The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256-1353
Published in association with New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, this exhibition catalogue for a show currently at the Met (and to be mounted in Los Angeles this spring) offers 280 illustrations (200 in full color) of the cultural explosion that paradoxically took place after the brutal Mongol conquest of the Islamic world. Komaroff, curator of Islamic art and department head of ancient and Islamic art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Carboni, the Met's associate curator of Islamic art, have assembled eight illustrated essays from various scholars, detailing not only the art, but what life was like in "Ilkhanid" (or "subject to Khan") lands. Glorious full-page manuscript plates like King Kayd of Hind Recounting His Dream to Mihran from the Great Mongol Shahnama ("Book of Kings") show colors and spatial conceptions very different from Medieval Christian art. Tilework, architectural plans, tapestry, metalwork, lacquered pieces and much more material culture round things out beautifully, though the book's layout can make it seem like standard, somewhat stodgy catalogue fare. While the Mongol conquest did mean the end of parts of the flourishing, formerly Turkish-ruled patchwork empire's culture, this book and exhibit make a historically downplayed "legacy" come to life.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.