Detroit
The Detroit Institute of Arts' new exhibition of Islamic art fills the walls and vitrines of eight dramatically lighted galleries with beautiful bowls, glassware, utensils, paintings, centuries-old cookbooks and more—about 230 pieces in all. What makes it notable and winning is the context in which they have been set. "The Art of Dining: Food Culture in the Islamic World" provides an entrée into a world stretching from Egypt through the Middle East and on to Central and South Asia via its robust culinary culture. Instead of displaying objects the usual way, by time period, place, medium and style, it stresses their functionality and mixes them up in themed groupings like "Eating for Health" and "Coffee Culture."
 "The Princes of the House of Timur" |
Linda Komaroff, the curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art who conceived the show, which was first presented there (as "Dining With the Sultan"), bet that viewers would better appreciate these objects if they understood how they were used to prepare, serve, enjoy and celebrate food. At the DIA, where the exhibition is on view through Jan. 5, 2025, curator Katherine Kasdorf has staged a slightly smaller version with some substitutions.
 Damascened fruits |
An introductory gallery takes viewers to ancient Iraq and the elixir of life. Water for drinking, preparing food and ritual hand-washing before and after meals, drawn from Baghdad's canals, would fill two large earthenware jars, incised with swirly designs, the earliest dating to 700-900. Simple carafes, canteens and flasks, generally earthenware or metal, were used just as water bottles are today and also, a label says, to offer water to others, which is among the greatest charities in Islam.
Nearby, exquisite steel sculptures of a quince, a pear and a melon (all 1850s-99), damascened with gold and silver, were used by Shia Muslims in processions commemorating the hunger suffered by Husayn, a grandson of Muhammad who was martyred (one of the few direct references to religious practices).
 A Banquet Scene With Hormuz" |
A broad buffet of utensils, platters, decorative cloth napkins intended to unfold across the laps of many diners, and so on, follows. Some are plain household items: an opaque green glass bottle, a spouted bowl, a two-handled jar (all 224-651) from Iran; the jar likely stored dry goods like lentils for
mujaddara, a classic dish that includes rice and onions. The design of an ochre-and-white luster painted bowl from Egypt (1100s)—four fish swimming amid the word "prosperity"—suggests it may have been used specifically for serving them.
The rich used more luxurious items, and here two delicate spoons from India—one made of white nephrite jade in the form of a bird, inlaid with gold and embellished with rubies and emeralds (c. 1600-50), and another made of gold, emeralds and rubies (1600-1700s)—are among several items showing how the wealthy impressed their guests. A small, elegant jade bowl from India (c. 1640-50), probably for wine, would reveal carved lotus leaves on its bottom when the user tipped it to drink. It may, the label suggests, have belonged to Shah Jahan, builder of the Taj Mahal.
 Peacock Taus |
The elite dressed for dinner too, as five varied robes and coats—made of silk or wool with metallic threads or embroidery from India, Syria, Turkey and Iran—show. And they entertained, with music from ouds, tombaks and other instruments shown or depicted here in manuscripts. The most splendid is a taus, a bowed stringed instrument shaped like a peacock (1800s-early 1900s) and made in India from wood, vellum, string, horsehair and feathers. Using a QR code, visitors can listen to it.
Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the most engaging pieces are the highly detailed paintings portraying picnics and feasts, like "The Princes of the House of Timur" by Mir Sayyid Ali (Persian, c. 1510-72). Set in a landscape of gold sky, craggy mountains, and a greensward laced with flowering trees, the gouache shows servants transporting food, including a plateful of melons, to Mughal Emperor Humayun and his guests, who grew in number when later artists painted in additional notables. Today the piece, a fragment of the original, is "one of the earliest surviving paintings from the Mughal Empire," according to Ms. Kasdorf.
 "Babur Enjoying a Meal..." |
In "A Banquet Scene With Hormuz: Folio From a Dispersed Manuscript of the Shahnama of Firdawsi" (c. 1485-95), eight diners sit around a
sufra, a circular cloth set with food in Chinese blue-and-white porcelain bowls. But this pleasant gathering has a twist: Hormuz is offering a poisoned morsel to a high priest. Mischief is also afoot in "A Thief Being Bitten by a Snake, From a Copy of the
Hamsa (Quintet) of Ata'ullah bin Yahya Ata'i" (1721), showing natural justice done to a man who tried to steal a purse from a group of picnickers. More normally, "Alanquva and Her Three Sons: Folio From a Copy of the Chingiznama (Book of Genghis Khan)" (1596) portrays a woman and her triplets sitting on a deep-blue sufra, set with porcelain, celadon bowls, and gold-domed dishes.
To get the most from "The Art of Dining," reading the labels and gallery guides is essential. If they do, visitors may well find themselves savoring it—and gaining a new appreciation for Islamic art.
