Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe - David J. Govantes-Edwards

Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe - David J. Govantes-Edwards

6. Rethinking the Borders of Islamic Art: Paterna Ceramics from the Fourteenth Century to Today

Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe - David J. Govantes-Edwards

Anna McSweeney [+-]
Trinity College, Dublin
Anna McSweeney is Assistant Professor at Trinity College, Dublin. A specialist in the art and architecture of the western Mediterranean Islamic world, her publications include an edited volume of Art in Translation on Spain and Orientalism (2017) and a monograph on the Partal palace at the Alhambra (forthcoming, 2019). She was a research fellow at the Warburg Institute in London with the Bilderfahrzeuge Project (2015-2018) and at the Museum of Islamic art in Berlin (M.I.K.) as an Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices fellow with the Forum Transregionale Studien (2013-2014). She has been a teaching fellow at SOAS, University of London since being awarded her PhD there in 2012.

Description

Recent scholarship in Islamic art and architecture has seen a growing interest in art from the borderlands – including the borders of empires, peoples, religions and practices. In this context, the art made by Muslim populations in medieval, post-Islamic Spain should be front and centre, as prime examples of Islamic art from the borders. Instead, the art of Muslims from medieval Christian Spain has remained in relative obscurity, languishing under the antiquated classifications of 'Hispano-Moresque' and mudéjar. This paper will examine the art of one of these border communities – the ceramics made in Paterna near Valencia in the 14th century – in a focused study of their production, distribution, excavation and display. It will consider how encounters with the material culture of these border communities have been inflected by the politics of excavation, museum display and academic scholarship and question whether the porous borders implicit in the term Islamicate might offer a more fitting classification than mudéjar or ‘Hispano-Moresque’.

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Citation

McSweeney, Anna. 6. Rethinking the Borders of Islamic Art: Paterna Ceramics from the Fourteenth Century to Today. Archaeology, Politics and Islamicate Cultural Heritage in Europe. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 67-81 Apr 2022. ISBN 9781781797884. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=36075. Date accessed: 29 Mar 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.36075. Apr 2022

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