Transforming Beauty: Artistic and Cultural Contacts Between The Middle East and Europe

Professor Anna Contadini

Synopsis : Middle Eastern artefacts were appreciated, collected and sometimes transformed in Medieval Europe, as is demonstrated by the rock crystals, ivory, glass, textiles and metalwork preserved in church treasuries and aristocratic collections. Cultural contacts were to evolve further during the Renaissance, with complex patterns of acquisition, emulation and innovation. Reflecting varied modalities of reception, they demonstrate openness to a transcultural dimension and an interest in the Islamic world extending to areas of intellectual enquiry.

Professor Anna Contadini's Inaugural Lecture: Transforming Beauty: Artistic and Cultural Contacts Between The Middle East and Europe

Bio : Anna Contadini is Professor of the History of Islamic Art, Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, SOAS, University of London, and Director of the “Treasures of SOAS” and “Pisa Griffin” projects, and a member of the International Centre for Medieval Art (ICMA). She has been a Curator at the V&A and the Chester Beatty Library and Lecturer in Islamic Art at Trinity College, Dublin. Her areas of research are Arab and Persian painting; art and material culture of the Islamic Middle East; and artistic contacts between the Islamic Middle East and Europe.

Contact email: events@soas.ac.uk

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