4 December 2008 – 12 April 2009

Islamic fabrics in the collection of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire

In 2004, the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire was able to acquire a few dozen Islamic fabrics from Egypt and thereby complete its existing collection. This group is now the subject of a study, to be followed by a publication and an exhibition. The Département des Arts Appliqués (Applied Arts Department) wishes to display this collection which for reasons of preservation cannot be exhibited permanently. Although modest in terms of quantity, this Islamic collection holds some exceptional items such as a Mameluke tunic that is undoubtedly the finest specimen known to date and, from the same period, a baby tunic of great interest for having been made from small salvaged scraps of embroidered linen. Often reduced to fragments, these textiles nonetheless provide essential information on the clothing, living conditions and funeral rites of Islamic Egypt.

Address

Musée d'art et d'histoire
Rue Charles-Galland 2
1206 Genève
phone +41 22 418 22 00
http://www.ville-ge.ch/musinfo/mahg

Opening Hours

Daily 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., closed on Monday.

Description of the Museum

Erected between 1903 and 1910 and designed as an encyclopedic museum, it covers the whole of western culture, from its origins to the present days.

The three sectors of the museum comprise Archaeology (prehistoric, Egyptian, Greek, Etruscan, Roman); Fine Arts (some 400 paintings from the Renaissance to modern times, and sculptures by artists such as Houdon, Pradier, Rodin, Arp, Giacometti, Tinguely, etc.); Applied Arts (objects from the Middle Ages to the 20th century, such as furniture, textiles, pewterware, arms and armor).

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