Special Lecture: The Dragon from Cathay: The Evolution of a Shared Motifs in the Post-Mongol Iranian World

Apr 16, 2009 6:30 PM at the Caroline Wiess Law Building

The Dragon from Cathay: The Evolution of a Shared Motifs in the Post-Mongol Iranian World

Presented by Dr. Ladan Akbarnia, Hagop Kevorkian Associate Curator of Islamic Art, Brooklyn Museum, and Consulting Curator, the Aga Khan Museum Collection

The Mongol invasions of Iran and Central Asia in the mid-thirteenth century marked a watershed in the history of Islamic art and architecture. The eastern Islamic world, in particular, witnessed a proliferation of elaborately illustrated and illuminated manuscripts, luxury objects, and monumental architecture displaying intricate architectural decoration. Present in much of this pre-modern visual culture was an unprecedented idiom, khita´i, an apparently Chinese or far eastern-inspired aesthetic revealed in the form of motifs such as lotuses, peonies, scrolling cloud bands, fantastical creatures such as dragons and phoenixes, and emphasized in eastern artistic techniques and materials.

In this richly illustrated lecture, Dr. Ladan Akbarnia focuses on a selection of objects from the Brooklyn Museum and other collections displaying the khita´i idiom, recounting the story of the development and evolution of this phenomenon in the Iranian world.

artshound.com – More about Dr. Ladan Akbarnia –MFAH Calendar