MUSEUM NEWS - METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART NEW YORK, N. Y.

( Article orginally published October 1945 )

Special Exhibition Opening October 10th:
ISLAMIC METALWORK FROM THE VIII TO THE XVII CENTURY

Ewers, incense burners, boxes, and other objects from Persia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt, chiefly bronze and brass work with silver inlay, in an exhibition drawn from the Museum's collection, one of the finest in the world. Examples of Islamic jewelry in gold filigree and stone inlay and enamel will also be shown.

The art of casting bronze objects with relief decoration, such as mirrors, plaques, and animal figures, was practiced under the Saljuks, in both Iran and Mesopotamia.

Openwork was skillfully employed by Iranian metalworkers for the decoration of candlesticks and incense burners, often in the shape of birds and animals. A fine incense burner, in the shape of a lion, is in the Museum. The lion is stylized in a manner characteristic of Saljuk art and decorated with interlacings in openwork on the shoulders, the collar, and the thighs.

Below: Incense burner, Iranian, Saljuk, twelfth, century. In the exhibition of Islamic Metalwork from the eighth to the seventeenth century opening October 10 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.