a nearly $130 million project that comes at a tense time between the West and the Muslim world.
Louvre curators tout their new Islamic Art department, which took 11 years to build and opened to the public Saturday, as a way to help bridge cultural divides. They say it offers a highbrow and respectful counterpart to the recent unflattering depictions of the Prophet Mohammad in Western media that have sparked protests by many Muslims.
Still, one of the Louvre’s own consultants acknowledged that some Muslims could be “shocked” by three images of Mohammad with his face exposed.
The galleries provide a showcase for one of the West’s most extensive Islamic art collections—some 18,000 artifacts that range from the 7th century to the 19th century. Most of the art has been locked away in warehouses for years.
The wing is housed under a futuristic, undulating glass roof that has garnered comparisons to a dragonfly wing, a flying carpet, even a wind-blown veil. It marks the Louvre’s biggest change since 1989 when I.M. Pei designed the iconic glass pyramid that now welcomes visitors as they arrive.
The Louvre collection’s mission is to foster understanding between the West and the Islamic world. Instead of highlighting Islam as one united religion, the Associated Press said it celebrates the secular, tolerant and cultural aspects of different Islamic civilizations.
Sophie Makariou, head of the Louvre’s Islamic art department, hopes the new wing will teach lessons about tolerance and diversity.
“I like the idea of showing the other side of the coin,” said Makariou, standing at a wall decorated with colorful, flower-patterned tiles from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century. “We are talking about a diverse world that goes from the Atlantic, Spain and Morocco to India. It brings complexity. We are suffering from simplistic views on the Islamic world. [Some] would make us believe that there is just one Islam, which is just not true.”
In a sign of the political importance of the wing, French President Francois Hollande attended an opening ceremony last Tuesday, calling it a “political gesture in the service of respect for peace.”
“The best weapons for fighting fanaticism that claims to be coming from Islam are found in Islam itself,” Hollande said. “What more beautiful message than that demonstrated here by these works?”
The collection’s organizer decided to include images of Mohammad to show the evolution of Islamic art. In one instance, he appears as a veiled character in a 16th century manuscript. And in a multimedia projection, Mohammad is shown in three separate images with his face exposed — something almost unheard-of today.
“I think Muslims will be shocked,” said Charlotte Maury, a historical consultant for the Louvre. “That’s why we put it on the side. We felt we had to use them, to illustrate [Islamic] history the way we see it.”
Maury said Mohammad’s face was only covered up in Islamic art starting in the 15th century, when Muslim scholars decided to interpret the veiled figure as a more respectful image.
The artifacts from the Louvre’s own collection and other private ones include Moghul-era carpets from India, miniature paintings from Iran showing scenes from “The Thousand and One Nights” and an astounding silver and gold inlaid basin from Egypt or Syria and dating the 1330s.
The basin (see photo above) was used for the baptism of France’s King Louis XIII and bears the inscription “Work of Master Mohammed ibn az-Zayn.”
A myriad of calligraphic styles are also on display with turquoise and white tiles from Central Asia, bejeweled ornaments and ivory objets d’art and enameled glass objects.
Not everyone was ecstatic about the new exhibit. Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Souren Melikian said it was a source of pleasure that the Louvre’s huge collection, which had been out of sight for decades, was now open for all to see. But Melikian had other problems, pointing to the odd ordering of the display and to factual errors in the labeling.
“A display reflecting the main cultural areas with a chronological progression within each one was rejected,” Melikian wrote.
“The result is often a visual blur and intellectual confusion. Sheer masterpieces, like the casket inlaid with silver and gold from 14th century Iran, perhaps the finest in the world, do not sufficiently stand out.”
Melikian said, “A number of labels are factually wrongÖ. Two ceramic ewers seen side-by-side are called ‘verseuses tripodes.’ One, however, which is Chinese, has no legs but a circular base. The truly tripod piece, which is Iranian, is argued to ‘owe its profile to the Chinese model.’ In fact, the flaring cylindrical body of the Iranian vessel, with a tubular spout rising at an approximately 45-degree angle, reproduces a model known from metalwork in early Islamic Iran.”
Melikian concludes, “The labeling and the display alike betray insufficient familiarity with the culture and history of profoundly different civilizations. The problem is not unusual in Western institutions dealing with ‘Islamic art,’ a 19th century construct. If art specialists shoved together all things Buddhist from Nepal to Japan, Cambodia and Indonesia, they would be laughed out of court.”
