Using light as a theme, an exhibition in Seville, Spain,
showcases 150 masterworks and objects.
Four years ago, when the curator Sabiha Al Khemir started
preparing an exhibition on the role of light in Islamic art, her
plan was to select artworks and objects that visually expressed
light or had a direct scientific connection with it.
But as she proceeded with her research, Ms. Al Khemir, a Tunisian-
born expert on Islamic art, started expanding the show's scope
because "I got to understand that Islam makes a clear link with
light even when that link is far from apparent," she said in an
interview here. "Islam is also very much about the light of
knowledge that fights the ignorance of darkness," she added.
The result is an exhibition of 150 works, "Nur: Light in Art and
Science from the Islamic World," which runs through Feb. 9 at the
Fundacion Focus-Abengoa, a cultural center, and spans eleven
There is a bowl from Iran with stylized blue sun-rays -- so
deceptively simple that it looks as if it might be the work of a
modern artist when in fact it was made in the 13th century. Other
objects showcase the way light hits their surface, such as a set of
translucent rock crystal chess pieces made in Egypt. There are also
several dishes and bottles painted in luster, a technique that
originated on glass around the fifth century but was then adapted
and applied to ceramics in Iraq about three centuries later, using
metal oxides like silver and copper that were mixed with clay or
Many of the works on display have long been considered Islamic
masterpieces and are on loan from well-known institutions like the
Brooklyn Museum, the Bodleian Library of Oxford University or the
Alhambra Museum in Granada, Spain. Others, however, come from
private collections, like the Liechtenstein-based Furusiyya Art
Foundation, and some of these works have never before been on public
The exhibition is carefully balanced between art and science.
Islamic geometry, for instance, was "an endless permutation of the
star," Ms. Al Khemir said, as showcased in a ceiling section from
the mausoleum of Sidi Ahmed Tijani in the Moroccan city of Fez that
features a sixteen-pointed star at the center of each panel.
Astronomy, with items from astrolabes to nocturnals and lunar
volvelles, also features prominently. Lunar volvelles acted as an
extension of sundials and allowed time to be computed after sunset.
Another section of the exhibition devoted to the art of healing
highlights the way Islamic physicians doubled as philosophers,
producing medical instruments while writing voluminous
encyclopedias. The exhibition is housed in what was a health care
center, the Hospital de los Venerables, founded in the 17th century
to care for aging or poor priests. …