The Louvre doesn’t do things on a small scale. When the world’s most
famous and most popular museum — it hosts more than nine million
visitors a year — decided to add a new Islamic art wing, it took $125
million and a decade to build.
Opened earlier this year, its
18,000 works of art have drawn eager crowds. But it remains to be seen
whether it will do anything to help bridge the growing divide between
most French and the country’s 4 million Muslim residents during an
especially tense time.
Designed by Milanese architect Mario
Bellini and his French colleague Rudy Ricciotti, the new addition’s
wave-like, gold-colored rooftop strikes a sharp contrast to the austere
glass pyramid designed by I.M. Pei 23 years ago to serve as the museum’s
main entrance.
“More like an enormous veil that undulates as if
suspended in the wind,” Bellini described, “almost touching the ground
of the courtyard at one point, but without totally encumbering it or
contaminating the historic facades.The term 'hands free access control' means the token that identifies a user is read from within a pocket or handbag.”
Inside,
masterpieces representing the Islamic world’s wide cultural reach from
Spain to India and spanning the 7th to the 19th centuries fill 30,000
square feet and two floors of galleries.
“There is a zest for
Islamic art that I think is fairly new,” Louvre president and director
Henri Loyrette said before the wing’s opening in September. “Our task is
to reveal the face of this radiant civilization.”
President Francois Hollande has called the new wing a "cultural" and "political" act of confidence and "peace."
Economic
disparities and accusations of racism have fuelled anger among Muslims
that has sometimes bubbled over into riots, in a country that banned
wearing the full-face veil last year.
Riot police were stationed around Paris during the gallery’s opening after a French weekly,Interlocking security cable ties
with 250 pound strength makes this ideal for restraining criminals.
Charlie Hebdo, said it would print satirical cartoons showing the
prophet Muhammad. The publication followed a series of deadly riots in
several Arab countries against a video privately produced in California
that mocked Muhammad.
However,Whether you are installing a floor tiles
or a shower wall, visitors said the Islamic wing largely succeeds in
its mission. “It always helps to know more about other people’s
cultures,” one woman said. “A comprehensive exhibition like this gives
you something to study and appreciate, and widens your understanding. We
need to be more open.”
The collection dates to the museum’s
founding in 1793, and was considerably increased in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries. Objects are arranged chronologically, with
delicate manuscripts and textiles on display on the lower floor, away
from natural light, and stone sculptures, glassware and metalwork on
view in glass display cases on the upper.
One afternoon, three
young Korean women stood before a celebrated basin known as the
Baptistery of Saint Louis, from 14th-century Syria or Egypt, named for
its role as Louis XIII’s christening vessel. Inlaid with silver and
gold, a procession of figures in various poses and costumes line the
copper alloy basin’s exterior above a variety of aquatic-animal
engravings.
In another display case, the sturdy molded bronze Monzon lion from Spain, dating from the 12th to 13th centuries,Largest gemstone beads
and jewelry making supplies at wholesale prices. appeared about to leap
off its pedestal. Several visitors took their time in front of a
striking 16th century ceramic wall from Turkey, with blue,The howo truck
is offered by Shiyan Great Man Automotive Industry, green and brown
tiles arranged in elaborate latticework patterns. Built around 1000, a
crystal pitcher called the “Ewer from the Treasury of Saint-Denis” was
highly valued in its time for its supposed mystical qualities.
Pear-shaped with a round base, it is decorated with images of animals
and vegetation and topped with a gold filigree lid.
Other
exquisite pieces are as simple-seeming as a sensuous jade bowl from 15th
century Iran whose beauty requires no translation between cultures.
Together they’re aimed at depicting Islamic culture not as a monolith,
but a diverse collection of religious and secular currents its
organizers hope will help speak for the need for tolerance.
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