The new department of Islamic Art at Louvre Museum

The new Louvre Museum department “Arts de l’Islam” was opened to the public at the end of September bringing a breath of fresh air. After Pei pyramid, modern architecture can be found again, this time in the court Visconti. Work of the architects Ricciotti and Bellini and the museographist Piérard, a light, winding and transparent veil seems to rest on the two floors devoted to the expositions.

I will underline three interesting features.

The brilliant use of the digital mediation, already present in the departments of “Art objects” and “Egyptian antiquities”, but renewed and improved for the occasion, is based both on mobile and on fix devices. These, thanks to the help of sounds and videos, allow a great interactivity with the public. The insights on the production technologies are particularly interesting for us, also considering the average consideration regarded to the “know how” aspect in many museums. For some types of objects like the Lustre Pottery, the different phases of the production are reproduced, as in this case: “The object fabrication” / “The glaze application” / “The decoration realization”; for each, the consecutive steps are designed and animated. It is an example to be followed!

A Mamluk calcareous rock porch coming from Cairo has been entirely reconstructed. It was dated to the second half of the 16^th century and it had no longer been exposed after the Universal Exhibition in 1889. The stones that constituted it -5 tons- have been found in the deposits of “Les Arts Décoratifs” Museum, and were donated to Louvre with the hope of unifying the collections of the two museums. The porch was thus remounted in one of the rooms, also thanks to the financial aid of the patrons who contributed to the whole project. It is an interesting challenge also from the point of view of the conservation.

The opening was also the occasion to improve the knowledge about the date and production technique of some objects, such as the Mamluk enamelled and gilded glass mosque lamps and bottles, employing archeaometric techniques. The glass bodies of the objects and the enamels of the decorations were studied by means of Raman spectroscopy, a non-destructive technique that, thanks to the use of portable instrumentation, allowed the Ladir, a highly specialized Paris laboratory, to carry out the analyses directly in the deposits of the museum. These brought to the determination of the pigments palette employed to colour the enamels, for example lapis lazuli for blue, and, according to the raw materials used, to the determination of different classes of objects and the identification of restoration parts or copies. This is also a good example: to take advantage of the renewing of the museums to make the deposits actual laboratories, using non-destructive techniques and portable instrumentation to know at the best our cultural heritage. 

To learn more:

* http://www.louvre.fr/departement-arts-islam

* Grande Galerie – Le journal du Louvre sept./oct./nov. 2012 n.21. Journal

*A Collinet, AC DaskalakisMathews, C Juvin, S Makariou, C Maury, C Déléry, G Fellinger, D Miroudot, Annick Neveux-Leclerc, R Rante, Sous la direction de Sophie Makariou, Les Arts de l'Islam au musée du Louvre, 2012. Catalogue

* AC Daskalakis Mathews, Le porche mamlouk, 2012. Essay

*http://www.upmc.fr/fr/recherche/actualites_de_la_recherche/en_direct_des_laboratoires/chimie_secrets_de_fabrication_des_lampes_mameloukes.html

To learn more “Archaeometrically speaking”:

* Ph Colomban, A Tournié, MC Caggiani, C Paris, Pigments and enamelling/gilding technology of Mamluk mosque lamps and bottle, Journal of Raman spectroscopy, (2012), published on line DOI 10.1002/jrs.4101.