About the Center
Search
Outreach News
Interactions of Muslim Civilization and Renaissance Europe
Published in 2005
[No download available]
Among the most fascinating expressions of recent world history scholarship are studies of cultural exchanges and their pathways, and few periods are richer in exchanges than the late medieval era between 1000 and 1500 CE. During that period, trade routes over land and sea wove a dense network across the continents of Asia, Africa, and Europe. Through trade, migration, diplomacy, pilgrimage, scholarly study, and military encounters, objects representing the finest examples of Muslim art and artisanship entered Europe, and both the styles and techniques became deeply entwined in the aesthetic production of Western civilization.
Such cultural exchanges were explored during the program for teachers on October 16, 2004, titled “Intersection of Arab/Islamic and Western Civilization: The Arts and Material Culture of the Renaissance.” Twenty-five teachers from DC, Maryland, and Virginia attended the day-long program.
Author of Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300-1600, and holder
of a PhD in Italian Renaissance painting from Harvard University, Rosamond Mack focused on Muslim artistic influences on Italy’s decorative arts—silk textiles, ceramics, glass, gold-tooled leather, and inlaid brass—during the 14th-16th centuries. In her presentation “Arts of Splendor: Islamic Luxury Goods in Renaissance Italy,” she showed slides of both artistic traditions side by side and illustrated how the pieces from the Middle East and North Africa served as models for their Italian counterparts. She also discussed the ways that these influential imports reflected changes in the foreign production centers and international trade routes during this perio0d. Educators in attendance were excited to receive copies of Dr. Mack’s book, which the author graciously signed.
Susan L. Douglass, Principal Writer and Researcher for the Council on Islamic Education (MAAS 1993), and author of numerous books and teaching resources on Islam and Muslim history, world history, and curriculum, gave two lectures: “The Context of Exchange in the Eastern Hemisphere” and “Using Art to Teach about Aesthetic Exchanges and Technologies.” She urged teachers to examine exchanges
among cultures across space and time and cautioned against subscribing to the paradigm that the world was “reborn” only after the Renaissance, because this negates any achievements in mathematics, the natural and physical sciences, philosophy, and the arts before 1500. Ms. Douglass encouraged interdisciplinary approaches to teaching world history and encouraged research on and examination of “agents of interaction,” such as art objects, food, and goods traded among cultures.
After a Middle Eastern lunch, the group boarded a bus to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Gallery of Art−East Building, where they were given a guided tour of the current exhibit, “Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum.” Mary Pixley, a Renaissance art historian who specializes in cross-cultural art history between western Europe and the Islamic world, and currently a Lecturer on Islamic Art at the Gallery, offered in-depth analyses of the art objects in the exhibit and contextualized them within the historical, geographical, and economic forces at play during this period. Dr. Pixley’s explanations helped teachers to make connections between the two civilizations and to understand that they were not discrete entities that developed in isolation,but rather enjoyed rich interaction on many levels.
The seminar was supported by the Center and by the National Resource Center on the Middle East at Georgetown University.
Related Content
No related content exists for this item.