans authorised the Ambassador to export some of the sculptures found to England, and the first of these arrived at the British Museum in 1847. A sketch of this event appeared in The Illustrated London News on 28 February 1852 (above). The finds sparked a fashion for Assyrian designs in painting and art. The winged bull and the lion hunt even found their way on to Victorian jewellery.

In recent years, many archaeological sites in Iraq have been systematically targeted and destroyed by ISIS, including those where exhibits were found. The final section of the exhibition highlights the challenges faced in protecting Iraqi cultural heritage, and outlines the British Museum’s scheme for training 50 Iraqi archaeologists in rescue archaeology. At the same time, the cuneiform tablets are being digitised, which will enable their closer study and ensure that they are available to all to see.

The BP exhibition – I am Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria. British Museum to Feb 24 2019. £17 (concessions).

Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia

Two and a half thousand years ago, bands of fearsome horse-riding warriors roamed across a homeland that stretched from southern Russia and the Black Sea to China. They were masters of mounted warfare, with deadly bows and pointed battle axes. Their encounters with the Greeks, Assyrians and Persians were recorded by ancient historians but they themselves had no written language and built no cities, so for centuries all trace of their culture was lost. It was not until the discovery of ancient tombs, buried in the frozen ground and containing a wealth of Scythian treasures like this gold buckle (above), that the truth about their lives was revealed.

Some of the objects, like this torc with lion-head terminals, on loan from the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, were uncovered during scientific expeditions sent to southern Siberia in the 1720s by Peter the Great; others were found quite recently in large burial mounds in the Pazyryk valley of the High Altai mountain region of southern Siberia. Excavations are ongoing, and, as this fascinating exhibition at the British Museum in London shows, continue to reveal more insights into a lost world.

The displays begin with the treasures brought back to the Czar. Buried so as to accompany their owners into the afterlife, they are stunning - intricately decorated with real and imaginary creatures like these dragons (above). For the Scythians, constantly on the move, these burials are their monuments. They contain not just bling, but everything needed for life after death, including cooking pots and food. There are even some lumps of cheese on display. Found in a decorated bag, thanks to the permafrost they look dairy-fresh despite being well past their use-by date.

Also well-preserved are these women's felt stockings, beautifully embroidered and discovered in one of the Pazyryk burial mounds.

The lifestyle of the Scythians depended on horses, and they took their favourite ones with them to the grave. These were buried with elaborate bridles (above), saddle pendants, covers for the mane and tail and even masks (below), perhaps to ensure they were reborn as some kind of mythical super-beast.

Life in the Siberian landscape was tough and there was heavy competition for survival, with tribes fighting against each other. The Scythians developed a fearsome set of weapons. The exhibition includes the mummified head of a tribal chief who was killed in battle, seemingly by the three battle-axe blows to the head. (His skin bears tatoos of fearsome beasts designed to protect him.)

Weapons were highly prized by their owners - this gold scabbard, found in a tomb in the north-west Caucasus and dating from the 7th c BC, is decorated with lions and winged bulls. When united, the tribes were a continuous threat to the Persian empire and according to the Greek historian, Herodotus, they defeated King Darius and his powerful army in about 513 BC.

The archers were known to the Greeks; at one point some served as city police in Athens. This decorated Athenian plate from around 500 BC shows an archer running while looking back and  pulling an arrow from his quiver.

Life was not all battles however - they knew how to enjoy themselves. Among the finds on display is a hemp-smoking kit - Herodotus said the fumes made the Scythians 'howl with delight' as they inhaled them, and that it was also employed in cleansing rituals and for pain relief. And while sitting relaxing in their tents, drinking fermented mare's milk or imported Greek wine, it's tempting to imagine them listening to tales of past exploits and heroes.

One of these has come down to us from Herodotus - the story of how Scythes, the son of Heracles, became ruler of the Scythians after managing to string his father's bow. This beautiful bowl shows Heracles either setting up the test or concluding the tale. The Scythians outlasted the Persian empire, and there was some cultural interaction between them and their settled neighbours, but in about the second century BC they disappeared and were replaced by other nomadic powers. Now, however, the centuries of oblivion that followed are over, and their lives and achievements are being rediscovered.  A British Museum blog even suggests that George R.R.Martin may have had them in mind when he created the bloodthirsty, horseriding Dothraki in Game of Thrones.
The BP exhibition, Scythians: warriors of ancient Siberia, is at the British Museum until January 14, 2018. Admission £16.50 (concessions available).
www.britishmuseum.org

Sunken cities: Egypt's lost worlds

Divers find the statue of Hapy in Abukir Bay. ©Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation - Photo: Christoph Gerigk

For more than a thousand years, this 18 ft tall statue of Hapy, Egyptian god of the annual Nile flood, lay broken and forgotten beneath the waters of Abukir Bay, on the northernmost coast of Egypt. 

 

  

Now, restored to his former magnificence, he dominates the entrance of this fascinating exhibition at the British Museum – a fitting introduction to the story of how two ancient cities were rediscovered thanks to a dedicated team of underwater archaeologists. 

 

While these sunken cities were known to have existed, their exact location was a mystery. Records contained three names – Canopus, Thonis and Heracleion - and it was these for which the director of the European Institute for Underwater Archaeology, Franck Goddio, was searching during a dive in 1999 when he spotted granite columns protruding from the seabed. Excavations got under way the following year and the remains of a huge temple dedicated to the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis were uncovered.  Goddio had found the lost city of Canopus. As the search continued, a further site was located, four miles off the present-day coast. There, as well as the statue of Hapy, a stele dating from 380BC (below) was found that clarified the mystery. Thonis and Heracleion were not different towns - Thonis was the older, Egyptian name for the city that the Greeks called Heracleion, in honour of Herakles (Hercules).

Raising a stele inscribed with the decree of Saϊs and discovered on the site of Thonis-Heracleion.©Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation - Photo: Christoph Gerigk

 

 Thonis-Heracleion had been founded around 700 BC.  It became one of Egypt’s most important commercial centres for trade with the Mediterranean world - the remains of 69 ships and 700 anchors have been located - and, with Canopus, was a major centre for the worship of the Egyptian gods. When Alexander the Great (left)  conquered Egypt in 332 BC, he was careful to continue with the local ritual practices, including sacrifices to the royal bull, Apis, but maintained his Greek heritage.

As this exhibition shows, the growing links between Egypt and the outside world resulted in a complex society, with Greeks and Egyptians sharing politics, religious beliefs, languages and customs. Aspects of this fused culture were later exported across the Roman empire. (The exhibition has a useful table explaining the Egyptian and Greek/Roman names of the gods.)

But the cities had been built on unstable wetlands and a series of catastrophes caused them to sink into the sea, probably late in the 8^th century AD. While the covering sand gave a measure of protection to the hidden treasures, it also hampered their removal - visibility on the seabed can be poor, and there are currents to contend with. The curators have recreated the eerie underwater atmosphere by darkening the exhibition space. Photos and videos show the finds as they were when first seen, with divers and fish circling around them.

The objects on display are lit by dramatic spotlights. Two hundred of them are from the lost cities and include two colossal statues in pink granite of a king and queen (above) - probably from the reign of Ptolemy II, 283 – 246 BC and also a delicate sculpture of Arsinoe II, a Egyptian queen portrayed as the Greek goddess Aphrodite. There’s a bust of Neilos, god of the Nile, and a sculpture in a mixed Egyptian/Greek style of a queen dressed as Isis (below).

Known as the Dark Queen, she’s thought to be Cleopatra III (who married her much older uncle and was murdered by one of her sons). A video conveys the magic of the moment when a diver encountered her.

Many of the items are related to worship. A gold dish was probably used for pouring offerings and a series of model barges that at first glimpse could be toys (below) were most likely used in the secret annual rituals known as the Mysteries of Osiris, when the god was carried out on a sacred lake. The curators say these are extraordinary archaeological evidence of something that is otherwise known only through texts and images.

Among a further 100 objects drawn from collections in the British Museum and Egypt that complement the finds is a piece of jewellery in gold and lapis lazuli that belonged to the pharaoh Sheshonq I (943 – 922 BC).(below). It shows him sailing in a barge on primeval waters – a direct link to Osiris.

Pectoral in gold, lapis lazuli and glass paste, belonging to Sheshonq I. Egyptian Museum, Cairo. ©Franck Goddio / Hilti Foundation - Photo: Christoph Gerigk

The two cities covered an area about the size of Paris. Goddio estimates that only about five per cent has been excavated so far, so there are many secrets yet to be revealed. 

Until November 27, 2016. Admission £16.50, under 16 free.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/sunken_cities.aspx