À l’orientale

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Arts and Archaeology of the
Islamic World
Edited by

Marcus Milwright (University of Victoria)

Mariam Rosser-Owen (Victoria and Albert Museum)

volume 14

The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/aaiw

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 À l’orientale
Collecting, Displaying and Appropriating
Islamic Art and Architecture in the Nineteenth
and Early Twentieth Centuries

Edited by

Francine Giese
Mercedes Volait
Ariane Varela Braga

leiden | boston

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Cover illustration: Henri Moser in his armory at Charlottenfels Castle, reproduction of a gouache by
George Scott, 1912, in: Collection Henri-Moser-Charlottenfels. Armes et armures orientales, Leipzig:
K.W. Hiersemann, 1912, pl. ii.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Giese, Francine, editor. | Volait, Mercedes, editor. | Varela Braga,

Ariane, 1978- editor.
Title: À l’orientale : collecting, displaying and appropriating Islamic
art and architecture in the 19th and early 20th centuries / edited by
Francine Giese, Mercedes Volait, Ariane Varela Braga.
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2020] | Series: Arts and archaeology
of the Islamic world, 2213-3844 ; volume 14 | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019042133 (print) | LCCN 2019042134 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004410855 (hardback) | ISBN 9789004412644 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Islamic art--Appreciation--Western countries. | Islamic
art--Private collections--Western countries. | Art--Collectors and
collecting--Western countries--History--19th century. | Art--Collectors
and collecting--Western countries--History--20th century.
Classification: LCC N6260 .A12 2020 (print) | LCC N6260 (ebook) | DDC
707.509767--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042133
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019042134

Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.

ISSN 2213-3844
ISBN 978-90-04-41085-5 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-41264-4 (e-book)

Copyright 2020 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.

Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
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Contents
Foreword  vii
Albert Lutz
Acknowledgements  viii
List of Illustrations  ix
Notes on Contributors  xiv

Honoring Henri Moser Charlottenfels  1

Roger Nicholas Balsiger

Introduction: Islamic Art and Architecture Exposed  8

Francine Giese, Mercedes Volait, and Ariane Varela Braga

Part 1
Islamic Taste in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

1 Safavid Revival in Persian Miniature Painting: Renewal, Imitation and Source

of Inspiration  15
Axel Langer

2 « De véritables merveilles d’exécution » : Les vitraux du fumoir arabe

d’Henri Moser  28
Sarah Keller

3 L’art islamique et la fabrique de l’Histoire des musulmans de Sicile de

Michele Amari  39
Hélène Guérin

4 Orientalisme versus orientalité : La nouvelle appréciation des arts de l’Islam en

Pologne au début du xxe siècle  48
Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójcik

Part 2
Appropriation, Reuse and Eclecticism

5 Appropriating Damascus Rooms: Vincent Robinson, Caspar Purdon Clarke and

Commercial Strategy in Victorian London  65
Moya Carey

6 Le remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans dans l’œuvre construit

d’Ambroise Baudry en Égypte et en France  82
Mercedes Volait

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vi Contents

7 International Fashion and Personal Taste: Neo-Islamic Style Rooms and

Orientalizing Scenographies in Private Museums  92
Francine Giese

Part 3
Museums and International Exhibitions

8 Carpets and Empire: The 1891 Exhibition at the Handelsmuseum in Vienna  111

Barbara Karl

9 Henri Moser as Commissioner General of the Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina

at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris  124
Ágnes Sebestyén

10 Samarcande au nord et à l’ouest : Appropriation(s) de l’architecture timouride

à Saint-Pétersbourg et à Berne  137
Katrin Kaufmann

11 Tashkent in St. Petersburg: The Constructed Image of Central Asia in Russia’s

Nineteenth-Century Ethnographic Exhibitions  151
Inessa Kouteinikova

Part 4
Collectors and Networks

12 “Troppo amanti degli oggetti orientali”? : Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes

d’Aragona, a Collector of Islamic Art in Nineteenth-Century Florence  165
Ariane Varela Braga

13 The Arab Room of Achille Vertunni: Islamic Art in the Streets of Rome  177
Valentina Colonna

14 “Our aim is to perform something that remains after we are gone”: The Oriental
Collection Henri Moser Charlottenfels at Bernisches Historisches Museum  189
Alban von Stockhausen

15 Yakov Smirnov’s Photo Collection: The Orient in Nineteenth-Century

Photography  201
Maria Medvedeva

Who’s Who  213
Index of Persons   219
Index of Places   222

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Foreword
Recognizing the Arts of Islam in Switzerland and Beyond
I am very pleased to introduce this publication,
which presents fascinating case studies and recent
research results on collecting, displaying and ap-
propriating Islamic art and architecture during the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. All con-
tributions of this volume were originally present-
ed at the international conference A l’Orientale in
May 2017, organized within the framework of the
SNSF project “Mudejarismo and Moorish Revival
in Europe” directed by Francine Giese at the Uni-
versity of Zurich. It has been an honor to host a
part of the conference at the Rietberg Museum.
Our institution is owned by the City of Zurich and
Switzerland’s only museum for non-Western art. It
houses an internationally renowned collection of
Asian, African and South American artefacts, in-
cluding some excellent miniature paintings from
the Persian Safavid and Indian Mughal periods, as
well as several Qajar textiles and costumes.
For the first time ever, the conference’s round
table, organized by Francine Giese, Mercedes
Volait and Ariane Varela Braga, brought together
the directors of four of the most important muse-
ums and museum departments for Islamic art in
Europe—Stefan Weber from the Museum für Isla-
mische Kunst in Berlin, Kjeld von Folsach from the
David Collection in Copenhagen, Yannick Lintz
from the Louvre in Paris, and Tim Stanley from the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London—and it
certainly comes without saying that this meeting
in Zurich therefore was of major significance for
the Rietberg Museum as well. Represented by our
curator of Islamic art, Axel Langer, we participated
and contributed to the fruitful discussions that
came up during the round table on the first day
and continued during the following two days of
the conference. It has been a true pleasure to real-
ize that Zurich has become a significant center for
Islamic Art History capable of attracting experts
from all over the world. Our collaborations with
the Department of Art History at the University of
Zurich, and especially with Francine Giese’s team,
allowed us to support and promote this hitherto
underrepresented field of study here in Zurich.
I hope that in the future the city and its university
will stay important references for studies in Islam-
ic art history, and that all the efforts made in the
past years will eventually contribute to a better un-
derstanding and recognition of Islamic arts in
Switzerland.
Zurich, June 2019
Albert Lutz, Director of the Rietberg
Museum
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Acknowledgements
The international conference and proceedings
were conceived within the framework of the SNSF-
project Mudejarismo and Moorish Revival in Eu-
rope, based at the Institute of Art History of the
University of Zurich. The editors would like to
thank Albert Lutz and Axel Langer from the Riet-
berg Museum in Zurich, Mandy Ranneberg from
the Moser Familienmuseum in Schaffhausen, as
well as Roger Nicholas Balsiger from the Heinrich
and Henri Moser Foundation for their ­collaboration
with the conference. The event has been gener-
ously supported by the Swiss National Science
Foundation, the Swiss Asian Society, the Universi-
ty Research Priority Program Asia and Europe, the
ZUNIV—the Zürcher Universitätsverein, the Hein-
rich and Henri Moser Foundation, H. Moser &
Cie., the Museumsverein Schaffhausen and the
Canton of Schaffhausen. The editors are grateful to
Michael A. Conrad for his precious help in the fi-
nal stages of the preparation of this volume.
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List of Illustrations
0.1 Louis-Aimé Grosclaude, Henri Moser with mother
and sisters, oil painting on canvas, 1850, Museum
zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen.  2
0.2 Anonymous, around 1867, Henri Moser, author’s
private archives.  3
0.3 Anonymous, around 1867, Henri Moser, author’s
private archives.  6
0.4 Anonymous, around 1900, Henri Moser, diplomat,
Moser-Archives, Bernisches Historisches
Museum (BHM).  7
1.1 Picnic Scene in a Garden, ʿAlī Muḥammad
Isfahānī, Tehran, 1302 AH (1884/85 AD). Tile,
fritware with underglaze painted in polychrome,
48 × 59 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, acc. no.
512-1889. © Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.  18
1.2 Reciting Poetry in a Garden, Isfahan, 1620–60. Tile
panel, fritware with polychrome glaze (cuerda
seca). Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no.
03.9b. © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York.  19
1.3 The inside of a lid of a casket, Iran, 1860/70.
Papier-mâché, painted, gilded and lacquered,
20.5 × 25 × 37.5 cm. Sold at Sotheby’s, London, on
April 9, 2014, lot 89. © Sotheby’s.  20
1.4 Sitting Youth, Mehdī al-Imāmī, erroneously dated
1025 AH (1616/17 AD), Tehran/Isfahan, after
1912/13. Pigments, ink and gold on paper. Sold at
Christie’s, South Kensington, April 24, 2015, lot
224. © Christie’s.  21
1.5 Lacquer-painted doors, Iran, after 1913. Wood,
painted, gilded and lacquered, 189.9 × 91.5 × 9
cm. The Walters Art Museum, acc. no.
67.634. © The Walters Art Museum,
Baltimore.  23
1.6 Seated Princess, Uzbekistan, probably Bukhara,
ca. 1600. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, acc. no. S1986.304.
© The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art, Smithso-
nian Institution, Washington, DC.  25
2.1 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, Fumoir arabe d’Henri
Moser, 1907–9. © Musée d’Histoire de Berne,
1986.  29
2.2 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, Vitraux du fumoir
arabe, 1908. © Musée d’Histoire de Berne,
photographie Christine Moor, 2015.  30
2.3 Qamarīya, recto et verso, XVIIe–XIXe siècle. Caire,
Musée islamique du Caire, photographie Katrin
Kaufmann, 2018.  30
2.4 Émile Prisse d’Avennes, L’Art arabe d’après les
monuments du Kaire depuis le VIIe siècle jusqu’à
la fin du VIIIe. Paris : Morel, 1869–77, pl.
CXLV.  32
2.5 London, Leighton House, Stained Glass windows
for the studio, George Aitchison, 1869–70. Daniel
Robbins, Leighton House Museum. Holland Park
Road, Kensington. London : The Royal Borough of
Kensington and Chelsea Culture Service, 2011,
fig. 97.  33
2.6 Regello, Villa di Sammezzano, Sala dei Gigli, 1862.
© Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, photographie
Domingie & Rabatti, 2015.  34
2.7 Henri Saladin, Croquis pour le remaniement des
vitraux du fumoir arabe, 1908. Encre et aquarelle
sur papier. Berne, Musée d’Histoire de Berne, n°
d’inventaire 1908.670.162. © Musée d’Histoire de
Berne, photographie Christine Moor, 2015.  36
2.8 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, Détail d’un vitrail du
fumoir arabe, 1908. © Musée d’Histoire de Berne,
photographie Tino Zagermann, 2015.  37
3.1 F. Sabatier, Répertoire des formes grammaticales
arabes, 1864, manuscrit 467 (7), M.E.Z.M.
Photographie H. Guérin. Avec l’aimable autorisa-
tion de la médiathèque Émile Zola.  42
3.2 Vase Alhambra, dernier tiers du XIIIe siècle.
Céramique à lustre métallique, h : 113 cm,
Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid,
RM2-01/04. Photographie IVDJ. Avec l’aimable
autorisation de l’Instituto de Valencia de Don
Juan.  44
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x List of Illustrations
3.3 Vase Alhambra, XIII–XIVe siècle. Céramique à
lustre métallique, h : 125 cm, Galleria Regionale
del Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, Inv. 5229.
Photographie du musée. Avec l’aimable
­autorisation du musée.  44
3.4 Lettre de Sabatier du 13 mars 1860, Fondo Amari
XXI/7002, BRCS. Photographie BRCS. Avec
l’aimable autorisation de la Bibliothèque
régionale de Sicile.  46
4.1 Leon Wyczółkowski, Portrait of Feliks Jasieński,
1908, huile sur toile, 133x60, Musée national de
Cracovie (collection Jasieński), MNK
II-b-919.  51
4.2 Zofia Stryjeńska, Souvenir de Manggha (La
conférence de Feliks Jasieński), aquarelle, crayon,
gouache sur papier, 1912, 33 × 38,5, Musée
national de Cracovie (collection Jasieński) MNK
III-ra-5767.  52
4.3 Ceinture polonaise, Słuck, période de Jan
Madżarski (1767-80), soie à fil d’or et d’argent,
taqueté façonné et crocheté, broché, 447,0 × 36,0
cm, Musée national de Cracovie (collection
Jasieński), MNK XIX-2289.  53
4.4 Józef Pankiewicz, Vase persan, 1908, 90 × 64 cm,
Musée national de Cracovie (collection
Jasieński), MNK II-b-889.  54
4.5 Tapis de la collection Włodzimierz Kulczycki,
exposé à l’Exposition des tapis mahométans,
céramique orientale et européenne au Musée
national de Cracovie, 1934, photographie,
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe.  56
4.6 Vue de l’Exposition des tapis mahométans,
céramique orientale et européenne, Musée
national de Cracovie, 1934, photographie,
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe.  57
4.7 Musée des Princes Czartoryski, salle de la
bataille de Vienne, Cracovie [vers 1930],
­photographie, Narodowe Archiwum
Cyfrowe.  58
5.1 James Wild, An Upper Room in the House of
Mohamed Aga Chaweesh, Damascus, May 1847.
Watercolor painting on sketchbook page, 41.5 ×
29.8 cm. London, V&A E.3869-1938. © Victoria
and Albert Museum, London.  66
5.2 Frederic Leighton, Old Damascus—Jews’ Quarter,
also titled Gathering Citrons, 1873–74. Oil
painting on canvas. © Christie’s Images /
Bridgeman Images.  68
5.3 Model of the Damascus Room sold by Vincent
Robinson, 1880. Pencil and watercolor on card.
London, V&A Archive, MA/1/R1314/1 (Vincent J.
Robinson). © Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.  72
5.4 Wall from a Damascus Room, Syria, 1170
AH/1756–77, as installed at South Kensington
Museum. Museum Guardbook photograph.
London, V&A 2676-1902, negative number 24334,
photograph depicts V&A 411-1880. © Victoria and
Albert Museum, London.  73
5.5 Cupboard doors from a Damascus Room, Syria,
1204 AH/1789–90. London, V&A 504:1-1883 and
504:2-1883. © Victoria and Albert Museum,
London.  75
5.6 Wall from a Damascus Room, Syria, ca. 1081
AH/1670–71, digital reconstruction of extant
components. Dublin, National Museum of
Ireland, DF:1894.759. Photography by Valerie
Dowling and Peter Moloney, digital reconstruc-
tion by Richard Weinacht, Photographic
Department, National Museum of
Ireland.  78
5.7 Caspar Purdon Clarke, interior elevation
and ground plan of Damascus Room as
remembered in situ, sketches made in
London, October 17, 1894, and November 2,
1894. Dublin, National Museum of Ireland,
Archives, Art & Industry
Correspondence.  79
6.1 Le Caire, Villa Ambroise Baudry, élévation et
coupe, Baudry, 1875, plume et lavis rose (collec-
tion particulière).  84
6.2 Le Caire, Villa Ambroise Baudry, céramiques en
tour de porte, Baudry, 1875-76, photographe
anonyme (collection particulière).  85
6.3 Le Caire, Hôtel particulier Saint-Maurice,
élévation principale, Guimbard et Gouron
Boisvert, arch., 1872-79 (Bibliothèque de
l’INHA).  86
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List of Illustrations
6.4 Paris, Hôtel particulier Edmond de Rothschild,
fumoir, Baudry architecte, 1889-93 (Archives
Waddesdon Manor).  88
6.5 Hennebont, Château du Bot, salles de réception,
Baudry architecte, 1880-82 (Musées du
Mans).  88
6.6 Le Caire, Vaisselier présenté dans les salles
mameloukes du Musée d’art islamique mais réalisé
sur les plans d’Ambroise Baudry, vers 1875, Musée
d’art islamique du Caire, inv. 23767. Photographie
M. Volait, 2017.  90
7.1 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, interior of a
neo-Moorish style room, Karl Mayer, begun in
1893. HStAS GU 99 Bü. 557b.  97
7.2 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, interior of a
neo-Mamlūk style room, Karl Mayer, begun in
1907. HStAS GU 99 Bü. 557b.  97
7.3 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, floor
plan of the first two building phases indicating
the planned ceilings and domes, Karl
Mayer, undated. HStAS GU 120
Bü. 316.  98
7.4 Croquis pour deux chambres en style arabe, Max
Herz, March 1898. HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.  101
7.5 Neuhausen, Charlottenfels Castle, Henri Moser’s
fumoir arabe. Bernisches Historisches Museum,
Bern, BHM Ethno Ph1.240.07566.  102
7.6 Mr. H. Moser à Charlottenfels, Fumoir arabe,
coupé en long, Henri Saladin, Paris, 20 Décembre
1907. Bernisches Historisches Museum, BHM
Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.55.  103
7.7 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, pencil
drawing indicating the intended display in
rooms 1a–b, Karl von Urach. HStAS GU 120 Bü.
316.  104
8.1 Pictorial Carpet with Landscape and Pairs of
Birds, Mughal Empire, Lahore, c. 1600; Measure-
ments: 233 × 158 cm; warp/weft: Cotton, Knots:
wool; Or 292, MAK-Museum für Angewandte
Kunst, Vienna. © Georg Mayer, MAK-Museum
für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna.  115
8.2 Vienna Hunting Carpet, Central Iran, probably
Kashan, first half of sixteenth century; Measure-
ments: 687 × 331 cm; warp/weft/knots: silk and
xi
silver; T 8336, MAK-Museum für Angewandte
Kunst, Vienna. © Georg Mayer, MAK-Museum
für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna.  117
8.3 Floor Plan of the 1891 Vienna Carpet Exhibition,
supplement to the small exhibition catalog:
Handelsmuseum, ed. Katalog der Ausstellung
orientalischer Teppiche. Vienna: Verlag des k. k.
österreichischen Handelsmuseums, 1891.  121
9.1 Paris, The Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at
the Exposition Universelle, 1900. Watercolor by
Alfons Mucha, featured in Le Figaro Illustré
(March 1, 1900). © Mucha Trust 2015.  125
9.2 Budapest, The industrial pavilion of Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Millennium Exhibition, 1896.
Fortepan and Budapest City Archives,
HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.09.049.  127
9.3 Vienna, Façade of the pavilion of the government
of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 1898 Kaiser
Jubilee Exhibition. Stereo photograph by Karl
Möhls, 1898. Austrian National Library, Picture
Archives and Graphics Department,
135657-STE.  128
9.4 Paris, Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the
1900 Paris World Fair, photograph, 1900. Brown
University Archives, 3A87095.  129
9.5 Budapest, The Bosnian house and coffee house,
Millennium Exhibition, 1896. Fortepan and
Budapest City Archive,
HU.BFL.XV.19.d.1.09.063.  130
9.6 Paris, The interior of the pavilion of Bosnia and
Herzegovina at the Exposition Universelle, 1900,
colored lanternslide, 3.25 x 4 in. Brooklyn
Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collec-
tion, no. 13. II.36.  133
10.1 Saint-Pétersbourg, Mosquée, Nikolaj Vasil’ev,
1909–21. Photographie de Katrin Kaufmann,
2017.  138
10.2 Saint-Pétersbourg, Mosquée, Portail principal,
Nikolaj Vasil’ev, 1909-21. Photographie de Katrin
Kaufmann, 2017.  140
10.3 La mosquée à Saint-Pétersbourg, Projets de
concours, 1er prix, devise Timur, façade
principale, arch-te N. Vasil’ev, Zodčij, 15, 1908, pl.
10.  141
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xii
10.4 La mosquée à Saint-Pétersbourg, Projets de
concours, 2ème prix, devise Arabesques, arch-te N.
Vasil’ev, Zodčij, 15, 1908, pl. 12.  142
10.5 Berne, Vue de la Salle d’armes de la collection
Moser au BHM, vers 1925, Musée d’Histoire de
Berne.  144
10.6 Henri Moser, Tour et dôme du Gour Emir, 1889/90.
Photographie, 170 × 120 mm, Musée d’Histoire de
Berne, Inv. PH1.240.06584.01.  145
10.7 Henri Saladin, Écoinçon de la grande niche de la
salle d’armes, Musée Moser, 29.4.1918, crayon et
aquarelle. Musée d’Histoire de Berne.  146
10.8 Commission Impériale Archéologique, Détails de
la porte d’accès de la mosquée de Gour Emir, Les
Mosquées de Samarcande : Fascicule I, Gour-
Emir, 1905, pl. III, The Cleveland Museum of
Art.  146
11.1 Map of the Khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and
Kokand and part of Russian Turkestan for the
year 1873. © Collection of the State Historical
Museum, Cartographic Department,
Moscow.  154
11.2 Paul Nadar at the Tashkent Exhibition, Septem-
ber 19, 1890.  155
11.3 W. Heizelman and A. Benois, Prince Romanov’s
Tashkent Residency, 1891. © The Ministry of
Foreign Affairs of Uzbeksitan.  157
11.4 Gate to the Khiva Pavilion, Tashkent Exhibition,
1890. Albumen print. Private collection.  158
11.5 View of the Bukhara Pavilion. Albumen print,
1890. Private collection.  158
11.6 View of the Central Asian Pavilion in Moorish
Style, Aleksander N. Pomerantzev, Nizhniy
Novgorod Ethnographic Exhibition, 1896,
Kunavino district. RGALI, fond 60, file 680,
Moscow.  160
12.1 Regello, Villa of Sammezzano, exterior view,
Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona,
mid-1840s–early 1900s, © Bildarchiv Foto
Marburg/Rabatti & Domingie
Photography.  166
12.2 Regello, Villa of Sammezzano, Sala delle Stelle
(Hall of Stars), Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes
d’Aragona, early 1860s, © Bildarchiv Foto
Marburg/Rabatti & Domingie
Photography.  167
List of Illustrations
13.1 A. Vertunni, Paesaggio orientale, 1870–75, oil
painting on canvas (100 × 215 cm), Galleria d’Arte
Moderna, Milan.  181
13.2 Catalogue de la collection Vertunni : objets d’art et
de curiosité, étoffes, tableaux etc. dont la vente aux
enchères publiques aura lieu dans les magnifiques
salons de son atelier à Rome, le lundit 7 mars 1881
(Rome: Sales company Raffaele Dura, 1881),
Library of Art History and Archaeology, Rome,
Sala Crociera.  182
13.3 Salle arabe, first wall, from the 1881 sales
catalog.  184
13.4 Salle arabe, second wall, from the 1881 sales
catalog.  184
13.5 Door of a mosque, Egypt (?), fourteenth century,
from the 1881 sales catalog  185
13.6 Salle arabe, third wall, from the 1881 sales
catalog.  186
14.1 The 1886 exhibition of the Moser collection at
the Botanical Garden in Geneva. Black and white
photography, © Bernisches Historisches
Museum, BHM E/PH1.240.07571/01.  190
14.2 Plate XXIV, “Indian Maharaja Daggers.” From the
Oriental Arms and Armour catalog. Note: Moser,
Oriental Arms and Armour, plate XXIV.  194
14.3 Plate XXV, various metal objects from Persia.
From an unpublished volume on the arts and
crafts section of the Moser collection, ca. 1914. ©
Bernisches Historisches Museum 2018, BHM
E/PH1.240.15718/25.  195
14.4 The original setup of the arms collection in the
‘Great Moser,’ ca. 1925. Black and white photogra-
phy, © Bernisches Historisches Museum.  196
14.5 The ‘Souvenir Books’ of the Moser archive.
Photography: Christine Moor, © Bernisches
Historisches Museum, 2018.  198
15.1 Vladimir Beklemishev, Sergej Zhebelev, Yakov
Smirnov in Tivoli, Italy, 1896. SA IHMC RAS,
Photo Department, neg. II 42959.  204
15.2 Constantinople, Selamlık, the departure of the
Sultan to the mosque on Friday. Photography by
G. Berggren, 1870–80s. SA IHMC RAS, Photo
Department, imp. О.1020/13.  205
15.3 Egypt. Annual Flooding of the Nile. Photography
by Abdullah Brothers, 1887. SA IHMC RAS, Photo
Department, imp. Q 544/27.  206
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List of Illustrations
15.4 Palestine. Guides, Dragomans and Bedouin
horsemen. Photography by L. Fiorillo, ca. 1880.
SA IHMC RAS, Photo Department, imp.
Q 546/31.  207
15.5 Granada, Alhambra, interior of Mosque.
Photography by Linares, late nineteenth century.
SA IHMC RAS, Photo Department, imp.
Q 537/16.  208
xiii
15.6 Thessaloniki, Church of St. Sophia. Photography
by Yakov Smirnov, 1895. SA IHMC RAS, Photo
Department, imp. Q 536/14.  209
15.7 Yakov Smirnov with three companions, Thessa-
loniki, 1895. SA IHMC RAS, Photo Department,
imp. Q 536/11.  210
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Notes on Contributors
Roger Nicholas Balsiger
chairs the Heinrich and Henri Moser Foundation
as great-grandson of Heinrich Moser, the watch-
making pioneer, and as great-nephew of Henri
Moser, the donator of the Oriental Collection to
the Historic Museum in Berne. He wrote various
biographies about his ancestors, among which, to-
gether with Ernst J. Kläy, on Henri Moser: Bei
Schah, Emir und Khan.
Moya Carey
is the Curator of Islamic Collections, at the Ches-
ter Beatty Library in Dublin, Ireland. Her research
addresses the nineteenth-century history of col-
lecting in the Middle East, with specific reference
to the formation of the South Kensington Museum
(today the V&A). She has recently published Per-
sian Art. Collecting the Arts of Iran for the V&A
(London: V&A, 2018). She is currently working on a
long-term research project with Mercedes Volait,
on architectural salvage in nineteenth-century
Cairo.
Valentina Colonna
is a scholar of Islamic art history. She obtained her
PhD in culture and territory with a thesis on the
collection of Islamic art in Rome during the nine-
teenth century. She has published articles on the
Islamic collection in Italy, Turkey and Syria. She
participated in international conferences and in
the organization of the exhibition “Il fascino
dell’Oriente nelle collezioni e nei musei d’Italia”
(Frascati, February, 2012) and received a master’s
degree in museology in 2016.
Francine Giese
is director of the Vitrocentre and Vitromusée Ro-
mont. From 2014–19 she held a SNSF professorship
at the Institute of Art History of the University of
Zurich, where she led the research project Mudeja-
rismo and Moorish Revival in Europe. Her PhD the-
sis, dealing with the Islamic ribbed vault, was pub-
lished in 2007 (Gebr. Mann), and her ­habilitation
(second book) on building and restoration prac-
tices in the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba issued
in 2016 (Peter Lang). Her research focuses on the
artistic and cultural heritage of al-Andalus, cross-
cultural exchanges during the Middle Ages, archi-
tectural Orientalism and the arts of glass.
Hélène Guérin
docteur en histoire de l’art contemporain, cher-
cheur au LIFAM. Maître de conférences associée à
l’École nationale supérieure d’architecture de
Montpellier. Travaille sur les rapports entre l’art et
les (id)entités territoriales : plus précisément le
rôle de l’histoire de l’art dans l’invention des terri-
toires aux XIXe et XXe siècles. Ses travaux sont
géographiquement situés en Europe et en Asie.
Dernières parutions : « Les kote-e de la province
d’Oita, objets de patrimonialisation », Revue de
l’université de Beppu (en japonais), 2018; « Une mé-
taphysique de l’art au service de la science sociale :
François Sabatier lire et écrire avec ­Fourier », Ca-
hiers Charles Fourier, n°28, 2017, 51–65.
Barbara Karl
studied art history and languages at the University
of Vienna. Before becoming director of the Textile
Museum St. Gallen, she was curator of Textiles and
Carpets at the MAK—Museum für angewandte
Kunst in Vienna. Since her PhD she has published
books and articles on Indian textiles for the Euro-
pean market, merchants as agents of intercultural
transfer, the influence of India on European mate-
rial culture, collecting of Islamicate Art in Medici
Florence and Habsburg Vienna and Ottoman
textiles.
Katrin Kaufmann
a étudié l’histoire de l’art et les langues et littéra-
tures slaves, à Berne et à Berlin. Elle travaille au
Service des monuments historiques du canton
de Berne et est doctorante à l’Université de Zu-
rich. Sa thèse sur l’architecture orientalisante à
­Saint-Pétersbourg fait partie du projet de ­recherche
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Notes on Contributors
Mudejarismo and Moorish Revival in Europe, sous
la direction de Francine Giese.
Sarah Keller
est collaboratrice scientifique pour le Corpus Vi­
trearum au Vitrocentre Romont depuis 2013 et in-
ventorie les vitraux suisses de la Renaissance et du
baroque. Comme spécialiste du vitrail elle colla-
bore au projet Mudejarismo and Moorish Revival in
Europe de l’Université de Zurich. Son doctorat à
l’Université de Berne était dédié à la réception des
motifs islamiques en Espagne romane.
Agnieszka Kluczewska Wójcik
est vice-présidente du Polish Institute of World Art
Studies (Polski Instytut Studiów nad Sztuką Świata,
Varsovie), éditeur scientifique du Corpus de la col-
lection Feliks Jasieński au Musée National de
Cracovie. Elle est notamment l’auteur de Feliks «
Manggha » Jasieński and his Colletion at the Na-
tional Museum in Krakow (2014). Elle a édité plu­
sieurs volumes, dont: Modernity of Collection (2010),
Art of Japan, Japanisms and Polish-Japanese Art Re-
lations (2012), Korea. Art and Artistic Relations with
Europe (2014), Kolekcjonerstwo polskie XX i XXI wieku
(Collectionnisme polonais du XIXe et XXe siècles,
2015), Siemiradzki that we do not know (2018).
Inessa Kouteinikova
is a senior researcher and art historian, living in
the Netherlands. Her interests include Russian
and International Orientalism, and the develop-
ment of the photographic industry in Central Asia,
Caucasus and the Crimea from 1860 to 1917. She is
currently writing a monograph on the emergence
of albumania, reception, representation and dis-
play of Russia’s nineteenth-century colonies in the
International exhibitions. Working closely with
the Russian museums, she has curated and co-­
authored various exhibitions in Europe, America
and Australia.
Axel Langer
studied art history at the University of Zurich. He
has been working for the Museum Rietberg
Zürich since 1999, where he is curator for ­Islamic
xv
Middle-Eastern Art. Beside his various contribu-
tions to transcultural exhibitions, he also orga-
nized exhibitions himself, such as on blue-and-
white ceramics, Qajar textiles and the cultural
exchange between Europe and Persia in the sev-
enteenth century. He is currently working on a
project on aniconism in Islamic and Christian art.
Maria Medvedeva
is an archaeologist. She graduated from Saint-­
Petersburg State University, and completed her
PhD at the Institute for the History of Material
Culture, Russian Academy of Sciences, at whose
archives she has been working as of 1999 and has
become its head in the meantime. Her research in-
terests are focusing on the history of archaeology
and preservation of antiquities in Russia at the
end of the nineteenth and in the beginning of the
twentieth centuries.
Ágnes Sebestyén
obtained her MA degree in Art History in Budapest
in 2006. She worked in the field of contemporary
art in Budapest and Wiesbaden between 2002 and
2010, and at the Hungarian National Gallery (2010–
11). She completed her PhD between 2012 and 2016
at the Institute of Art History/Graduate School of
the Humanities at the Walter Benjamin Kolleg at
the University of Bern. She has been working as the
Project Director of the European Foundation for
Education in Stuttgart since 2017.
Alban von Stockhausen
is an anthropologist and curator based in Bern,
Switzerland. His recent work focused on the Great-
er Himalayan region and historic photo collec-
tions. He is curator for the ethnographic collection
at Bernisches Historisches Museum that also
keeps objects, photographs and documentation
materials donated by Henri Moser in 1914.
Ariane Varela Braga
is an art historian and lecturer at the University
of Geneva. She studied at the universities of Ge-
neva and Neuchâtel. Her PhD dissertation (2013),
about Owen Jones’s Grammar of Ornament, was
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xvi
published in 2017 (Campisano Ed.). From 2014 to
2019, she was research assistant in the SNSF proj-
ect Mudejarismo and Moorish Revival, directed by
Francine Giese at the University of Zurich. Her
interests focus on the theory of ornamentation
and decorative arts, the reception of non-West-
ern art, colored marbles and artistic migrations.
Mercedes Volait
est directeur de recherche au CNRS (laboratoire
InVisu, Paris) et chercheur associé au Victoria
Notes on Contributors
and Albert Museum depuis 2015. Elle est spé-
cialiste de l’orientalisme architectural et anti-
quaire né au contact des monuments du Caire
au XIXe siècle. Elle a notamment publié Fous du
Caire : excentriques, architectes et amateurs d’art
en Egypte (1867–1914) (2009) et Maisons de
France au Caire : le remploi de grands décors
mamelouks et ottomans dans une architecture
moderne (2012). Elle étudie actuellement avec
Moya Carey le remploi architectural dans Le
Caire khédivial.
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Honoring Henri Moser Charlottenfels
From Silkworm Exporter to Explorer, Diplomat and Collector: The Illustrious Life of Henri Moser
Roger Nicholas Balsiger, grandnephew of Henri Moser Charlottenfels
Baron Benjamin von Kallay (1839–1903), at that
time the mighty and famous Finance Minister of
Austria-Hungary, engaged him; the Emir of Bucha-
ra and the Khan of Chiwa valued him; he traveled
with Prince von Wittgenstein (1834–1904), Prince
Hilkoff (1843–1942), as also with General Annen-
koff (1835–99); he trained horses for Emperor
Francis Joseph (1848–1916); by instruction of the
Swiss Federal Council, he attended to Shah-in-
Shah Nasr-Ed-Din (1848–96) during his three days’
visit to Switzerland in 1873 and was received in au-
dience by the same in Tehran in 1884; he paid his
respects to the President of Mexico; the King of
Belgium and the French President visited his exhi-
bitions; he received the President of the Swiss
Confederation in his re-acquired Charlottenfels
Castle. He was decorated with many medals and
received numerous awards. He was made a Mem-
ber of the French Legion d’Honneur, named Doctor
honoris causa, an Honorary Guild Member and
Honorary Citizen of the City of Berne. He climbed
to the rank of Lieutenant of the Swiss Cavalry, was
made a Russian Cossack Officer, and was promot-
ed to Honorary General by the Shah-in-Shah. And
he called himself an estate owner and agronomist,
acted as merchant, trading agent and a breeder of
silkworms; he counselled the Swiss Federal Coun-
cil on matters concerning international trade
­diplomacy; he was exhibition manager and Com-
missioner General for Bosnia and Herzegovina in
the services of Austria-Hungary; Henri Moser was
a baker and a pool supervisor, geographer, explor-
er, author of books and brilliant orator, a conversa-
tionalist of charm, and, at the age of 71, a caring
refugee commissioner. He chased women as much
as he hunted bears. He was a pioneer, an adven-
turer, acquired a taste for weapons and was a col-
lector. But yet the question: was there a true Henri
Moser? Who was he really?
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_002
He was born in Saint Petersburg on May 13, 1844,
as son of the industrialist tycoon Heinrich Moser
(1805–74) and his wife Charlotte (1810?–50) (fig.
0.1). This fifth addition to the family finally was the
long-expected son and heir apparent for the em-
pire his father had created. Four years later, in
1848, the family returned to Schaffhausen. At age
six, Henri’s mother died in an accident suffered
from a coach ride. “The loss of his mother had a
lasting effect on his life […],”1 his sister Emma later
wrote in German, looking back.
Henri was raised by governesses, but his school-
ing efforts left something to be desired, especially
because he got distracted by many pastimes, in-
cluding horse riding. Throughout his life the father
seemed an overpowering figure, who would make
Moser at times feel helpless and inferior. Whilst,
later in the cavalry, he would enjoy military ser-
vice, he seemed less talented for watchmaking, his
father’s business. From letters and other family-
related sources it can be gathered that the father
had high expectations of his son, which seemingly
was a source of constantly feeling inferior. Under-
taking foreign business travels on behalf of his fa-
ther, however, was an occupation for which he
seemed better suited (fig. 0.2). Unfortunately, this
would not keep him from pursuing various distrac-
tions, such as hunting, riding and amorous adven-
tures. In the letters to his son, the father scolds his
son for his extravagant lifestyle, which eventually
led him to recall Henri from St. Petersburg to Le
Locle, which would, however, not prevent him
from causing scandals. As a result, he was demot-
ed and posted to Russia again to avoid further
­reputational risks for the company. Henri had
1 Roger N. Balsiger and Ernst J. Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und
Khan (Schaffhausen: Meier Verlag, 1992), 12.
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2 Balsiger

Figure 0.1 Louis-Aimé Grosclaude, Henri Moser with mother and sisters, oil painting on canvas, 1850,
sMuseum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen

d­ ifficulties coping with this personal and profes-
sional setback, and consequently continued his
frivolous laissez-faire lifestyle in Saint Petersburg.
However, the father’s loyal staff would inform him
about his son’s misbehavior, who then decided to
confront Henri in a long, emotional letter, wherein
he analysed the business activities of his son as be-
ing inconsistent and disastrous, concluding: “[…]
I shall neither disown nor curse you but as you
present yourself today, you cannot remain in my
c­ ompany […]. You are herewith dismissed […]!”2
The letter, written in German, furthermore contin-
ued: “[…] Du wilst nicht Gutes bewürken, Du wilst
nur glänzen, das Herz geht dabey leer aus.”3 This
2 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 21.
3 “[…] you do not intend to engage in laudable activities […]
you only wish to cause a stir […] nothing emanates from
your heart […],” in Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und
Khan, 212 (author’s translation).

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Honoring Henri Moser Charlottenfels
dismissal not only marked the beginning of a life-
long estrangement between father and son, it also
revealed to Heinrich the bitter truth that his son
would not follow in his footsteps.
Henri, on the other hand, seemed little affected
and rather willing to enjoy this new freedom and
liberation from family burdens: after the life-
changing event he began to collect watches and
jewellery from the company’s treasury, quit and
tried to follow the Russian General Skobeleff,
who in 1866 invited young men from the upper
class to join him exploring unknown territories in
3
Figure 0.2
Anonymous, around 1867, Henri Moser, author’s
private archives
­ entral Asia. This prospect was attractive for Hen-
C
ri, who, even though he had no formal invitation to
join the General, left Moscow on October 1, 1868,
with the objective to reach the expedition via dif-
ferent routes. While staying in Orenburg for
some months, he made himself familiar with the
language and culture of the Kirghiz. From there,
he travelled through the nomad veld to Tash-
kent. However, after finally reaching the troops,
he was informed that the battles had already
been waged and that Samarkand had fallen six
months ago.
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4 Balsiger
The result of this unforeseen end to his Central
Asian adventure was a return to his carefree and
extravagant lifestyle. Yet his shrinking assets soon
made him take on odd jobs, including training
horses, running a bakery, and even acting as a pool
supervisor. Yet, unaffectedly, he wrote: “j’étais fier
de dire que jamais je n’avais obéi à qui que ce fût.”4
In 1869/70, he undertook a second exploratory trip
to Central Asia that again brought him to Turkes-
tan, Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara. While en
tour, he encountered a silkworm breeder called
Adamoli, who offered him the exportation of silk-
worms to Italy for his company. Henri obtained
the support from the General Governor of Turkes-
tan, General Kaufmann, but competency disputes
between the Province of Turkestan and the Asian
Department in St. Petersburg complicated matters
considerably. In spite of interventions by Prince
Gortschakow (1798–1883) and Italian Prime Minis-
ter Riccasoli (1809–80), the venture failed and led
to Moser’s bankruptcy. Financial demands were
placed upon him, until a compromise settlement
was arrived at through the intermediary of Prime
Minister Riccasoli.
This failure seemingly shattered Henri’s health
and self-confidence, a condition even worsened by
the fact that his father married the Baroness Fanny
von Sulzer-Wart (1848–1925), who happened to be
43 years younger than her groom. He recovered as
guest of his sister Sophie, who was married to a
count—a proprietor of a vast territory in Transyl-
vania, where Henri would go hunting bears and
wild boar. In 1873, Shah Nasr Ed-Din paid Switzer-
land an official visit, for which the Swiss Federal
Council invited Henri to accommodate him dur-
ing his three days there. After that, Henri attempt-
ed, for the last time, to re-enter the company of his
father. While their negotiations were advancing,
the father fell ill and their talks were postponed.
4 “I was proud to say that I have never obeyed anyone, who-
ever this may have been,” Robert Pfaff, Henri Moser-Char-
lottenfels und seine Orientalische Sammlung, Beiträge zur
Geschichte 62/1985 (Thayngen: Karl Augustin AG, 1985),
212 (author’s translation).
Henri then tried to visit Heinrich again on March
22, 1874, but his stepmother prevented him from
doing so on the very doorsteps, using her hus-
band’s ill health as a pretext.
Heinrich Moser died seven months later, so that
a long letter he had written to his father after his
last attempt to see him would remain unanswered,
which must have made clear to him that he would
not be able to make up with his father anymore.
Heinrich Moser’s demise certainly was a devastat-
ing experience, although it also meant that Henri
would no longer feel the shadow of his father
looming over him.
After another retreat to his favourite sister in
Transylvania, he organised his first exhibition of
artefacts from Central Asia in Schaffhausen in
1876. Then, in January 1883, Henri emerged in St.
Petersburg, with a plan to cross Asia from west to
east, through Central Asia to the east coast of Chi-
na, something that had never been done before by
anyone. It was a fortunate coincidence that he
could join Prince Wittgenstein on his official jour-
ney. Starting out in Orenburg, they headed for the
Ural Mountains to Orsk and then continued on to
the velds of the Kazakhs. After passing the Aral
Sea, the desert of Kara-kum and the red desert
Kysyl-kum, they finally reached Tashkent, where
presents were handed to local dignitaries and in
turn received. From there, they continued to Sa-
markand. In Bukhara, Emir Mozaffar-ed-Din gave
a reception, and further gifts were exchanged.
­After that, Henri left the official delegation and fol-
lowed the right bank of the Amu-Darja. After arriv-
ing in Chiva, he journeyed on to Kysyl-Arwat, via
the mountainous ridges of the Kurdish Kopet-
Dagh to the plains of Chorasan. After another lap
of seven days, he finally reached Tehran, albeit in
an exhausted state of health, and was received in
audience by the Shah-in-Shah, who recognized
him from his trip to Switzerland eleven years back.
After this adventure in Central Asia, Henri Mos-
er started recording his adventures in letters which
would then be printed in the Journal de Genève. In
addition, he published his book À travers l’Asie
centrale in 1885. In the meantime, he had become
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Honoring Henri Moser Charlottenfels
an internationally acclaimed expert on the life and
culture of Central Asia, because of which he would
hold lectures at the International Geographic So-
ciety and other prestigious institutions (fig. 0.3).
Additionally, he continued to collect artefacts
from the region. In 1886, he started a travelling
exhibition in Schaffhausen, which would lead
­ François Sadi Carnot (1887–94) opened a travel-
him through seven cities in Switzerland; while in
Berne, it was visited by the President of the
Federal Council, accompanied by two Federal
­ In the following year, the Finance Minister of
Councillors.
Elated by his success, he submitted proposals to
the Federal Council one year later by way of a me-
morial called The Trade Relations of Switzerland
with Foreign Countries. The idea was to improve
the efficiency in exporting goods, yet this well-­
intended plan was to no avail. Instead, the Bernese
newspaper Bund commented cynically, “[…] what
usefulness Mr. Moser offers in his memorial is not
new, and what new ideas he offers are not useful.”5
In the same year, he got married to his own niece
Marguerite (1862–1929). This marriage to a relative
of his, the reasons of which are unknown, resulted
in a child—a boy called Benjamin Henri Schaff-
house—who died just after ten months, in 1898.
Henri’s financial means too were in a regrettable
state and forced him to sell Charlottenfels Castle,
although he actually was not permitted to do so
legally due to the last will dispositions of his
mother.
A telegram from General Annenkoff reached
him in May 1888, stating that the General wanted
to build the Caspian Railway which would lead
from the Caspian Sea to Samarkand. He succeeded
in winning Henri over to take care of the project to
irrigate Zeravshan River dry by directing the water
of the Amu-Darja through a large channel to the
Province of Kara-kul. This project was the main
reason for his fourth journey through Central Asia,
during which he would also be accompanied by
5 “Was Hr. Moser Brauchbares in seinem Memorial bietet,
ist nicht neu, und was er Neues bietet, ist nicht brauchbar,”
in Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan; 49 (au-
thor’s translation).
5
his wife. His attempts to grow cotton there as well
as the Bordeaux grape resulted in the publication
of the book L’irrigation en Asie centrale. Étude
géographique et économique, Paris, 1894, which
turned out to be reviewed positively in the London
Times. In July 1891, the French President Marie-
ling exhibition of Henri Moser’s collection which
proved a resounding success.
Austria-Hungary, Baron Benjamin von Kallay, one
of the most influential politicians of the era, of-
fered Henri to be appointed Commissioner Gen-
eral for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which Moser ac-
cepted, thus making him one of the leading
European diplomats of his time. But before assum-
ing the position, he first travelled to the usa, where
he held lectures, thereafter continuing to Mexico,
where he was welcomed by President Porfirio Diaz
(1876/77–80, 1884–1911). Yet in a telegram Kallay
asked for Moser’s immediate return to prepare
works for the pavilions for the 1897 World Exhibi-
tion in Brussels, where Henri Moser intended to
place Bosnia and Herzegovina on the global map.
This proved another success: after his visit of Mos-
er’s pavilions, King Leopold ii of Belgium (r. 1865–
1909) was full of compliments. Three years later, at
the World Exhibition in Paris, Moser reached the
peak level of his diplomatic activity, through the
uniqueness of the displayed constructions. Conse-
quently, Henri Moser received numerous decora-
tions and an invitation to enter the Légion
d’Honneur. Yet after Baron von Kallay’s death three
years later, Henri’s diplomatic career came to an
abrupt end, even though Emperor Francis Joseph i
(r. 1848–1916), who had received him in audience
twice before, continued his invitations to go hunt-
ing with him.
After his diplomatic career, Henri started spec-
ulating on Spassky copper mines, which made him
a rich man and allowed him to buy back Charlot-
tenfels Castle, where he would from now on host
many dignitaries, such as the President of the
Swiss Confederation, or the Persian Crown Prince,
as well as many other high-ranking personalities.
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6 Balsiger
On December 29, 1909, Henri set up a Foundation
with the purpose of endowing Charlottenfels Cas-
tle, the estate and the Oriental Collection to
Schaffhausen. Since, however, the city of Schaff-
hausen rejected his offer to become home to his
now unique Oriental Collection, the Bernese His-
toric Museum proposed to build a special annex to
permanently host it. Moser accepted. “Ein fürstli-
ches Geschenk fürwahr […] die grösste orien-
talische Sammlung in Privatbesitz,” the newspaper
Bund wrote on February 5, 1914.6 Berne subse-
quently conveyed upon him the Doctor honoris
6 “[…] a princely gift indeed […] the largest oriental collec-
tion in private hands[…],” Der Bund 65, Nr. 59, Abendblatt,
February 5, 1914, 1 (author’s translation).
Figure 0.3
Anonymous, around 1867, Henri Moser, author’s
private archives
causa, an honorary guild membership and the
honorary citizenship of the city of Berne.
In 1915, he was appointed Refugee Commission-
er during World War i, which led him to engage
very actively in improving the lives of refugees and
even house many of them at Charlottenfels Castle
(fig. 0.4).
Eventually, the inauguration of his Oriental Col-
lection at the Bernese Historic Museum took place
on May 21, 1922, with a public speech by Moser.
“[...] un discours dans lequel il remerciait Dieu de
lui avoir accordé la grâce de voir le rêve de sa vie
réalisé […],”7 his wife Marguerite noted. Only 14
7 “[…] a speech in which he thanked God for having gra-
ciously accorded him the chance to see his dream come
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Honoring Henri Moser Charlottenfels
months later, on July 15, 1923, Henri Moser died of
pneumonia in Vevey, after a life during which he
had pioneered in many faculties and which might
be regarded as a posthumous proof to his father of
his worthiness, thus echoing a verse by Persian
poet Sheikh Sādi (1210?–92?), which had accompa-
nied Moser his entire life: “Our aim is to accom-
plish something which will survive us.”8
true […]”, in M.M. (identified as Marguerite Moser by reli-
able sources), Une vie Henri Moser Charlottenfels (Laus-
anne: Payot & Cie., 1929), 124 (author’s translation).
8 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 197.
7
Figure 0.4
Anonymous, around 1900, Henri Moser, diplomat,
Moser-Archives, Bernisches Historisches Museum (bhm)
Bibliography
Balsiger, Roger N. and Kläy, Ernst J. Bei Schah, Emir und
Khan. Schaffhausen : Meier Verlag, 1992.
Moser, Marguerite. Une vie Henri Moser Charlottenfels.
Lausanne : Payot & Cie., 1929.
Pfaff, Robert. “Henri Moser-Charlottenfels und seine
Orientalische Sammlung”, Beiträge zur Geschichte,
62, 1985: 117–56.
Zeller, Rudolf. “Die orientalische Sammlung von Henri
Moser auf Charlottenfels (Schaffhausen)”, Der Bund
65, no. 59, February 5, 1914, 1.
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Introduction: Islamic Art and Architecture Exposed
Francine Giese, Mercedes Volait, and Ariane Varela Braga
This collection of essays presents the outcome of
the international conference “À l’orientale. Col­
lecting, Displaying and Appropriating Islamic Art
and Architecture in the 19th and early 20th cen­
turies,” held at the University of Zurich, the Riet­
berg Museum and Charlottenfels Castle in May
2017. Conceived in the framework of the Swiss
National Science Foundation (snsf) project
“Mudejarismo and Moorish Revival in Europe,”
the aim of the conference was to emphasize the
significance of Islamic art and architecture for
the artistic renewal in the West during the nine­
teenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as to
trace back the beginnings of the collecting of Is­
lamic Arts and their private and public display.
Contrary to most conferences on the topic, the
focus was not only laid on major European collec­
tions and interiors but also on lesser known ex­
amples from Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia
and the Islamic World. Divided in four sections,
the present volume reflects this thematic spec­
trum, starting with contributions assessing the
curiosity and taste for Islamic arts in the West,
which later on lead to different modes of appro­
priation oscillating between reuse and eclectic
recreations, with the latter ­being the topic of the
second section. The same processes are also ob­
servable in the sphere of museums and interna­
tional exhibitions treated in the third section.
Here, the suggestive pavilions and evocative mu­
seum displays helped create fictitious and global­
ly diffused notions of the East. ­Finally, the last
section is dedicated to the importance of nine­
teenth-century collectors and their international
networks, and it is in this context that it becomes
the most apparent how much the relevant actors
of this international phenomenon lived in an in­
terconnected world, wherein East and West met
in cultural and artistic ways that often were not
balanced equally.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_003
Due to a growing Islamoscepticism, museum
departments dedicated to Islamic arts are becom­
ing ever more important as mediators between the
Islamic World and the West. The challenges these
departments face today and their respective coun­
ter-strategies were further talking points. During a
round-table that involved the participation of cu­
rators from the Louvre, the Victoria and Albert
Museum, the Berlin Museum für Islamische Kunst
and the David Collection Copenhagen, we had the
opportunity to discuss and learn about the differ­
ent devices and methods used by each museum
for enhancing the awareness of the history of Is­
lam and the visibility of each collection. For in­
stance, the participants exchanged their views on
the increasingly important role digital technolo­
gies and communication media play today, and
how they have become an essential element in
curatorial practices. Another related issue was
­
how to adapt display strategies to new audiences
­attracted by Islamic art collections because of
their Muslim culture and identity. And finally, the
complex issues of provenance and repatriation
were discussed thoroughly, as well as the impor­
tance of transparency in respect of the history of
collections.
That such exceptional exchange would take
place in Switzerland might surprise at first, given
that the country is rarely associated with impor­
tant Islamic art collections. However, it actually is
home to an outstanding private collection of Is­
lamic art, most of it assembled during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by the
Swiss Henri Moser Charlottenfels (1844–1923), a
famous traveler to the Orient. Born to a wealthy
Swiss industrial in St Petersburg in May 1844, Hen­
ri Moser is considered one of the pioneering ama­
teurs of Islamic art in the nineteenth century, who
during extensive journeys became well acquainted
with the East. However, contrary to most of his
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Introduction: Islamic Art and Architecture Exposed
contemporaries, Moser was less interested in the
highly frequented centers of Cairo, Damascus or
Istanbul. Instead, he traveled to the more r­ emote
parts of Central Asia, which was due to his person­
al and business-related engagements with Russia.
In the course of four journeys between 1868 and
1890, he became familiar with local customs, as
well as with regional forms of Islamic art and ar­
chitecture. This is attested to by both his travel­
ogue À travers l’Asie centrale, published in Paris in
1885, and his extensive photo collection, today
kept at the Bern Historical Museum. Like other
contemporaries, such as the influential Russian
historian of Early Christian and Byzantine Art, Ya­
kov Smirnov (1869–1918), whose photo collection,
discussed in this volume by Maria Medvedeva, is
today preserved at the Russian Academy of Sci­
ences in St Petersburg, Henri Moser documented
his travels meticulously.
As Alban von Stockhausen informs us in his
contribution, it was during these journeys that
Moser laid the foundation to his vast collection.
Whereas its core was formed by gifts from Russian
military officers and local regents, such as the Emir
of Bukhara, Moser extended his collection through
acquisitions from international art dealers and
private collectors in Paris, London, Berlin, Munich,
and Geneva. The trade of Islamic artefacts aside,
there was a growing market for salvages and origi­
nal architectural pieces, as Moya Carey demon­
strates with her reconstruction of the itinerary of a
Damascus room that Caspar Purdon Clarke ex­
ported from Syria to Vincent Robinson in London
and of which some fragments are preserved at the
Victoria and Albert Museum in London. London
and Paris were not the only places were amateurs
could find precious objects. Italy, too, played an
important part in the diffusion of Islamic art; Ari­
ane Varela Braga’s study of the Florentine art col­
lector Marquis Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes
d’Aragona illustrates this as much as Valentina
Colonna’s examination of Achille Vertunni’s Arab
Hall in Rome. Moreover, in her contribution on
the significant role François Sabatier played in
the development of Michele Amari’s Storia dei
9
­ usulmani di Sicilia, Hélène Guérin’s contribution
m
proves how much Italy’s Islamic past, especially in
Sicily, raised the attention of nineteenth-century
historians.
In the second half of the nineteenth century,
the influence of art dealers, artists and private col­
lectors on the development and implementation
of new display strategies had grown considerably.
Accordingly, various members of the Parisian cul­
tural scene were known for their important art
­collections, their exemplary displays thereof, and
their involvement in the groundbreaking exhibi­
tion of Islamic art that took place in the French
capital in 1893. Among the most relevant pro­
tagonist we find Albert Goupil (1840–84) and his
brother-in-law, the artist Jean-Léon Gérome
­
(1824–1904), Baron Edmond James de Rothschild
(1845–1934), Baron Alphonse Delort de Gléon
(1843–99), the architects Henri Saladin (1851–1923)
and Ambroise Baudry (1838–1906), the Orientalist
Charles Schefer (1820–98), and the art dealers Ja­
cob and Salomon Bacri. With its Orientalizing
­scenography, the Paris Exposition d’art musulman
­­became an important reference for later exhibi­
tions and displays in private museums.1 As for the
special case of carpet displays, in her article Bar­
bara Karl stresses the importance of the 1891 exhi­
bition at the Viennese Handelsmuseum and its
influence on the formation of the scholarly disci­
pline of Islamic art history. Agnieszka Kluczewska
Wójcik’s contribution, which analyzes the forma­
tion of Polish Orientalism at the beginning of the
1 David J. Roxburgh, “Au Bonheur des Amateurs: Collecting
and Exhibiting Islamic Art, ca. 1880–1910, Ars Orientalis 30
(2000): 9–38; Stephen Vernoit, ed., Discovering Islamic Art.
Scholars, Collectors and Collections, 1850–1950 (London and
New York: I. B. Tauris, 2000); Rémi Labrusse, ed., Purs décors,
Arts de l’Islam, Regards du xixe siècle (Paris : Arts Décoratifs,
2007); Chris Dercon, Léon Krempel, and Avinoam Shalem,
eds., The Future of Tradition—the Tradition of Future (Lon­
don and New York: Prestel, 2010); Solmaz Mohammadza­
deh Kive, “The Exhibitionary Construction of the ‘Islamic
Interior,’” in Oriental Interiors: Design, Identity, Space, ed. J.
Potvin (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), 39–58.
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10
twentieth century, takes into account French
and German circles of Islamophiles alike. Closely
examining the cases of Feliks Jasieński and
­ original pieces with contemporary replicas. It fol­
Włodzimierz Kulczycki de Lwów, who belonged to
such circles, she discusses how crucial the 1901 and
1934 exhibitions of the collections were for the de­
velopment of art history and museographic dis­
plays in Poland.
It was to our own very surprise to realize that
Henri Moser was a member of the aforemen­
tioned, exclusive circles of Paris; he had personally
known Edmond de Rothschild and loaned numer­
ous objects to the 1893 Paris exhibition. Likewise,
he was not only an ambitious art collector, but had
also made a name of himself as a curator, especial­
ly for his Central Asian touring exhibition (1870s–
80s) and the internationally acclaimed exposition
Les Russes en Asie at the Palais Marigny in Paris
(1891), as well as in connection to the much praised
pavilions for Bosnia-Herzegovina. The latter had
been conceived under Moser’s auspices for the
World Fairs in Brussels (1897) and Paris (1900) and
are the subjects of Ágnes Sebestyén’s study in this
volume. Apart from the World Fairs of the nine­
teenth century, exhibitions on national and re­
gional level also signified outstanding events for
the promotion of economic relations, the repre­
sentation of national identities, technical innova­
tions and new trends in the arts. Focusing on
­exhibitions organized by the Russian authorities in
Central Asia, Inessa Kouteinikova points out how
such exhibitions enhanced the diffusion and col­
lection of non-Western, in particular, Islamic arts.
Equally, the World Fairs were a meeting place for
industrials, architects, artists and amateurs, for the
purpose of extending their personal and profes­
sional networks, which also was the case for our
Swiss collector.
Accordingly, while attending the 1900 Paris
World Fair, Henri Moser was in contact with the
Parisian architect Henri Saladin (1851–1923), who,
years later, would design a neo-Islamic style room
for Moser’s private museum. Installed in Charlot­
tenfels Castle, the family’s residence near Schaff­
hausen, and executed between 1907 and 1909, the
Giese, Volait, and Varela Braga
interior, closely studied by ­Francine Giese, pres­
ents itself as an Orientalist pastiche, combining
lows a display strategy introduced in Paris during
the 1830s that in the m­ eantime had been adopted
and hence already been established in great parts
of Europe and the Islamic World.2 Furthermore,
Moser’s fumoir arabe testifies to the increasing fas­
cination of Western architects and patrons for Is­
lamic aesthetics, who subsequently appropriated
them to be used for contemporary architecture
and decorative arts, as Mercedes Volait exempli­
fies in her analysis of the designs by French archi­
tect Ambroise Baudry for buildings in Egypt and
France. Sarah Keller, on the other hand, identifies
similar appropriation patterns for the special case
of stained glass. In addition, the so-called Safavid
Revival, discussed by Axel Langer, refers to a his­
toricist movement within nineteenth-century Per­
sian painting that emerged in parallel to a growing
local art market whose goal it was to satisfy an in­
creasingly demanding clientele.
The specific historical circumstances aside, the
Islamic style of architecture and craftsmanship
analyzed in this volume shed new light on the is­
sue of Orientalism in architecture, a genre long as­
sociated with the politics of colonial design,3 and
more recently with the emergence of new forms of
amusement and bodily practices in the West, such
2 Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot, and Mercedes Volait,
eds., The Period rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte, gusto e
collezionismo (Bologna : bpu, 2016).
3 François Béguin, Arabisances. Décor architectural et tracé
urbain en Afrique du nord, 1830–1950 (Paris : Dunod, 1983);
ed., Forms of Dominance: On the Architecture and Urban-
ism of the Colonial Enterprise (Aldershot : Avebury, 1992);
Mercedes Volait et al., eds., Figures de l’orientalisme en ar-
chitecture, no spécial de la Revue du Monde musulman et de
la Méditerranée, no 73/74 (Marseille: Edisud, 1996); Nabila
Oulebsir, “Du politique à l’esthétique : l’architecture néo-
mauresque à Alger,” in Urbanité arabe. Hommage à Ber-
nard Lepetit, ed. Jocelyne Dakhlia (Paris-Arles : Actes Sud,
1998), 299–321.
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Introduction: Islamic Art and Architecture Exposed
as in terms of bathing4 or clothing.5 The exam­
ples discussed here suggest that orientalist de­
signs found themselves embedded in a specific
collecting culture dominated by men, mostly
­ would be put on public display. He therefore do­
bachelors, who sought for artefacts to be enjoyed
in atmospheric rooms and immersive displays.
In many cases the wealthy amateurs discussed
in the single contributions of this volume did not
only establish exquisite and in some ways rivaling
collections; they also looked for solutions as to
4 Nebahat Avcioğlu, “The hammam,” in Nebahat Avcioğlu,
Turquerie and the Politics of representation, 1728–1876,
(Farnham : Ashgate, 2011), 189–252.
5 Marie-Cécile Thoral, “Sartorial Orientalism: Cross-cultural
Dressing in Colonial Algeria and Metropolitan France in
the Nineteenth Century,” European History Quarterly, 45,
no. 1 (2015): 57–82.
11
how their collections could survive their own
deaths.6 One of them was Henri Moser himself,
who opted that his hitherto private collection
nated it to the Bern Historical Museum in 1914, yet
under the condition that it would be presented in
a newly built exhibition space, the same space to
which Katrin Kaufmann has dedicated her study.
Today, this collection, one of the most important
of its kind in Switzerland, remains an essential
part of Moser’s legacy. It attests to the significance
of the country as a center for the display and study
of Islamic art.
6 Neil Harris, “Period Rooms and the American Art Muse­
um,” Winterthur Portfolio 46, no. 2/3 (Summer–Autumn
2012): 117–38.
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 Part 1

Islamic Taste in
The Nineteenth and Early
Twentieth Centuries

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 Chapter 1
Safavid Revival in Persian Miniature Painting
Renewal, Imitation and Source of Inspiration
Axel Langer
In their 1933 seminal publication on the 1931 exhi-
bition at Burlington House in London, Laurence
Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson and Basil Gray state that
“[w]ith present-day painting, and the rival claims
of the modernist and the archaizing movements,
we are not concerned; nor with the activities of the
professional ‘fakers,’ who, whether operating from
Persia or Europe, have executed some close imita-
tions of old work, which have deceived many col-
lectors, and who have displayed a technical dexter-
ity comparable occasionally with that of the old
miniaturists, and worthy of better employment.”1
These remarks express a certain frustration shared
by many contemporary collectors and scholars in-
terested in Persian miniature painting, a general
attitude that can be traced back at least to the
prosperous years before World War i, when the
market for Persian miniatures flourished. Ironi-
cally enough, Binyon and his colleagues end their
observations with an outlook to future trends, ar-
guing that, “It would be rash to speculate along
what lines the eventual revival, which it is safe to
predict in a nation of artists, is likely to develop.”2
Both quotations clearly reflect the ambivalent
attitude of the European public toward an
­archaizing movement today known as the Safavid
1 Laurence Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson, and Basil Gray, Persian
Miniature Painting. Including a Critical and Descriptive
Catalogue of the Miniatures Exhibited at Burlington House,
January–March, 1931 (London: Oxford University Press and
Humphrey Milford), 1933, 163 (italics by the author).
2 Binyon and Wilkinson and Gray, Persian Miniature Paint-
ing, 163.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_004
Revival that entered the art market around 1900,
that is, at the very moment when the West discov-
ered Persian paintings. In its search for the original
or g­ enuine, this public either opposed or straight-
forwardly disdained eclectic imitations and cer-
tainly not valued them at all.
A similar uneasiness dominated scholarly re-
search for nearly half a century, until first steps to-
ward a more positive appraisal were taken. One is
marked by the year 1982, when Ernst J. Grube ex-
amined a series of lacquered doors and ascribed
them to the late nineteenth century, thereby re-
evaluating them as creations of the Safavid Reviv-
al.3 A decade later, in 1995, Eva Baer followed suit
by re-evaluating the famous chest at the Berlin
Museum of Islamic Art (J 4655) in terms of not de-
scribing it as blunt forgery but as a genuine work
from the late Qajar period.4
Ever since, many papers and articles on specific
lacquer works as well as manuscripts have been
published to improve the understanding and
sharpen the perception of the Safavid Revival. By
now, most experts seemingly agree that Persian
drawings and paintings from the late nineteenth
century with stylistic features from earlier periods,
especially the sixteenth and seventeenth centu-
ries, should be taken more seriously and accepted
as genuine artworks. As a result, Western and
3 Ernst J. Grube, “Traditionalism or Forgery: Lacquered
Painting in 19th-Century Iran,” in Lacquerwork in Asia and
Beyond, ed. William Watson. Colloquies on Art & Archae-
ology in Asia 11 (London: Percival David Foundation, 1982),
277–300.
4 Eva Baer, “Traditionalism or Forgery: A Note on Persian
Lacquer Painting,” Artibus Asiae 55, no. 3/4 (1995): 343–79.
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16
I­ranian scholars alike created the labels “Safavid
Revival”5 or “neo-Safavid”6 for these eclectic
miniatures.
However, there is still a lot of uncertainty as to
the beginnings and historic development of the
style. Whereas Layla S. Diba relates the revival to
the first years of the Pahlavi era (1925–79) and thus
qualifies the previous period as merely transition-
al, others like Adle Adamova7 date it back to the
1870s.
In this article, I intend to take a closer look at
the evolution of the Safavid Revival. In a first step,
I will therefore examine its founding years and
then, and in a second one, discuss two characteris-
tic works that mark its apex.
1 The Beginnings: A Reflex of Nostalgia
The earliest examples of paintings deliberately
emulating works of the Safavid period certainly
are the lacquer panels and pen boxes with images
that imitate four murals at the ­seventeenth-century
Fourty Columns Palace (Chihil Sutūn) in Isfahan.
5 The term was first coined by Diba, see Layla S. Diba, “The
Formation of Modern Iranian Art: From Kamal-al-Molk to
Zenderoudi,” in Iran Modern, ed. Fereshteh Daftari and
Layla S. Diba (New York and New Haven, CT: Asia Society
and Yale University Press, 2013), 60, footnote 24. See also
Maryam Ekhtiar and Marika Sardar, “Nineteenth-Century
Iran: Continuity and Revivalism,” in Heilbrunn Timeline of
Art History (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
2004), <https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crir/hd_
crir.htm>; Marianna Shreve Simpson, “Mostly Modern
Miniatures: Classical Persian Painting in the Early Twenti-
eth Century,” Muqarnas 25 (2008): 359–95.
6 Alice Bombardier, “Persian Art in France in the 1930s: The
Iranian Society for National Heritage and its French Con-
nections,” in The Shaping of Persian Art. Collections and
Interpretations of the Art of Islamic Iran and Central Asia,
ed. Yuka Kadoi and Iván Szántó (Cambridge: Cambridge
Scholars Publishing, 2013), 192–211.
7 Adle Adamova, Persian Manuscripts, Paintings and Draw-
ings. From the 15th to the Early 20th Century in the Hermit-
age Collection (London: Azimuth, 2012), esp. 56–59.
Langer
We know several more or less complete sets of
­lacquer panels and qalamdāns with this icono­
graphy.8
Originally intended to demonstrate the politi-
cal power and diplomatic skills of the Safavid
dynasty,9 two centuries later, these murals now
nourished nostalgic sentiments of an unblem-
ished, self-confident past that, in the imagination
of contemporary residents of Isfahan, completely
differed from the realities of nineteenth-century
Iran. However, at that time the country had long
lost its formerly hegemonic position and found it-
self exposed to the interests of foreign powers, and
thus struggling with modernity. Commemorating
the glorious days of Persian past was a comforting
practice that stirred emotions among the ruling
class to regain the country’s lost sovereignty.
This certainly was the motivation for one of
the earliest drawings “by the most humble Allāh­
verdī,”10 executed for the crown prince ʿAbbās
Mīrzā Qajar Nāyeb al-Saltāne (1797–1833) in 1241
ah (1825/26 ad). The painting is a mostly reliable
copy of a depiction of the historic meeting be-
tween Shah ʿAbbās i (r. 1588–1629) and Valī
Muḥammad Khān (r. 1605–11) found on Safavid
murals. There also is a second painting by Allāhverdī
that shows Shah Tahmāsp (r. 1524–76) receiving
Humayūn (r. 1530–40), which makes it very likely
that the original set consisted of four images.11
These first examples highlight a contemporary
tendency to link the experience of the present to a
certain interpretation of the past, as confirmed by
8 For instance, see the three lacquer panels in The State
Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, VR-200, VR-204,
VR-203, published in Adamova, Persian Manuscripts,
Paintings and Drawings, cat. nos. 200–02, 364–65.
9 Babaie, Sussan, “Shah ʿAbbas ii, the Conquest of Qan-
dahar, the Chihil Sutun, and its Wall Paintings,” in
Muqarnas 11 (1995), 125–42.
10 Iván Szántó, “The Art Patronage of Abbas Mirza: New
Material from Hungary,” in Qajar Studies xii–xiii
(2013), 42.
11 Szántó, “The Art Patronage of Abbas Mirza,” 40 (Ill.)
and 41–2.
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Safavid Revival in Persian Miniature Painting
other pen boxes. A particularly revelatory example
comes from the middle of the nineteenth century
and is attributed to the workshop of Sayyid
Muḥammad Imāmī.12 In its center, the top lid
shows Fath ʿAlī Shāh (r. 1797–1834) sitting on his
throne and surrounded by four courtiers arranged
in a circle around him. On each of its sides, the
circle is flanked by two royal receptions resem-
bling those of the Chihil Sutūn wall paintings.
Judging from their headdresses and facial features,
the person to Fath ʿAlī’s right can be identified as
Shah Tahmāsp, whereas the one to his left must be
ʿAbbās i. This indicates that in this artwork the Qa-
jar dynasty (1785–1925), represented by its founder,
expresses its self-understanding as the heir of the
Safavid dynasty, embodied by its two most influen-
tial rulers.
Other pen boxes and lacquer works attest to the
growing popularity of the iconography of these
royal receptions. Most interestingly, the paintings
of these later creations became increasingly
independent from their original models and
­ of Isfahan (fig. 1.2).
showed a trend to use other sources of inspiration.
­Examples are a mirror case now kept in St. Peters-
burg, which quotes another once popular royal
gathering,13 or panels with the omnipresent image
of equestrians in Safavid attire, often with falcons
in their hands.
These lacquer panels echoed the mass-pro-
duced, molded ceramic tiles of the time. Although
they do not bear any signature or date of their pro-
duction, we do know the earliest dates when such
12 The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, VR-
135, published in Adamova, Persian Manuscripts, Paint-
ings and Drawings, cat. 163, 349–50.
13 The State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, VR-59,
published in Adamova, Persian Manuscripts, Paintings
and Drawings, cat. 166, 351; this mirror case shutter re-
sembles an illustration of the Meeting of Afrāsiyāb and
Garsīvāz, signed “Yā Sāhib al-Zamān” in a Shāhnāma
manuscript from 1663–69, now at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, 13.228.17, fol. 110v. Accord-
ing to B.W. Robinson, the miniature is from 1107 ah
(1695/96 ad).
17
tiles were purchased and added to ­private and
museum ­collections, and on this basis can deduce
that the first specimens must have been created in
the 1860–1870s.14 Because of their popularity pot-
ters had extended their repertoire and added other
neo-Safavid images to it, such as ­promenading cou-
ples or fighting soldiers on horseback.15
The last example consists of a famous and rela-
tively large single tile depicting the picnic of a
prince in a garden, commissioned by the French
military musician and composer Alfred Lemaire
(1842–1907), a professor at the Dār al-Fūnūn in
Tehran, and executed by ʿAlī Muḥammad Isfahānī
in 1884/85 (fig. 1.1). Originally intended as the cen-
terpiece of a fireplace, the tile was surrounded by a
dozen of others adorned with undulating vines.
A comparison with a large panel acquired by the
New York Metropolitan Museum in 1903 reveals
that ʿAlī Muḥammad Isfahānī’s tile is a faithful but
reduced copy of a seventeenth-century tale panel
that had once decorated one of the Safavid palaces
Although the property of the crown, these pal-
aces, especially the Forty Columns Palace, were
not only neglected but also partly defaced during
the rule of the notorious governor Zīll al-Sultān
(1850–1918) over Isfahan from 1874 to 1907. Repeat-
edly, European travelers and residents alike
­lamented their decay. It seems that the threat
­motivated Lemaire to choose a Safavid model for
14 See Friederike Voigt, Qadscharische Bildfliesen im
Ethnologi­ schen Museum Berlin (Berlin: Staatliche
­Museen zu Berlin, Museen Dahlem, Ethnologisches
Museum, 2002), p. 9 as well as Ina Reiche and Frie-
derike Voigt, “Technology of Production: The Master
Potter ʿAli Muḥammad Isfahani: Insights into the Pro-
duction of Decorative Underglaze Painted Tiles in 19th
Century Iran,” in Analytical Archaeometry. Selected Top-
ics, eds. Howell G.M. Edwards and Peter Vandena-
beele (Cambridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry,
2012), 503.
15 For instance, see Victoria and Albert Museum, 623–
1868, 624–1868, 14–1886, 16–1886 and 230–1887.
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18 Langer

Figure 1.1 Picnic Scene in a Garden, ʿAlī Muḥammad Isfahānī, Tehran, 1302 ah (1884/85 ad). Tile, fritware with underglaze
painted in polychrome, 48 × 59 cm. Victoria and Albert Museum, acc. no. 512–1889
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London

the design of ʿAlī Muḥammad Isfahānī’s tile,
­implying that it was not only intended as a decora-
tion for Lemaire’s later European home but that
its iconography should also commemorate and
celebrate Iran’s glorious artistic heritage. The
aforementioned tiles with Safavid figures and
­ child. Four cartouches of different sizes flank
the lacquer panels with images from the Chihil
Sutūn murals had similar functions.
2 A Revival Style in Full Bloom
sold at Sotheby’s London in 2014.16 The oblong
top lid consists of a gold sprinkled field filled with
floral vines, framed by polylobed corner pieces. Its
center is decorated with a medallion that shows
the ­half-length portrait of a Madonna with her
them, with two of them portraying a girl and a boy,
whereas the other two are filled with a flower.
Fields of roses, garden flowers and nightingales,
which were separated from the rest distinctly,

The lacquer workshops of Isfahan and Tehran re- 16 See <http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecata-

mained the thriving force behind the Safavid Re- logue/2014/arts-islamic-world-l14220/lot.89.html>, last
vival. An excellent example is a lacquered casket accessed May 18, 2018, for all images.

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Safavid Revival in Persian Miniature Painting
Figure 1.2 Reciting Poetry in a Garden, Isfahan, 1620–60. Tile panel, fritware with polychrome glaze (cuerda seca).
Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 03.9b
© Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
dominate the four concave borders of the lid,
twice interrupted by medallions with portraits of a
beautiful Qajar woman and a young Indian man.
Except for minor variations, the four side panels of
the casket repeat the composition of the top lid.
Its backside and the inner surface of the case’s
bottom come quite as a surprise (fig. 1.3), as their
painted decorations show courting couples, ele-
gantly set into lush gardens. Although these scenes
resemble Safavid tile panels, the dark backgrounds
and golden outlines actually originated from
­traditional sixteenth and seventeenth-century lac-
quer artworks. It is fitting that the lid’s borders are
covered with wild animals in a forest with designs
similar to Iranian illuminated manuscripts or al-
bum pages from the same period.
However, there are stylistic inconsistencies that
reveal the scope of artistic freedom in the imita-
tion of Safavid designs. There are many unusual
costume details, such as the young man’s turban,
the girl’s knee-long veil (as seen inside the cas-
ket’s bottom) or the textile patterns. Equally
19
­nusual is the depicted phoenix or sīmurgh,
u
which is merely decorative and carries no deeper
meaning—something unthinkable in classical Sa-
favid painting. Another similarly free appropria-
tion by the artist is the blooming tree that winds
itself around three cypresses—the painting of a
single conifer had been the convention.
Although the casket carries no signature nor
date, it is very likely that it was produced by the
Imāmī workshop that had been famous for its
­lacquered works. What backs this assumption is
that the reclining girl on the lid’s backside bears
similarities to a female figure on the upper left cor-
ner of the margins of a single-page painting signed
by Mahdī al-Imāmī, auctioned in London in 2015
(fig. 1.4).
Both figures show the same postures and head-
dresses, and the upper parts of their garments
have identical shapes as well. Even the textile pat-
terns, a combination of sāz leafs, palmettes and
rosettes, are alike. What furthermore corrobo-
rates the ascription to the Imāmī workshop are
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20
Figure 1.3 The inside of a lid of a casket, Iran, 1860/70. Papier-mâché, painted, gilded and lacquered, 20.5 × 25 × 37.5 cm. Sold
at Sotheby’s, London, on April 9, 2014, lot 89
© Sotheby’s
s­imilarities between the floral garlands on the
­casket and decorations on a mirror case Rizā
Imāmī had made for the Persian pavilion at the
Paris World Fair of 1867, later purchased by the
Victoria and Albert Museum.17 Taken together, all
these clues suggest that the casket was created in
the 1860s. It is therefore justified to assert that
even though the Safavid Revival originally took its
inspiration from the iconography of Chihil Sutūn,
it later adopted other models, and was in full
bloom by the end of the 1860s. What was typical
for this appropriation, however, was the free inter-
pretation of Safavid motifs, an interpretation that,
in an analogy to European art history, could be
characterized as “Romantic.”
17 Victoria and Albert Museum, 922:1, 2–1869.
Langer
3 Iranian Artisans and European Collectors
Let us now turn to a group of lacquer objects that
distinguish themselves from the aforementioned
through their stylistic accuracy and quality of
artisanship.
Two door leaves now in the possession of the
Walters Art Museum in Baltimore are particularly
interesting here (fig. 1.5). They have been the sub-
ject of Géza Fehérvári’s 1969 article18 and Grube’s
aforementioned re-evaluation, and are instructive
18 Geza Fehérvári, “A Seventeenth-Century Persian Lac-
quer Door and Some Problems of Safavid Lacquer-
Painted Doors,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and
African Studies, University of London 32, no. 2 (1969):
268–80.
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Safavid Revival in Persian Miniature Painting 21

Figure 1.4 Sitting Youth, Mehdī al-Imāmī, erroneously dated 1025 ah (1616/17 ad), Tehran/Isfahan, after 1912/13.
Pigments, ink and gold on paper. Sold at Christie’s, South Kensington, April 24, 2015, lot 224
© Christie’s

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22
examples for understanding the later develop-
ments of the Safavid Revival. The door leaves each
consist of a central, oblong panel surrounded by
two smaller, square panels on their top and bot-
tom sides. Two pegs had once fixed the leaves to
the doorframe. The rails and panels are fully deco-
rated with figurative, floral and astrological motifs.
This rich ornamentation might seem idiosyncratic
at first, yet its composition derived from a special
type of decorated album pages—a matter to be
discussed further below. The depictions of amo-
rous couples, elegant youths, wistful maidens
and young courtiers imitate the figurative reper-
toire of the first half of the seventeenth century.
A closer analysis, however, reveals that some of
the figures are exact copies of well-known origi-
nals. The princely couple in the upper left corner
of the left door-leaf was modeled after a seven-
teenth-century tile panel now at the Victoria and
Albert Museum (139:1 to 4–1891), albeit in a mir-
ror-reversed fashion. It is likely that said panel
once decorated one of the Safavid palaces in Isfa-
han before it entered the museum’s collections in
1891 (fig. 1.5.a). The kneeling young man offering
a cup of wine to his beloved (fig. 1.5.b), and the
sitting young beauty reading a letter in the pres-
ence of a young man (fig. 1.5.c) both have their
counterparts in the richly decorated margins of
the first double page of the so-called Vignier Al-
bum (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, S1986.278 and
277). The young woman on the left-hand medal-
lion of the left door-leaf, depicted in the moment
of adjusting her aigrette (fig. 1.5.d), was designed
after a colored drawing attributed to Muḥammad
Sādiqī (Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, S1986.298). A
standing dervish, wearing a long-sleeved overcoat
and a sheepskin around his shoulders, adorns the
lock stile of the right-hand door-leaf (fig. 1.5.e)—
an imitation of a late sixteenth-century minia-
ture today kept at the Bibliothèque nationale de
France in Paris (Od. 41, res. 22).
These findings beg the question of how the art-
ists had gained access to this handful of dispersed
models. Thanks to the available information on
the provenance of these works we know that ­Henri
Langer
Vever had bought said double leaves with figura-
tive margins from Charles Vignier in April 1908.19
The Woman Adjusting Her Aigrette, on the other
hand, had been sold from Arthur Sambon to
Léonce Rosenberg, who then traded the painting
to the same Henri Vever in May 1913.20 Although it
has been hitherto impossible to identify the ven-
dors from whom Vignier and Sambon had pur-
chased their works, it is well known that art trade
prospered in Paris during the two decades before
World War i.
As the demand for Persian miniatures grew, a
huge quantity of manuscripts and paintings taken
from them were collected in Iran and sold to
­Europe during a relatively short period. Only a
very small group of dealers was involved in this
trade. Brokers supported the imports, who acted
as intermediaries between sellers and buyers in
Europe and Iran, but also stood in direct contact
with artisans.21 It is possible that one of those bro-
kers had shown some of his wares to the creators
of the lacquer door at the Walters Museum. How-
ever, such an encounter would have required a
highly organized network of dealers, brokers and
artisans.
What seems more likely, though, is that there
was another source, and it will certainly come as
no surprise that all relevant images had appeared
either in Fredrik Robert Martin’s extensive The
Miniature Painting of Persia, India and Turkey
(1912) or Henri Vever and Georges Marteau’s two-
volume catalog Miniatures persanes (1913) for the
1912 Paris exhibition of the same name.22
19 Glenn D. Lowry and Milo Cleveland Beach, An Anno-
tated and Illustrated Checklist of the Vever Collection
(Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988), 273.
20 Lowry and Beach, An Annotated and Illustrated Check-
list of the Vever Collection, 307.
21 Willem Floor, “Art (Naqqashi) and Artists (Naqqashan)
in Qajar Persia,” Muqarnas 16 (1999): 131.
22 The Sackler works, S1986.278 and 277, were published
in Martin, The Miniature Painting and Painters of Per-
sia, India and Turkey From the 8th to the 18th Century, 2
vols (London: B. Quaritch, 1912), ii, Pl. 261; S1986.298,
on the other hand, appears in Georges Marteau and
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Safavid Revival in Persian Miniature Painting 23

Figure 1.5 Lacquer-painted doors, Iran, after 1913. Wood, painted, gilded and lacquered,
189.9 × 91.5 × 9 cm. The Walters Art Museum, acc. no. 67.634
© The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

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24
Another template for one of the medallions, re-
produced in Vever and Marteau’s publication,
proves this point.23 It is obvious that the sitting
young woman with a flask and cup in her hands
(fig. 1.5.f) was fashioned after an album page
with the composite figure of a Bukharan princess
(fig. 1.6).24 Furthermore, this page—as well as its
counterpart and two further double-pages added
to Martin’s volume—inspired the composition of
the door. Accordingly, the six door panels resem-
ble mounted paintings framed by borders of vivid
figures.
Vever and Marteau’s publication inspired yet
another work, namely, Mehdī al-Imāmī’s single-
leaf painting of a Reading Youth described further
above (fig. 1.4): Although created in the last decade
of the Qajar period, it clearly follows their repro-
duction of a sixteenth-century album page. More
importantly, the miniature provides us with the
information required for identifying the artist
mainly responsible for creating the lacquer door.
In the upper right corner of the right door-leaf, we
see a young man wearing a red overcoat and a
strange cap, casually leaning against a tree and
half-embracing its twigs (fig. 1.5.g); it is this the ex-
act same figure standing behind the reader in
Mehdī al-Imāmī’s painting.
Henri Vever, Miniatures persanes tirées des collections
de Henry d’Allemagne, Claude Anet, Henri Aubry […] et
exposées au Musée des Arts décoratifs juin-octobre 1912, 2
vols (Paris: Bibliothèque d’art et d’archéologie, 1913), ii,
Pl. cxxv, and the Standing Dervish (BnF, Od. 41, res. 22)
is found in Martin, The Miniature Painting and Painters
of Persia, India and Turkey From the 8th to the 18th Cen-
tury, ii, Pl. 166.
23 A comparable case from before 1920, where the Iranian
artist Turābī Bek Khurāsānī borrowed his motifs for the
illustration of a Khamsa from the same sources is anal-
ysed by Simpson, “Mostly Modern Miniatures,” see esp.
382.
24 Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, S1986.304 was published in
Georges Marteau and Henri Vever, Miniatures persanes
tirées des collections de Henry d’Allemagne, Claude Anet,
Henri Aubry, ii, Pl. lxxxiv.
Langer
Mehdī al-Imāmī, born as Mehdī Muḥammad
and later known as Mīrzā Āqā, was the last descen-
dant of the famous Imāmī, a family of lacquer
­artists. He was born as son of Sayyid Muḥammad
Husayn in Isfahan in 1881. Educated in Tehran, he
later returned to Isfahan, where he worked at the
bazaar.25 Together with Hosseyn Behzad (1894–
1968), he is today celebrated as one of the found-
ing fathers of the nigārgārī-yi jadīd, or “New
­Miniature Painting” that flourished after 1930.26
A stylistic comparison between the faces in The
Reading Youth, that is, of the sitting young woman
on the door of the Walters Museum and the young
woman with a bird of prey in Mīrzā Āqā’s painting,27
strengthens the assumption of this authorship.
All faces share the same distinct features, such as
almond-shaped eyes with clearly visible epican-
thic folds, eyebrows that become thinner near the
temples and the root of the nose, as well as similar
nose lines and mouth contours.
These observations identify Mīrzā Āqā as the
creator, or at least the main creator within a team
of artists that worked on the lacquer doors of the
Walters Museum. In accordance with the consult-
ed sources, we can furthermore deduce that the
doors must have been painted after 1913.
There is at least one other work that can be
­attributed to Mīrzā Āqā with certainty: a pair of al-
bum covers with polylobed corner pieces and a
row of varied medallions, resembling the decora-
tion on the lid of a casket sold at Sotheby’s. Today,
the covers are kept at the Khalili Collection in Lon-
don (LAQ457).28 The centerpiece shows a young
25 Willem Floor, “Art (Naqqashi) and Artists (Naqqashan)
in Qajar Persia,” 141.
26 Alice Bombardier, “Persian Art in France in the 1930s:
The Iranian Society for National Heritage and its
French Connections,” 197 and 203.
27 Cf. <http://fotografia.islamoriente.com/sites/default/
files/image_field/Obras_maestras_de_la_Miniatura
_persa-_Artista_Mirza_Aqa_Emami-_Ir%C3%A1n%2C
_4_3.jpg>.
28 Nasser D. Khalili, Basil W. Robinson, Tim Stanley, Lac-
quer of the Islamic Lands, 2 vols. (London: Azimuth,
1997), ii, cat. 315, 106–07.
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Safavid Revival in Persian Miniature Painting 25

Figure 1.6 Seated Princess, Uzbekistan, probably Bukhara, ca. 1600. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper. Arthur M. Sackler
Gallery, acc. no. S1986.304
© The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC

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26
woman holding a drinking vessel, her eyes cast
down bashfully. Altogether, this image resembles
the female cupbearer from the Walters door. The
Imāmī painting as well also includes a similarly ar-
ranged handkerchief, and we therefore are assured
to believe that Mīrzā Āqā’s pair of album covers
were also created after 1913. The two fighting qilins
in the lower right corner derive from an ornament-
ed manuscript page created for Shah Tahmāsp
that had once belonged to the Frères Tabbagh in
Paris and was later published by Martin under the
shelf mark of Pl. 256.
Another example underscoring how popular
both books were as sources for the Safavid Revival
is The Standing Dervish with Begging Bowl. While
the original miniature is kept at the Bibliothèque
nationale in Paris, a photographic reproduction
has been published in the second volume of Mar-
tin’s book (Pl. 154, 16.2 × 8.4 cm). Moreover, the
State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg owns a
flawless, albeit colored, miniature of the same for-
mat that imitates the black and white photograph
(VR-1204).29
4 Conclusion
After the middle of the nineteenth century, pot-
ters and lacquer painters used Safavid models as
­sources of inspiration. Especially popular were the
Chihil Sutūn murals and Safavid single-page min-
iatures. The growing popularity of these images
was the result of a reaction to the decay of Isfah-
an’s Safavid monuments in the last quarter of the
nineteenth century, coinciding with an increasing
historical awareness and emerging nationalistic
consciousness within the Iranian population. The
works of the Safavid Revival were furthermore
­attractive for Western collectors and tourists, who
collected them as souvenirs.
29 Adle Adamova, Persian Manuscripts, Paintings and
Drawings. From the 15th to the Early 20th Century in the
Hermitage Collection, 374, cat. 224.
Langer
Later, around the 1860s and 1870s, the Safavid
Revival reached its apex. Some of its leading rep­
resentatives came from the Imāmī family, among
which Mīrzā Āqā Imāmī became one of its most
prominent members after the year 1900. During
these decades, a shift from a “Romanticizing”
­attitude toward a version of the Safavid style of
1590 to 1630 occurred that aspired to more histori-
cal accuracy, a development that coincided with a
booming market for Persian paintings in Paris and
London, where collectors competed with each
other in accumulating, exhibiting and publishing
such images.
Ironically, enough, these activities also had
long-lasting effects on the artistic production in
Iran. In 1912 and 1913 respectively, Martin, Martin-
eau and Vever published Safavid artworks, execut-
ed as black and white illustrations and thereby
making them accessible for international audi-
ences. In turn, artists such as Mīrzā Āqā made use
of these reproductions as templates for their own
artworks. Although acquired by Iranians and non-
Iranians alike, the Persian artists of the Safavid Re-
vival sold most of their works to Europeans, which
explains why so many are still found in Western
collections.
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Reiche, Ina and Friederike Voigt. “Technology of
­Production: The Master Potter ʿAli Muḥammad Isfa-
hani: Insights into the Production of Decorative
­Underglaze Painted Tiles in 19th Century Iran.” In
Analytical Archaeometry. Selected Topics, edited by
Howell G.M. Edwards and Peter Vandenabeele. Cam-
bridge: The Royal Society of Chemistry, 2012.
Robinson, Basil W. “Qajar Lacquer.” Muqarnas 6 (1989):
131–46.
Robinson, Basil W. “Some Modern Persian Miniatures:
Contemporary Examples, exhibited by the British
Council in London last July, are described against
the background of their historic tradition.” The Stu-
dio 135 (January–June 1948): 78–85.
Schmitz, Barbara. Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and
Paintings in The Pierpont Morgan Library. New York:
The Pierpont Morgan Library, 1997.
Schmitz, Barbara. Islamic Manuscripts in The New York
Public Library. New York and Oxford: Oxford Univer-
sity Press and The New York Public Library, 1992.
Shreve Simpson, Marianna. “Mostly Modern Minia-
tures: Classical Persian Painting in the Early Twenti-
eth Century.” Muqarnas 25 (2008): 359–95.
Soudavar, Abolala. Reassessing Early Safavid Art and
History: Thirty-Five Years after Dickson & Welch 1981.
Houston, TX: n.p., 2016.
Szántó, Iván. “The Art Patronage of Abbas Mirza: New
Material from Hungary.” Qajar Studies xii–xiii
(2013): 40–7.
Vernoit, Stephen, ed. Discovering Islamic Art: Scholars,
Collectors and Collections, 1850–1950. London and
New York: I. B. Tauris, 2000.
Voigt, Friederike. Qadscharische Bildfliesen im Ethnolo-
gischen Museum Berlin. Berlin: Staatliche Museen zu
Berlin, Museen Dahlem, Ethnologisches Museum,
2002.
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 Chapter 2
« De véritables merveilles d’exécution »
Les vitraux du fumoir arabe d’Henri Moser
Sarah Keller
« Je trouve qu’ils sont absolument réussis et de vé-
ritables merveilles d’exécution1 ». C’est en ces
termes qu’Henri Saladin (1851–1923), architecte
parisien et spécialiste de l’Orient, décrit les vitraux
qu’il vient de terminer pour le fumoir arabe d’Hen-
ri Moser (1844–1923). L’année précédente, l’explo-
rateur et diplomate Moser avait chargé Saladin de
concevoir un fumoir oriental pour son château de
Charlottenfels près de Schaffhouse en Suisse. Il
s’agit d’un salon historiciste, comme ils étaient à la
mode depuis la fin du xixe siècle. Plusieurs objets
originaux et des imitations de styles islamiques
­divers créées par l’architecte sont réunis (fig. 2.1).
Un lambris persan et des carreaux de faïence
­espagnols et persans décorent les parois. Une che-
minée factice, d’après un modèle ottoman, est
­entourée de mobilier persan, avec des tapis cauca-
siens. Un plafond à caissons, construit pour
l’occasion et orné de muqarnas, est surmonté
d’une coupole initialement en bois mais qui fut
remplacée par une coupole en verre lors du trans-
fert du fumoir au Musée d’Histoire de Berne entre
1918 et 1922.2
1 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1908.670.162 ;
lettre d’Henri Saladin à Henri Moser, 19 mai 1908.
2 Le dessin et le coloris de la coupole ont été reproduits à
l’identique. Cf. Henri Saladin, Musée historique bernois.
Collection H. Moser. Description du projet. Ms., Musée
d’Histoire de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1922.670.0260, 5 mai
1918, 15. Ses motifs végétaux se laissent facilement compa-
rer avec des ornements islamiques, tels qu’ils sont par
exemple représentés sur des objets métalliques de
l’époque safavide de la collection Moser. Mais en tant que
coupole en verre, elle se rattache à une tradition euro-
péenne de l’Art nouveau et de l’Art déco.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_005
En 1914, Henri Moser avait fait don du fumoir au
Musée.3 Le fumoir reçoit le jour par un mašrabīya,
une grille faite de petits éléments en bois tour-
nés et assemblés. Il est surmonté de vitraux, les
­qamarīyat (fig. 2.2). La présente contribution est
dédiée à ces vitraux, ces « merveilles d’exécution »,
ainsi que Saladin les décrit. Avec ses couleurs et
sa luminosité des vitraux constituent un élé-
ment distinctif dans la plupart des intérieurs
néo-islamiques, mais ils sont peu recherchés.
­
Pourtant les qamarīyat avaient reçu une attention
particulière des orientalistes depuis le milieu du
xixe siècle. De façon exemplaire leur transfert
­illustre les p ­ rocessus de réception à travers les
­barrières techniques.
Le vitrail central du fumoir arabe d’Henri Moser
est pourvu d’une inscription et est orné de cyprès.
Il est encadré de chaque côté par trois vitraux re-
présentants un vase avec des fleurs sous une acco-
lade. L’inscription évoque vaguement la formule
de la basmala : bismi ʾllāhi ʾr-raḥmāni ʾr-raḥīmi, (au
nom de Dieu le clément et le miséricordieux).
Au-dessous se trouve un rinceau de fleurs. Ce
type de vitrail rectangulaire, constitué de petites
pièces de verre qui représentent des fleurs, des
3 Cf. Francine Giese, « From Style Room to Period Room :
Henri Moser’s fumoir in Charlottenfels Castle », dans
­Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot et Mercedes Volait (éds.),
The Period Rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte, collezionis-
mo e museologia, Bologna : Bononia University Press, 2016,
153–60 ; Roger Nicholas Balsiger et Ernst J. Kläy, Bei Schah,
Emir und Khan: Henri Moser Charlottenfels, 1844–1923.
Schaffhouse : Meier, 1992, 185 ; Ernst J. Kläy, « ‘Unser Ziel ist
es, ein Werk zu schaffen, das uns überlebt.’ Zum wechsel-
vollen Schicksal der Orientalischen Sammlung Henri
­Moser Charlottenfels », Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte
und Heimatkunde, 56, 1994: 335–58.
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De véritables merveilles d’exécution 29

Figure 2.1 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, Fumoir arabe d’Henri Moser, 1907–9
© Musée d’Histoire de Berne, 1986

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30 Keller

Figure 2.2 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, Vitraux du fumoir arabe, 1908

© Musée d’Histoire de Berne, photographie Christine Moor, 2015

Figure 2.3 Qamarīya, recto et verso, xviie–xixe siècle. Caire, Musée islamique du Caire,
photographie Katrin Kaufmann, 2018

i­nscriptions, des arbres et parfois des bâtiments,
surmontés par des arcs et encadrés par un ru-
ban formé de petits cercles, est répandu depuis
le ­début du xvie siècle dans l’Empire ottoman
(fig. 2.3).4
4 Finbarr Barry Flood, Palaces of crystal, sanctuaries of light :
windows, jewels and glass in medieval Islamic ­architecture,
Certains motifs des vitraux du fumoir sont
d’une tradition plus ancienne. Tandis que les ru-
bans à petits cercles sont des motifs ornementaux
Thèse, Université d’Édimbourg, 1993, 168–172 ; Jonathan
Bloom et al. (ed.), Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and
Architecture, 1. Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2009, vol.
1, 209–10.

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De véritables merveilles d’exécution
que l’on retrouve sur les qamarīyat du temps des
Omeyyades et des Abbasides,5 les exemples les
plus anciens avec des cyprès sont connus depuis le
xve siècle, dans Le Caire mamelouk.6 Une inscrip-
tion de la basmala apparaît par exemple dans une
fenêtre de la paroi située dans la direction de
la qibla d’une madrasa de la fin du xive siècle au
Caire.7 Les verres des qamarīyat ottomanes
sont assemblés avec du plâtre et montés dans des
cadres en bois. Leur nom qamarīya ou šamsīya
vient de qamar (lune) ou de šams (soleil).
1 Les qamarīyat en Europe
Au xixe siècle, ces vitraux ont suscité de l’intérêt
en Europe.8 Des esquisses datant des années 1840
montrent des intérieurs de maisons du Caire avec
des qamarīyat, comme en témoignent par exemple
les dessins de James W. Wild (1814–92) et ceux de
l’architecte bernois Theodor Zeerleder (1820–68).9
5 Par exemple à Raqqa ou à Khirbat al-Mafjar. Flood, Palaces
of crystal, 78, fig. 2.6, 17.
6 Des exemples se trouvent dans la madrasa de Abū Bakr ibn
Muzhir et dans la mosquée de Qijmās al-Isḥāqī (xve
siècle). Flood, Palaces of crystal, 118, fig. 68, 92.
7 La madrasa d’ Īnāl al-Yūsufī, construit entre 794–95 H. /
1392–93 a.d. Flood, Palaces of crystal, 131, 139, fig. 75.
8 Des descriptions apparaissent entre autres dans Edward
William Lane, Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyp-
tians, London : C. Knight & Co., 1836 (traduit en allemand
en 1852), 19 ; dans Hermann von Pückler-Muskau,
­Semilasso in Afrika, vol. 1, Stuttgart : Hallberger’sche Ver-
lagshandlung, 1836, 31 ; dans Heinrich Brugsch. Reise der K.
­Preussischen Gesandtschaft nach Persien 1860 und 1861, 2
vols., Leipzig : J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1862–63,
vol. 1, 312.
9 Sur les dessins de Wild, voir Victoria and Albert Museum,
London, E.3763-1938, E.3774-1938, E.3771-1938, E.3795-1938 ;
Abraham Thomas, « James Wild, Cairo and the South Ken-
sington Museum », dans Mercedes Volait (éd.), Le Caire
dessiné et photographié au xixe siècle, Paris : Picard, 2013,
41–68, 55–8. Sur les dessins de Zeerleder, voir Mythos
Orient. Ein Berner Architekt in Kairo, catalogue d’exposi-
tion au Schloss Oberhofen (13 juin–13 septembre 2015),
31
Ces dessins avaient été réalisés sur place, mais
n’avaient pas été publiés à l’époque.
En 1867–73, Jules Bourgoin (1838–1908) repro-
duit dans son livre Les Arts arabes une qamarīya
d’une mosquée du Caire, recto et verso, et décrit
son « très bel effet ». Il ajoute, qu’il avait aussi vu
de telles fenêtres lors de l’Exposition universelle
de 1867 à Paris dans la « section turque ».10
Dans L’Art arabe d’après les monuments du Caire,
publié en 1877, Émile Prisse d’Avennes (1807–79)
mentionne des qamarīyat qui auraient dû être
montrées lors de la même Exposition universelle
de 1867. Il spécifie qu’il avait pu acheter à Paris
trois caisses de fragments de six qamariyyat prove-
nant d’une mosquée en Égypte. En 1867 les qa-
marīyat avaient été envoyées depuis l’Égypte pour
la section égyptienne de l’Exposition universelle
de 1867. N’ayant pas supporté le voyage jusqu’à Pa-
ris, les vitraux étaient arrivés en morceaux. Prisse
d’Avennes avait toutefois réussi à en reconstruire
deux et les reproduisit dans son livre (fig. 2.4).
D’autres vitraux coloriés qu’il avait dessinés sur
place au Caire et qui « diaprent les intérieurs de
toutes les couleurs de l’arc-en-ciel11 », y figurent
également. En même temps, des artistes s’intéres-
saient aux intérieurs égyptiens dans lesquels figu-
raient de tels vitraux ainsi que l’ambiance qui s’en
dégageait. The Reception, peint en 1873 par John
Frederick Lewis (1805–76), témoigne de cet
engouement.
En 1886, Stanley Lane-Poole (1854–1931) décrit
en détail dans son étude, The Art of the Saracens in
Egypt, les 37 qamarīyyat qui se trouvent depuis les
années 1870 et 1880 dans ce qui est aujourd’hui le
Victoria and Albert Museum de Londres et en pu-
blie quatre images. Comme pour les vitraux du fu-
moir d’Henri Moser, ces qamarīyat montrent des
inscriptions, des cyprès et des vases de fleurs.
Hünibach : Jost Druck AG, 2015, 54, 55 ; Burgerbiblio-
thek Bern, Gr. B. 1039 ; Gr. C. 897.
10 Jules Bourgoin, Les Arts arabes. Paris : Vve Morel et Cie,
1867–73, 4, pl. 92.
11 Prisse d’Avennes 1877, 154, 278, pl. cxli, cxliv, cxlv.
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32
Figure 2.4 Émile Prisse d’Avennes, L’Art arabe d’après les
monuments du Kaire depuis le viie siècle
jusqu’à la fin du viiie. Paris : Morel, 1869–77, pl.
cxlv
Lane-Poole parle de l’« effet exquis qui est obtenu
par une gestion habile du réseau en plâtre12 ».
Certains de ses vitraux ornaient un grand
­ ces fenêtres depuis Damas, mais le verre qui sup-
mašrabīya daté du xviiie siècle et de provenance
cairote. Il avait appartenu au Comte Gaston de
Saint-­Maurice (1831–1905), qui avait demandé à
­l’architecte français Ambroise Baudry (1838–1906)
d’intégrer les objets de sa collection d’art islamique
dans son hôtel particulier au Caire. Cette collec-
tion avait été présentée à l’Exposition universelle
12 « […] exquisite effect which is obtained by a skilful ma-
nagement of the plaster rims », Stanley Lane-Poole,
The Art of the Saracens in Egypt. London : Chapman
and Hall, 1886, 265, fig. 95–98.
Keller
de 1878 à Paris et entra ensuite au Victoria and Al-
bert Museum.13
Il existe encore un autre mašrabīya qui aurait
aussi dû être inséré dans un intérieur et qui est est
actuellement conservé dans la collection du
Louvre. Entre 1888 et 1890, Edmond de Rothschild
(1845–1934) avait fait installer, également par Am-
broise Baudry, un fumoir mauresque dans son hô-
tel à Paris. Les vitraux qui surmontent aujourd’hui
ce grillage en bois ne sont pas les originaux, mais
des exemplaires attribués à la maison du Baron Al-
phonse Delort de Gléon (1843–99), construite en
1872 par Ambroise Baudry au Caire. Dans les
années 1920, ces vitraux furent ajoutés au
­
mašrabīya d’Edmond de Rothschild.14
2 Les copies néo-islamiques
À cette époque, les exemplaires originaux de qa-
marīya étaient très recherchés par les particuliers
et les musées d’Europe occidentale. Des copies
pour des intérieurs néo-islamiques se fabriquaient
bien avant la construction du fumoir d’Henri
Moser.
Entre 1877 et 1879, Frederic Lord Leighton
(1830–96) fait installer dans sa maison à Londres
un Arab Hall. Plusieurs qamarīyat du même type
ottoman que ceux du fumoir arabe de Moser fi-
gurent dans le tambour de la coupole et dans les
parois. Lord Leighton avait importé du verre pour
porta le voyage ne suffit que pour en réaliser
une seule. Des répliques furent alors créées en
13 V&A, Meshrebiyah, n° 892:2-1884, Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, « Meshrebiyah », 2017 <http://col-
lections.vam.ac.uk/item/O108048/meshrebiyah/>
(08.11.2017) ; Mercedes Volait, Fous du Caire: excent­
riques, architectes & amateurs d’art en Égypte, 1863–
1914. Montpellier : L’Archange Minotaure, 2009, 90–9.
Pour l’œuvre d’Ambroise Baudry, voir aussi la contribu-
tion de Mercedes Volait dans ce volume.
14 Volait, Fous du Caire, 99–104.
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De véritables merveilles d’exécution 33

Figure 2.5 London, Leighton House, Stained Glass windows for the studio, George Aitchison, 1869–70.
Daniel Robbins, Leighton House Museum. Holland Park Road, Kensington. London :
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Culture Service, 2011, fig. 97

­Angleterre.15 Quelques années plus tôt, en 1870,
George Aitchison (1825–1910), l’architecte de l’Arab
Hall, avait déjà intégré deux qamarīyat dans une
autre pièce de la maison de Lord Leighton, le « stu-
dio », dont le croquis a été conservé.16 Ils se
­rapprochent, avec leur format allongé, leurs nom-
breuses pièces de verre et leurs motifs—inscription
15 John Sweetman, The Oriental obsession. Islamic inspira-
tion in British and American art and architecture 1500–
1920. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1988,
190–93 ; Daniel Robbins, Leighton House Museum. Hol-
land Park Road, Kensington. London : The Royal Bo-
rough of Kensington et Chelsea Culture Service, 2011,
50.
16 Design for two stained glass windows of flowers and
Arabic characters for Leighton House, George Aitchi-
son, 1870. riba Library Drawings Collection, SC124/4.
Robbins, Leighton House Museum, 97, fig. 83.
et vase de fleurs –, des vitraux conçus par Henri
Saladin pour le fumoir arabe (fig. 2.5).
Ferdinando Panciatichi di Ximenes d’Aragona
(1813–97), le maître d’ouvrage de la Villa di Sam-
mezzano près de Florence, utilise les qamarīyat
d’une autre manière. Entre 1853 et 1889, ­Panciatichi
transforme ce château en un ensemble fascinant
de salons historicistes et orientalistes.17 Dans la
Sala dei Gigli, les parois sont ornées d’un panneau
qui se répète (fig. 2.6) : il s’agit d’une copie exacte
de la qamarīyat publié par Prisse d’Avennes en
1877 (fig. 2.4).18 Panciatichi, qui n’a jamais voyagé
17 Pour une analyse de l’architecture de la Villa di Sam-
mezzano, voir les contributions de Francine Giese et
d’Ariane Varela Braga dans ce volume.
18 Émile Prisse d’Avennes, L’Art arabe d’après les monu-
ments du Kaire depuis le viie siècle jusqu’à la fin du viiie.
Paris : Morel, 1869–77, pl. cxlv.

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34 Keller

Figure 2.6 Regello, Villa di Sammezzano, Sala dei Gigli, 1862

© Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, photographie Domingie & Rabatti, 2015

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De véritables merveilles d’exécution
en Orient, fait appliquer ce « vitrail » à la paroi en
tant que peinture murale, en le détournant ainsi
de sa fonction première. Toutefois les pois blancs,
qui représentent chez Prisse d’Avennes les petits
trous dans le plâtre, éléments si typiques pour ce
genre de vitrail, sont transformés en petites boules
ou gouttelettes convexes. Suite à ce transfert trans-
médial, le caractère de l’objet original est perdu,
seulement le motif subsiste.
Le fumoir arabe d’Henri Moser n’est donc pas le
seul intérieur néo-islamique qui dispose de ce
type de vitraux ottomans. Si l’on admet que beau-
coup d’intérieurs néo-islamiques ont disparu, il est
à supposer qu’il en existait bien d’autres. À la diffé-
rence des vitraux du Leighton House, ceux du fu-
moir de Moser surmontent un mašrabīya, un
­arrangement typique pour les salons du Caire
(fig. 2.1). Le peintre verrier qui a créé les vitraux de
l’Arab Hall du Leighton House n’est pas connu,
alors que celui du fumoir arabe est en revanche
documenté. Il s’agit du peintre verrier parisien Au-
guste Bruin ([1872]–[1908]), qui a exécuté les vi-
traux selon le projet d’Henri Saladin.19 Saladin
avait lui-même vu beaucoup de qamarīyat et de
mašrabīyat. Plusieurs spécimens, surtout du Caire
et d’Istanbul, figurent dans son Manuel d’Art mu-
sulman, paru en 1907. Les vitraux du kiosque du
sultan de la Yeni Camii à Istanbul, achevés en 1665,
sont probablement significatifs pour le projet
conçu pour Moser. Ce même kiosque aurait i­ nspiré
à Saladin la cheminée du fumoir, comme le
­suppose Francine Giese.20 Saladin fait observer
que « les plus beaux [vitraux] sont peut-être à
Constantinople dans l’appartement du sultan à
­Validé Yéni Djami21 ». Ces qamarīyat montrent
également des vases à fleurs et des cyprès sous une
accolade, des inscriptions dans des cartouches et
des rubans de fleurs qui encadrent ces éléments
ornementaux. Saladin les décrit en détail : « Ces
19 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1908.670.162,
lettre de Bruin à Moser, du 17 mai 1908.
20 Giese, « From Style Room to Period Room », 156.
21 Henri Saladin, Manuel d’art musulman 1, 533, note 1.
35
vitraux sont très fins de dessin, d’une harmonie gé-
nérale ton jaune avec des fleurs bleues, blanches,
rouges et quelques notes turquoises se détachant
sur le réseau de plâtre percé d’une quantité de pe-
tits trous ronds vitrés en verre blanc qui forment à
la vue un pointillé blanc et brillant excessivement
fin22 ».
On peut lire dans la correspondance entre
Bruin, Saladin et Moser, que Saladin visita l’atelier
de Bruin une première fois le 1er mai 1908 et y re-
tourna une deuxième fois le 19 mai. Les vitraux
furent expédiés depuis Paris le même jour. Le 3
juin, Henri Moser confirmait leur arrivée à Char-
lottenfels. On ne possède que très peu d’informa-
tions sur l’atelier d’Auguste Bruin. Le nom de son
entreprise figure sur l’en-tête de son papier à lettre
en ces termes : « Peinture sur Verre & Vitrerie
d’Art pour Églises & Appartements, maison fondée
en 179423 ». L’église Saint-Martin de Chevreuse
­(Île-de-France) possède un vitrail signé par Bruin
et daté de 1872. En outre, l’en-tête mentionne que
l’atelier de Bruin avait exposé lors des Expositions
universelles de Paris.
Le peintre verrier parisien avait, pour les vitraux
du fumoir arabe, procédé à l’assemblage des pièces
en verre en suivant une technique qu’il maîtrisait
et qui consiste à assembler les verres à l’aide de ba-
guettes de plomb (fig. 2.2). Le résultat se distingue
alors, par la technique utilisée, des qamarīyat ori-
ginales, qui sont réalisées avec une plaque de
plâtre ajourée (fig. 2.3). L’orientaliste Saladin
connaissait très bien la technique de fabrication
de ces fenêtres qui, comme il l’écrit, « possèdent
un charme singulier24 ». Dans son Manuel d’art
musulman, l’architecte consacre à cette technique
plusieurs passages et publie une image d’un
mašrabīya avec des qamarīyat du Caire.25
22 Saladin, Manuel d’art musulman 1, 533, note 1.
23 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1908.670.162.
24 Saladin, Manuel d’art musulman 1, 169.
25 Il s’agit précisément de celui de l’hôtel particulier du
Comte Gaston de St. Maurice qui figura un temps au
V&A à Londres. Saladin, Manuel d’art musulman 1., 151,
167–68, fig. 105.
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36 Keller

Figure 2.7 Henri Saladin, Croquis pour le remaniement des vitraux du fumoir arabe, 1908. Encre et aquarelle sur papier. Berne,
Musée d’Histoire de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1908.670.162
© Musée d’Histoire de Berne, photographie Christine Moor, 2015

Se préoccupant de l’authenticité du rendu de
ces vitraux réalisés en plomb, une année après leur
achèvement par Bruin, Saladin propose à son
client Moser leur remaniement : « Le fond A de
l’encadrement est trop transparent, il me semble
qu’il faudrait peindre ce fond en blanc avec de la
céruse épaisse afin qu’il soit opaque, mais on de-
vrait toujours réserver les trous transparents […].
De cette façon quand la lumière serait allumée, les
vitraux se détacheraient en clair dans un encadre-
ment relativement sombre et cela serait plus
conforme à la réalité26 ».
Malgré le fait que Saladin estima que les fenêtres
étaient « de véritables merveilles d’exécution27 »,
il considéra qu’il était nécessaire de les remanier. Il
ajoute à la lettre adressée à Moser un croquis qui
présente ces améliorations (fig. 2.7). L’encadre-
ment des images, « le fond A », est dessiné de ma-
nière sombre et sans couleur. Le résultat de ce
­remaniement est encore visible aujourd’hui (fig.
2.8). Une vue détaillée des fenêtres montre que le
verre blanchâtre et opaque, dans lequel sont gra-
vés de petits cercles, a été repeint avec de la pein-
ture blanche—la céruse—et ceci dans le but
­d’obtenir l’effet du plâtre dans lequel sont notam-
ment insérées les pièces de verre d’une q­ amarīya.

26 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1908.670.162 ; 27 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1908.670.162 ;
lettre du 12 mai 1909. lettre du 19 mai 1908.

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De véritables merveilles d’exécution 37

­ appelons-nous la description que Saladin fait des

R
qamarīyat du kiosque de la Yeni ­Camii : « le réseau
de plâtre percé d’une quantité de petits trous
ronds vitrés en verre blanc qui forment à la vue un
pointillé blanc et brillant excessivement fin28 ».
Saladin ne fait pas seulement repeindre le verre
avec de la peinture blanche, mais également les
baguettes de plomb pour que les vitraux se rap-
prochent le plus possible des originaux.
Bien que Saladin et Bruin aient copié exacte-
ment les motifs des fenêtres ottomanes, le résultat
est une œuvre hybride entre art oriental et tradi-
Figure 2.8 Musée d’Histoire de Berne, Détail d’un vitrail du
tion européenne, qui s’éloigne des arts islamiques, fumoir arabe, 1908
mais documente l’intérêt historiciste et orienta- © Musée d’Histoire de Berne, photographie
liste que l’on portait à ces objets. Tino Zagermann, 2015
Peut-être est-il possible d’accorder aux vitraux
du fumoir un élément qui les rapproche des qa- cette paroi par trois grandes fenêtres afin d’obtenir
marīyat originales et les rends plus authentiques : par l’éclairage naturel l’effet produit artificielle-
l’effet lumineux. En décrivant les qamarīyat du ment à Charlottenfels par l’éclairage électrique ».
V&A, Stanley Lane-Poole regrette que « dans notre Encore aujourd’hui ces trois grandes fenêtres
climat on ne peut pas s’attendre à voir entrer les s’ouvrent dans la façade du Musée Historique de
rayons de soleil par les vitraux de ces qa- Berne. Ces « trois baies vitrées donn[eraient] par
marīyat29 ». Contrairement aux salles de musée, conséquent un jour excellent au Salon arabe, à tra-
où les ­ qamarīyat n’étaient habituellement pas vers les moucharabis et les vitraux qui décorent
­placées devant des fenêtres, cela était le cas pour cette paroi31 ».
le fumoir d’Henri Moser.30 Cependant, comme
l’explique Saladin, la fenêtre à Charlottenfels était
orientée de telle sorte qu’elle avait « l’inconvénient Bibliographie
de n’éclairer le Salon arabe que d’une façon
­imparfaite », et qu’il fallait en plus utiliser un éclai- Balsiger, Roger Nicholas et Kläy, Ernst J., Bei Schah, Emir
rage électrique. Avec le transfert du fumoir au Mu- und Khan : Henri Moser Charlottenfels, 1844–1923.
sée Historique de Berne entre 1918 et 1922, Saladin Schaffhouse : Meier, 1992.
eut la chance de pouvoir améliorer l’emplacement Bloom, Jonathan et al. (éd.), Grove Encyclopedia of Isla-
et l’éclairage de ces vitraux. Il conseille dans son mic Art and Architecture, 1. Oxford : Oxford Univer-
projet de transformation « d’ajourer franchement sity Press, 2009.
Bourgoin, Jules, Les Arts arabes. Paris : Vve Morel et Cie,
1867–73.
28 Henri Saladin, Manuel d’art musulman 1. L’architecture. Brugsch, Heinrich, Reise der K. Preussischen Ge-
Paris : A. Picard, 1907, 533, note 1. sandtschaft nach Persien 1860 und 1861, 2 vols. Leip-
29 « In our climate one cannot reckon on seeing the sun’s
zig : J. C. Hinrichs’sche Buchhandlung, 1862–63.
rays streaming through the stained glass of those
Flood, Finnbarr Barry, Palaces of Crystal, Sanctuaries of
­kamariyas », Stanley Lane-Poole, The Art of the Sa-
racens in Egypt, 265. Light : Windows, Jewels and Glass in Medieval Islamic
30 Mandy Ranneberg, Landgut und Schloss Charlottenfels : Architecture, Thèse, Université d’Édimbourg, 1993.
Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Berne : Gesellschaft für
Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte, 2015, plan, rabat. 31 Saladin, Musée historique bernois, 11.

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38
Giese, Francine, « From Style Room to Period Room :
Henri Moser’s fumoir in Charlottenfels Castle », in
Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot et Mercedes Volait
(éds.), The Period Rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte,
collezionismo e museologia. Bologne : Bononia Uni-
versity Press, 2016, 153–60.
Kläy, Ernst J., « “Unser Ziel ist es, ein Werk zu schaffen,
das uns überlebt.” Zum wechselvollen Schicksal der
Orientalischen Sammlung Henri Moser Charlotten-
fels », Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Hei-
matkunde, 56, 1994 : 335–58.
Lane, Edward William, Manners and Customs of the
­Modern Egyptians. London : C. Knight & Co.,
1836.
Lane-Poole, Stanley, The Art of the Saracens in Egypt.
London : Chapman and Hall, 1886.
Mythos Orient. Ein Berner Architekt in Kairo, catalogue
d’exposition au Schloss Oberhofen (13 Juin–13 sep-
tembre 2015). Hünibach : Jost Druck AG, 2015.
Prisse d’Avennes, Émile, L’Art arabe d’après les monu-
ments du Kaire depuis le viie siècle jusqu’à la fin du
viiie. Paris : Morel, 1869–77.
Von Pückler-Muskau, Hermann, Semilasso in Afrika,
vol. 1. Stuttgart : Hallberger’sche Verlagshandlung,
1836.
Keller
Ranneberg, Mandy, Landgut und Schloss Charlottenfels :
Neuhausen am Rheinfall. Berne : Gesellschaft für
Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte, 2015.
Robbins, Daniel, Leighton House Museum. Holland Park
Road, Kensington. London : The Royal Borough of
Kensington et Chelsea Culture Service, 2011.
Saladin, Henri, Manuel d’art musulman 1. L’architecture.
Paris : A. Picard, 1907.
Saladin, Henri, Musée historique bernois. Collection H.
Moser. Description du projet. Ms., Musée d’Histoire
de Berne, n° d’inventaire 1922.670.0260, 5 mai 1918.
Sweetman, John, The Oriental obsession. Islamic inspira-
tion in British and American art and architecture
1500–1920. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press,
1988.
Thomas, Abraham, « James Wild, Cairo and the South
Kensington Museum », dans Mercedes Volait (éd.),
Le Caire dessiné et photographié au xixe siècle. Paris :
Picard, 2013, 41–68.
Volait, Mercedes, Fous du Caire : excentriques, archi-
tectes & amateurs d’art en Égypte, 1863–1914. Mont-
pellier : L’Archange Minotaure, 2009.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, « Meshrebiyah »,
2017, <http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O108048/
meshrebiyah/>, last accessed Nov 8, 2017.
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 Chapter 3
L’art islamique et la fabrique de l’Histoire des musulmans de Sicile de
Michele Amari
Hélène Guérin
De nouvelles sources1 font apparaître l’apport du
critique français François Sabatier (1818–91)2 à
l’œuvre majeure de l’arabisant Michele Amari
(1806–89), la Storia dei musulmani di Sicilia3 à
la fin des années 1850. François Sabatier est à ce
moment-là un critique d’art aux engagements fou-
riéristes, auteur d’un Salon de 1851 publié à la Li-
brairie phalanstérienne, mais qui s’est vu par la
suite refuser ses autres travaux de critique, notam-
ment sur l’Exposition universelle de 1855.4 Il est
également le traducteur de Goethe et de Schiller
dans le « respect du mètre de l’original5 » et de
1 Trois lettres inédites de Sabatier à Amari et une partielle-
ment éditée par Nenci, présentes dans le Fondo Amari de
la Biblioteca Centrale Regionale di Sicilia, permettent de
retracer ces contributions. Je voudrais exprimer toute ma
gratitude à Mme Renata Di Natale, conservatrice de la bi-
bliothèque régionale de Palerme, pour avoir grandement
facilité l’accès au fonds Amari et m’avoir fourni les repro-
ductions des lettres inédites de François Sabatier.
2 Voir Hélène Guérin, François Sabatier (1818–1891) : lire, tra-
duire et écrire l’histoire de l’art. Les chemins d’un critique et
mécène fouriériste vers une Histoire de l’art, Thèse, Universi-
té Montpellier 3, et la biographie en ligne sur le site Charles
Fourier (<http://www.charlesfourier.fr/>).
3 L’ouvrage d’Amari est paru en 4 volumes de 1854 à 1872.
C’est dans le troisième volume en deux parties 1868–1872,
qu’apparaissent les contributions de Sabatier.
4 Voir Hélène Guérin, François Sabatier.
5 Il est le traducteur du Wilhelm Tell, poème dramatique de
Schiller, traduit dans le mètre de l’original, Königsberg, J.H.
Bon, Libraire-éditeur, 1859 et du Faust de Goethe, traduit
dans le mètre de l’original et suivant les règles de la versifi-
cation, Paris, Librairie Ch. Delagrave, paru à titre pos-
thume en 1893.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���� | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_006
l’historien Ferdinand Gregorovius.6 Il rencontre
Michele Amari à Paris dès 1854,7 par l’intermé-
diaire de son épouse la cantatrice Caroline Un-
gher,8 personnalité artistique et politique en Italie,
qui entretient depuis longtemps des liens d’amitié
avec Amari. C’est elle qui lui a offert un diction-
naire lui permettant de travailler aux traductions
des manuscrits arabes de la bibliothèque impé-
riale.9 En 1859, c’est Sabatier qui effectue une dé-
marche auprès de Cavour pour qu’Amari obtienne
une chaire à l’Université de Pise.10 En 1865, Amari
devient de facto son gendre en épousant Louise
Boucher11 et réside chez Sabatier à Florence soit au
palais Renai soit à la villa de la Concezione, y jouis-
sant de l’extraordinaire bibliothèque. Ceci exposé,
à partir de 1857 deux ambitions éditoriales, le tome
iii de la Storia pour Amari et un guide historique
6 Sabatier traduit Les Tombeaux des Papes romains, pré-
cédé par une introduction de M.J.-J. Ampère, Paris, Mi-
chel Lévy frères, 1859. Ferdinand Gregorovius (1821–91)
est fait premier citoyen d’honneur de Rome pour sa Die
Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, 1859–72.
7 Une note de juillet 1854 indique qu’il connaît déjà
Amari, manuscrit 467 (5), 156, médiathèque E. Zola,
Montpellier.
8 Caroline Ungher (1803–77), épouse Sabatier en 1841 à
Florence et permet à ce dernier d’entrer en contact
avec son important réseau artistique, politique et
littéraire des mondes germaniques et italiens pré-
­
unitaires.
9 Amari in D’Ancona, Carteggio, 152.
10 Francesco Perez a Michele Amari, Firenze 3. ii.1859 in
D’Ancona, Carteggio, 167–69.
11 Louise Boucher, fille du peintre Auguste Bouquet, re-
cueillie à la mort de celui-ci par le couple Sabatier-­
Ungher, élevée comme leur propre fille sans pouvoir
être adoptée légalement.
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40
de la Sicile pour Sabatier vont lier les travaux
des deux hommes. Plusieurs réseaux sociaux et in-
tellectuels vont alors s’interpénétrer. Sabatier et
Amari peuvent être considérés comme deux
points d’articulation de ces réseaux. Le premier re-
présente assez bien la circulation des élites sa-
vantes polyglottes au xixe siècle, le second celui,
tout d’abord, de l’engagement politique pour l’Ita-
lie unitaire puis des échanges des reconnaissances
instituées dans le monde universitaire européen.
Trois apports de François Sabatier à l’œuvre de Mi-
chele Amari permettent d’illustrer les usages de
l’appropriation de l’art islamique en Sicile.
Le rôle de Sabatier est original et important. Ori-
ginal par les méthodes et les stratégies de r­ ecueil
des sources in situ, il est également important par
les résultats. La moisson est en effet considérable ;
elle comprend la découverte d’inscriptions incon-
nues, le relevé de la forteresse arabe d’Entella, la
découverte des vases dits de Mazara ainsi qu’une
participation décisive à la datation et l’attribution
du palais de la Zisa à Palerme. En outre, son travail
et sa réception, ou plutôt les usages qui en ont été
faits, permettent de mieux saisir le rôle de l’appro-
priation des arts islamiques dans l’écriture de l’his-
toire de l’art de la Sicile. L’intérêt est de pouvoir ici
suivre au plus près une voie singulière vers l’orien-
talisme, ses buts et ses moyens, politiques et histo-
riques, dans le contexte de l’Italie en train de se
constituer, et ceci en suivant les pratiques d’Amari.
À rebours d’une historiographie faisant peu de
cas des sources,12 y compris publiées, les travaux de
Sabatier révèlent son ambition d’historien de l’art et
de théoricien et sa place dans un réseau intellectuel
européen. Jusqu’à présent, les deux longs séjours de
Sabatier sur l’île, en 1858 et 1860, étaient présentés
comme de simples excursions. L’envoi dédié à
­Sabatier de l’ouvrage de Ferdinand Gregorovius,
12 La littérature sur Sabatier est restée trop longtemps dé-
pendante de l’avant-propos anonyme du Faust traduit
par Sabatier. Nous avons identifié dans notre thèse les
auteurs de cet avant-propos et montré la nature ambi-
guë de ce texte, entre anecdotes et roman familial.
Guérin
S­ iciliana,13 n’a semble-t-il jamais été lu par les au-
teurs qui se sont penchés sur lui. Pas plus que les
lettres éloquentes d’Amari publiées depuis plus
d’un siècle par D’Ancona.14 Sabatier a légué à la ville
de Montpellier une importante bibliothèque dé-
passant un millier d’ouvrages représentant plus de
6000 volumes15 ; plus d’un ouvrage sur dix porte sur
la Sicile et constitue une documentation historique
et scientifique exceptionnelle sur le sujet pour
l’époque. Toutefois, grâce à une lettre inédite, l’ar-
chéologue Giuseppe Nenci a exhumé le rôle de
Sabatier à Entella en ce qui concerne la strate an-
tique.16 Les cartels touristiques d’Entella, ceux de la
Zisa le mentionnent, même si le visiteur se demande
qui peut bien être ce Francesco Sabatier qui fournit
des renseignements à l’illustre sénateur Amari et
qui, dans le cas du palais palermitain, témoigne d’un
courage certain en allant se balancer à trente mètres
au-dessus du sol, accroché à un support en ruine,
afin de relever une inscription.
1 Deux projets éditoriaux et une commande
« De Sicile écrivez-moi tant qu’il vous conviendra
et pour ma part je ne vous laisserai pas tranquille. »17
13 Ferdinand Gregorovius, Siciliana. Wanderungen in Nea-
pel und Sizilien, Brockhaus, Leipzig 1861. La préface dé-
die le livre à Sabatier en rendant hommage à ses
­travaux sur la Sicile, l’exhortant à les publier.
14 Alessandro D’Ancona, Il Carteggio di Michele Amari,
raccolto e postillato da Alessandro d’Ancona, Turin :
Roux Frassati, 1903–7.
15 Cette bibliothèque est la cartographie des intérêts et
des travaux de Sabatier. Exceptionnelle par la rareté de
certaines éditions, elle est également remarquable par
le nombre de dédicaces des auteurs à Sabatier et des
notes marginales de celui-ci. Concernant la Sicile, 29
ouvrages portent l’ex-libris d’Heinrich Wilhelm Schulz,
directeur de la Galerie de Dresde, qui a inventorié les
monuments de la Sicile.
16 Giuseppe Nenci, « Entella nel 1858 in una lettera inedi-
ta di François Sabatier a Michele Amari », Annali Scuo-
la Normale Pisa, S. iii, xx (1990), 785–90.
17 Amari in D’Ancona, Carteggio, 158. Sans indication
contraire, c’est nous qui traduisons.
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L’art islamique
Le projet se décide dès 1857. En novembre de cette
année, Amari, dans une lettre, qui n’a pas été
­remarquée, adressée à Sabatier,18 soutient le projet
éditorial d’un guide d’un genre nouveau sur la Si-
cile et en même temps passe commande de rele-
vés d’inscriptions et de visites de sites :
« Très cher François. Il existe une ou deux dou-
zaines de Guides de Sicile, et pas un de bon. Mais
le travail que vous entreprenez est digne de vous,
appelé à un destin glorieux. […] Vous êtes armé de
la tête aux pieds sur cela, comme sur tant d’autres
sujets, et donc : en avant ! »19
Car Amari, en exil, ne peut se rendre sur le terrain
et doit s’appuyer sur un réseau d’informateurs afin
de pouvoir achever le tome iii de la Storia. Il ne
peut compter sur l’architecte Saverio Cavallari20
alors au Mexique. Sabatier est pour lui plus qu’un
informateur, c’est un interlocuteur philologue et
érudit : helléniste, latiniste, lecteur de Franz Bopp,
possédant le sanskrit, engagé dans une traduction
du Bhagavad-Gita, traducteur de Carl Schnaase,21
connaisseur du monde byzantin22 et de la mo-
saïque. Sabatier est également, par sa formation
18 Amari in D’Ancona, Carteggio, 152–55.
19 Amari in D’Ancona, Carteggio, 153–54.
20 Saverio Cavallari, architecte qui a travaillé avec Serra di
Falco, puis avec Schulz, livrant plans, dessins des mo-
numents et sites de Sicile. Il a entretenu une correspon-
dance nourrie avec Amari. Voir Gabriella Cianciolo
Cosentino, L’architetto e l’arabista, un carteggio inedito :
Lettere di Francesco Saverio Cavallari a Michele Amari
(1843–1889), transcription et notes de Giuseppina Sina-
gra, Palerme : Dipartimento dei Beni culturali e
dell’Identità siciliana, 2012.
21 Sabatier a traduit en 1857 l’Entstehung und Ausbildung
des gothischen Styls de l’historien de l’art Carl Schnaase,
paru en 1856 et consacré à la naissance et à la forma-
tion du style gothique, traduction inédite et la seule à
ce jour en langue française, manuscrit 467 (10), mé-
diathèque Emile Zola, Montpellier.
22 Il a financé en 1846 un voyage en Grèce avec le peintre
Dominique Papety, qui a pu copier les peintures du
mont Athos, lesquelles ont été réunies en album par
Sabatier. Cet album, aujourd’hui au Louvre, inspire
41
de peintre, ses jeunes années partagées avec
les peintres Émile Lessore, Auguste Bouquet et
Paul Chenavard, capable d’user de nombreuses
­techniques d’empreintes. Et la Sicile est à l’inter-
section géographique de ses intérêts : l’île est le
lieu géométrique de la rencontre entre la Grèce,
Byzance, l’Orient et les questions politiques les
plus brûlantes. Atout que lui reconnaît Amari :
« […] ce que nous demandons maintenant, ce ne
sont pas les observations microscopiques de ces
messieurs ; c’est la mise en relation de ces monu-
ments avec la civilisation, de la civilisation grecque
de la Sicile avec celle des autres pays de l’antiquité,
et avec les conditions du pays au Moyen-âge et à
notre époque. Cherchez cela, si vous le trouvez
dans les cent et un voyages de Sicile parus depuis
deux siècles! Par rapport aux monuments du
moyen-âge, c’est-à-dire depuis la domination by-
zantine jusqu’à absorption de la Sicile par la
sombre monarchie espagnole, tout reste à faire,
détails et idées. C’est pourquoi de ce point de vue,
votre travail offrirait un double attrait. »23
Sabatier ajoute à la préparation minutieuse de son
voyage l’apprentissage de la langue arabe, possède
les grammaires de Sylvestre de Sacy, d’Heinrich
Ewald, de William Wright, s’entraîne aux traduc-
tions sur les Anecdotes musulmanes d’Auguste
Cherbonneau. Plus tard, en 1864, il produira, à la
demande d’Amari, titulaire de la chaire d’arabe à
Florence, un Répertoire pratique des formes gram-
maticales arabes en tableaux synoptiques,24 dont
l’ambition est de « […] parler aux yeux et, sans
­métaphore, leur faire voir la forme et la figure
même des mots afin que devenus visibles, elles
grandement Di Marzo pour son Delle Belle arti in
Sicilia.
23 Amari in D’Ancona, Carteggio, 157.
24 Ce manuscrit s’inspire du Cours pratique et théorique de
langue arabe de Louis Jacques Bresnier, Alger, 1855, et
comprend un manuscrit principal de 340 pages et deux
manuscrits de corrections d’épreuves. Manuscrit 467
(7), médiathèque Émile Zola, Montpellier, iii.
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Figure 3.1 F. Sabatier, Répertoire des formes grammaticales arabes, 1864, manuscrit 467 (7), M.E.Z.M. Photographie H.
Guérin. Avec l’aimable autorisation de la médiathèque Émile Zola
laissassent dans l’esprit une empreinte plus pro-
fonde » (fig. 3.1).
Position qui est à rapprocher de celle de l’asso-
ciationnisme, les images sont premières et grâce à
leur association nous formerions des idées de plus
en plus abstraites. Sabatier possède et a lu et ­annoté
toutes les œuvres de Stuart Mill et d’Alexander
Bain. Il compte parmi ses amis le traducteur de Bain
et Stuart Mill, Émile Cazelles. L’associationnisme
est également un ressort intellectuel du ­fouriérisme
de Sabatier. L’ultime version de ce cours est vrai-
semblablement présentée au Président du congrès
des orientalistes en 1878, lequel est Amari.25
25 Une lettre de 1878 insérée dans le manuscrit est adres-
sée à « Monsieur le président du congrès » et nous sa-
vons que Sabatier est membre de ce congrès qui se
tient à Florence.
Guérin
La rencontre de Sabatier avec l’art islamique
se fait donc dans le cadre d’un orientalisme sa-
vant, philologique, une enquête minutieuse des
formes et de l’histoire, attitude qui caractérisait
déjà la démarche de Girault de Prangey trente ans
­auparavant26 mais va au-delà. Ce que projette
Sabatier est un véritable tableau régional de l’art
de la Sicile, incluant dans sa composition toutes
les strates et partant celle islamique. Le tableau,
qui est un des deux genres de discours sur l’art ap-
parus au xixe siècle avec la critique, permet de
fournir des repères stables dans un siècle d’incerti-
tudes territoriales.27
26 Rémi Labrusse, Islamophilies. Paris : Somogy éditions
d’art/Lyon : Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2011, 114.
27 André Chastel, « Préface ». In Julius von Schlosser, La
littérature artistique, traduit de l’allemand par J. Chavy.
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L’art islamique
2 Deux séjours, trois résultats
« Très cher ami, je laisse tomber les remerciements,
parce qu’ils ne sauraient convenir à un homme de
talent à l’esprit aussi subtil que le vôtre. »28
Dans un temps très court, lors du premier voyage,
ce sont d’importantes découvertes qui sont faites.
Une lettre du 22 août 1858 d’Amari, en réponse à
celle inédite de juillet 1858 révèle le travail réalisé
par Sabatier. Il permet de lever le doute sur cer-
taines inscriptions jusqu’alors mal relevées et de
faire la découverte d’autres, inconnues, comme
celles de la maison Mandralisca à Cefalù et du Mu-
sée des Jésuites à Palerme. Sabatier réalise à
chaque fois des empreintes des inscriptions. Mais,
par-dessus tout, ce qui provoque l’émerveillement
d’Amari est la découverte de deux grands vases :
« Mais la découverte énorme et neuve ce sont les
beaux vases de Mazara29 ».
Il s’agit de deux des fameux vases-amphores à
lustre métallique appartenant au type dit de l’Al-
hambra. Ce type de vases, objets prestigieux pro-
duits autour de Grenade, sous la dynastie nasride,
au xive siècle, a fait l’objet d’une importante litté-
rature.30 Parmi les huit vases transmis intacts
jusqu’à nous, Sabatier en découvre donc deux, ce-
lui qui est désormais à l’Instituto de Valencia de
Don Juan de Madrid et celui du musée Abatellis de
­Palerme.31 Le premier vase est découvert en se ren-
dant dans la maison de Burgio des Comtes Gazze-
ra pour relever une empreinte gravée sur une
Paris : Flammarion, 1996, 12–3. Sabatier a participé à
ces deux genres.
28 Amari in D’Ancona, Carteggio, 156–59.
29 Amari in D’Ancona, Carteggio, 158.
30 Nous ne pouvons citer ici l’ensemble de cette littéra-
ture, à titre indicatif et en lien avec l’Italie, voici une
référence qui développe une bibliographie : Eredità
dell’Islam Arte islamica in Italia a cura di Giovanni Cu-
ratola, Silvana Editoriale, 1993.
31 Le premier a été acheté en 1926 pour les collections de
l’Instituto Valencia de Don Juan de Madrid, le second
fait partie des collections du musée Abatellis de Pa-
lerme depuis la fin du xixe siècle.
43
­ etite colonne de marbre, inscription qu’Amari
p
possède déjà mais dont la qualité ne lui convient
pas. Si l’inscription sur la colonne est déjà connue,
c’est le sens de l’observation de Sabatier qui lui fait
remarquer le vase. Sur cette colonne :
« […] il y a un très beau vase de terre cuite vernis-
sée de ce très bel émail qui semble d’or, quand il
est vu sous un certain angle. Il fait un mètre et 10
centimètres de hauteur. Il est abîmé en quelques
endroits, et ses anses sont cassées, mais il y a une
longue inscription intacte qui fait le tour du col du
vase en petits caractères de 2 centimètres de hau-
teur environ (fig. 3.2). »32
Puis il restitue le protocole d’observation de ma-
nière à ce que la critique philologique d’Amari
puisse se dérouler dans les conditions les plus
proches d’un examen in situ par l’arabisant. La dé-
couverte du second vase, dans la petite église de la
Madone du Paradis, est également objet d’une des-
cription rigoureuse quant à son aspect et au relevé
de l’inscription :
« Dans la petite église de la Madone du Paradis, à
l’extérieur de la porte de Mazara il y a un autre vase
très beau, bien mieux conservé et plus grand. Sur
son origine je n’ai rien pu savoir de sûr. Il a été of-
fert à l’église par un pharmacien. À Trapani, Don
Vito D’Aleo m’a dit qu’il croyait qu’il venait aussi de
la maison Ferro, mais il ne connaît pas le vase.
L’inscription se trouve sur la panse au point A
(fig. 3.3). »33
32 Lettre du 12.07.1858, xxi/6999. Il s’agit du vase de Ma-
drid. Ce serait le vase le plus ancien de la série en raison
de son inscription, datable du dernier tiers du xiiie
siècle coïncidant avec le règne de Muḥammad ii ; Mar-
tinez Caviro citée par Lara Nebreda Martin, Documen-
tación sobre arte y arqqueologia en el Instituto de
­Valencia de Don Juan. Análisis de la colección andalusì a
través de sus documentos, Thèse, Universidad de Ma-
drid, 2017, 591.
33 Lettre du 12.07.1858, xxi/6999. C’est le vase de
Palerme.
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44
Figure 3.2 Vase Alhambra, dernier tiers du xiiie siècle.
Céramique à lustre métallique, h : 113 cm, Instituto
de Valencia de Don Juan, Madrid, RM2-01/04
Photographie ivdj. Avec l’aimable autorisa-
tion de l’Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan
La réponse d’Amari est enthousiaste, Sabatier est
en mesure de produire « un libro stupendo sulla
­Sicilia34 ». Il insiste également sur un point pour
lui important : les découvertes de Sabatier à Entel-
la et qui devront, selon lui, occuper plus de deux
bons chapitres dans la rédaction du guide. En ef-
fet, Sabatier s’est rendu à la forteresse d’Entella,35
exploit qui ne pourra être renouvelé qu’un siècle
plus tard. Pour le critique français, qui exécute un
grand nombre de dessins et de relevés, le terrain
est en contradiction avec les sources dont dispose
Amari pour l’importance du lieu dans la résistance
arabe à Frédéric ii.36
34 « Un livre merveilleux sur la Sicile », Amari in D’Anco-
na, Carteggio, 157.
35 Nous avons pu observer dans l’exemplaire légué du Di-
zionario topografico della Sicilia d’Amico, des notes de
Sabatier préparatoires au voyage et les dessins de la
voie d’accès à ce site.
36 Le problème du rôle d’Entella dans les révoltes arabes
est encore aujourd’hui ouvert. Voir Jeremy Johns,
« Fonti arabe », dans Alla ricerca d’Entella, Giuseppe
Guérin
Figure 3.3 Vase Alhambra, xiii–xive siècle. Céramique à
lustre métallique, h : 125 cm, Galleria Regionale
del Palazzo Abatellis, Palermo, Inv. 5229
Photographie du musée. Avec l’aimable
autorisation du musée
« […] je vous dirais qu’il existe des traces plus
qu’évidentes d’un château sarrasin sur la pointe du
Pizzo de la Reine ; mais en ce lieu seul […]. La peti-
tesse de la forteresse, bien inférieure à celle de Ca-
latamauro prouve qu’il n’y avait pas de forces
considérables en ce lieu […]. »37
Cependant, après avoir donné les mesures des ci-
ternes et indiqué le fonctionnement des remplis-
sages, il nuance la petite taille de la forteresse
grâce à des arguments déduits d’hypothèse por-
tant sur l’histoire du site :
« En somme, si je dois juger des seuls éléments au-
jourd’hui visibles, il ne me paraît pas que l’établis-
sement des derniers arabes ait eu une grande
­importance. Mais il ne faut pas oublier que des
Nenci, con contributi di M.J Becker, M.G. Canzanella, S.
De Vido, C.A. Di Noto, G. Falsane, L. Gallo, I Gennusa, J
Johns, D. Moreschini, G. Nenci, G. Panessa. Pisa : Scuola
Normale Superiore di Pisa, Laboratorio di Topografia
Storico-Archeologica del Mondo Antico, 1993, 91.
37 Lettre du 12.07.1858, xxi/6999, Fondo Amari, Palerme.
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L’art islamique
constructions plus importantes ont pu exister. Fré-
déric ii a sans doute détruit le nid de la révolte, et
chaque jour les paysans des villages alentour sont
venus voler les matériaux qui se trouvaient à la sur-
face du terrain, pour bâtir leurs propres maisons. A
Contessa, par exemple […] des maisons ont été bâ-
ties aux dépends des monuments d’Entella. »38
Amari sollicite l’autorisation d’utiliser ces infor-
mations pour achever la Storia.
C’est enfin, l’épineux problème de l’attribution
du palais de la Zisa qui permet de restituer l’apport
de Sabatier critique et historien de l’architecture,
qui n’hésite pas à disputer avec Amari.
« Je reviens maintenant à un sujet plus intéressant.
Vous, vous avez démontré que l’inscription de la
Cuba datait de Guillaume le Bon. Je crois moi pou-
voir démontrer, sans le recours aux inscriptions,
que la Zisa est entièrement une œuvre de Guil-
laume Premier, ou au moins qu’il n’y a rien dans ce
bâtiment qui puisse donner une raison fondée de
le dater d’une époque plus ancienne. »39
Sabatier par le relevé du bâtiment et sa connais-
sance de l’architecture médiévale fournit des argu-
ments qui annihilent les avis de Serra di Falco et
Girault de Prangey en faveur d’un commanditaire
arabe.40 Il entreprend alors de démontrer l’exis-
tence d’une voûte et de fenêtres dans le palais.
Néanmoins, lors du second séjour sur l’île en 1860,
sur l’insistance d’Amari qui souhaite obtenir une
traduction des inscriptions, il met au point une in-
génieuse technique d’empreinte, à partir de gaze
et de colle, formant un matériau qui permet de re-
lever sans se déchirer les inscriptions fort abîmées
par les dépôts et les nids de guêpes41 et bricole une
38 Idem.
39 Idem.
40 Duca di Serra di Falco, Del Duomo di Monreale e di altre
chiese siculo-normanne. Palermo : Tipografia Roberti,
1838 et Joseph-Philibert Girault de Prangey, Essai sur
l’architecture des Arabes et des Mores en Espagne, en Si-
cile et en Barbarie. Paris : Hauser, 1841, 78.
41 Lettre du 10.03.1860, xxi/7002, Fondo Amari, Palerme.
45
nacelle non moins ingénieuse pour se suspendre,
amarré à la terrasse du bâtiment qui menace de
s’effondrer, et de merlons en merlons, placé de
face, effectuer ce recueil délicat (fig. 3.4). Il résout
enfin les problèmes pratiques posés par Girault de
Prangey, l’impossibilité d’accéder aux merlons ou
encore de relever les inscriptions trop altérées par
des concrétions. Si l’inscription obtenue ne per-
mettra pas de trancher l’attribution de la Zisa, en
revanche l’analyse du bâtiment par Sabatier sera
confirmée. La conclusion d’Amari à cet égard est
nette : « Quant aux Arabes et au Normands je n’ai
rien d’autre à vous dire puisque je m’aperçois que
vous tapez dans le mille42 ».
3 Les voies originales d’une appropriation de
l’art islamique
« Par amitié pour moi et par amour des arts et de la
science, Sabatier a relevé ces empreintes et me les
a données. »43
Le tome iii de la Storia va effectivement utiliser les
travaux de Sabatier, sans les citer cependant. Ainsi
les vases de Mazara auraient été vus par Amari en
1868. L’enthousiasmante découverte de 1858 n’est
plus, le premier observateur, l’inventeur des pièces
est Amari mais leur description paraphrase entiè-
rement Sabatier.
« J’ai vu ces deux vases à Mazara en 1868, l’un dans
la demeure d’un homme noble et courtois, Mon-
sieur Giovanni Burgio […] ; l’autre dans la sacristie
de la Madone du Paradis, petite église au porte de
la ville. »44
42 Amari in Alessandro D’Ancona, Il Carteggio di Michele
Amari, raccolto e postillato da Alessandro d’Ancona,
Turin: Roux Frassati, 1903–7, 158.
43 Michele Amari, « Le epigrafi arabiche di Sicilia », Rivis-
ta Sicula, Vol. iii, 1870.
44 Michele Amari, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, Volume
iii, Parte Prima 1868, et Parte Seconda, Le Monnier, Fi-
renze 1872, 794.
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46 Guérin

Figure 3.4 Lettre de Sabatier du 13 mars 1860, Fondo Amari xxi/7002, brcs
Photographie brcs. Avec l’aimable autorisation de la Bibliothèque régionale de Sicile

Pour la forteresse d’Entella, Sabatier devient un
ami anonyme qui fournit d’utiles renseignements.45
Le tome iii légué par Sabatier porte en marge de
cette assertion, une laconique et amère remarque
« Moi l’ami inconnu46 ». Cette pratique d’emprunt
à Sabatier va se révéler constante, à l’excep-
tion près de la Zisa, dans une revue sicilienne,
tardivement en 1870 et à propos d’épigraphie
­ qui ne soit plus seulement toscano-centrée et
arabe.47
Mais, au-delà, ce que ces pratiques révèlent
c’est une voie originale en Italie de l’appropriation
de l’art islamique ainsi que de sa connaissance et
de sa diffusion. Ainsi, aux côtés de l’appropriation
dans une collection, il faut ici le rendre propre à un
usage, historique et politique. Le travail de S­ abatier
45 Amari, Storia dei Musulmani, 822.
46 Cet ouvrage porte la cote L 2936, médiathèque Émile
Zola, Montpellier.
47 Michele Amari, « Le epigrafi arabiche di Sicilia », Rivis-
ta Sicula, Vol. iii, 1870, 137–52.
est tout entier tourné vers la réalisation d’une
fresque historique qui repose sur l’examen des
formes artistiques afin de dessiner une commu-
nauté qui possède une histoire commune en dépit
de formes diverses. Dans ce récit, l’art islamique a
la même valeur que l’art grec. Pour Sabatier et
Amari, participant à une histoire de l’art italienne
­vasarienne, l’art islamique est parfaitement appro-
prié à fournir une histoire de la Sicile, à la faire te-
nir au présent et à lui fournir un futur. C’est-à-dire
à bâtir un récit qui permet l’appartenance de l’île à
l’Italie unitaire, participant à l’établissement d’une
communauté imaginée.48 Le but est politique au-
tant qu’historique. Ce qui est visé c’est la légitimité
à énoncer le récit d’une communauté historique,
un récit apparemment tourné vers le passé mais
48 Benedict Anderson, L’Imaginaire national. Réflexions
sur l’origine et l’essor du nationalisme. Paris : La Décou-
verte, 1996.

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L’art islamique
en fait indexé vers le futur. Celui qui connaît le
passé peut légitimement être celui qui construit
l’avenir. L’absence/présence des travaux de Saba-
tier dans l’œuvre d’Amari peut alors trouver une
hypothèse. Le temps de la connaissance fournie
par les érudits étrangers passe, l’histoire n’est plus
une arme contre des régimes honnis, la fabrique
de l’histoire est désormais un outil pour la fabrique
des Italiens.
Archives et sources
François Sabatier, manuscrits 467 (1–13), médiathèque
Émile Zola, Montpellier.
François Sabatier, lettres, Fondo Amari xxi, Biblioteca
Centrale Regionale di Sicilia.
Amari, Michele, Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia, Volume
iii, Parte Prima 1868, et Parte Seconda, Le Monnier,
Firenze 1872. Cote L2936 MEZM.
Vito Amico, Dizionario topografico della Sicilia, tradotto
del latino ed annotato da Gioacchino Di Marzo, tipo-
gr. Morvillo, Palermo, 1855–56, 2 vol.gr. in-8°. Cote
17340 MEZM.
Bibliographie
Amari, Michele, « Le epigrafie arabiche di Sicilia »,
­Rivista Sicula, Vol. iii, 1870, 137–52.
Anderson, Benedict, L’Imaginaire national. Réflexions
sur l’origine et l’essor du nationalisme. Paris : La
­Découverte, 1996.
D’Ancona, Alessandro, Il Carteggio di Michele Amari,
raccolto e postillato da Alessandro d’Ancona. Turin :
Roux Frassati, 1903–7.
Chastel, André, « préface », dans Julius von Schlosser,
La littérature artistique, traduit de l’allemand par J.
Chavy. Paris : Flammarion, 1996, 9–14.
Cosentino, Gabriella Cianciolo, L’architetto e l’arabista,
un carteggio inedito : Lettere di Francesco Saverio
47
­ avallari a Michele Amari (1843–1889), transcription
C
et notes de Giuseppina Sinagra. Palermo : Diparti-
mento dei Beni culturali e dell’Identità siciliana,
2012.
Girault de Prangey, Joseph-Philibert, Essai sur l’architec-
ture des Arabes et des Mores en Espagne, en Sicile et
en Barbarie. Paris : Hauser, 1841.
Gregorovius, Ferdinand, Siciliana. Wanderungen in Nea-
pel und Sizilien. Leipzig : Brockhaus, 1861.
Guérin, Hélène, François Sabatier (1818–1891) : lire, tra-
duire et écrire l’histoire de l’art. Les chemins d’un cri-
tique et mécène fouriériste vers une Histoire de l’art,
Thèse, Université Montpellier 3, 2015.
Guérin, Hélène, « Sabatier François (Marie Jean Bap-
tiste), Sabatier-Ungher (nom de plume), apparaît
comme Franz Sabatier, Francesco Sabatier, cité fau-
tivement comme Sabatier d’Espeyran », Dictionnaire
biographique du fouriérisme, notice mise en ligne en
décembre 2016 (<http://www.charlesfourier.fr/spip.
php?article1805>).
Johns, Jeremy, « Fonti arabe », dans Alla ricerca d’Entel-
la, Nenci, Giuseppe con contributi di M.J Becker,
M.G. Canzanella, S. De Vido, C.A. Di Noto, G. Falsane,
L. Gallo, I. Gennusa, J. Johns, D. Moreschini, G. Nenci,
G. Panessa. Pisa : Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa,
Laboratorio di Topografia Storico-Archeologica del
Mondo Antico, 1993.
Labrusse, Rémi, Islamophilies. Paris : Somogy éditions
d’art/Lyon : Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2011.
Nebreda Martin, Lara, Documentación sobre arte y
arqqueologia en el Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan.
Análisis de la colección andalusì a través de sus docu-
mentos, Thèse, Universidad de Madrid, 2017.
Nenci, Giuseppe, « Entella nel 1858 in una lettera inedi-
ta di François Sabatier a Michele Amari », Annali
Scuola Normale Pisa, S. iii, xx (1990), 785–90.
Serra di Falco (Duca di), Del Duomo di Monreale e di
­altre chiese siculo-normanne. Palermo : Tipografia
Roberti, 1838.
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 chapter 4
Orientalisme versus orientalité
La nouvelle appréciation des arts de l’Islam en Pologne au début du xxe siècle
Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójcik
À l’Exposition universelle de 1878, au Palais du Tro-
cadéro à Paris, le prince Ladislas Czartoryski
(1828–94) présentait sept tapis de sa collection,
noués en soie, sur un fond lamé d’or et d’argent,
d’une richesse de matière extraordinaire. Bien que
de technique et de décor persans, certains por-
taient, dans des médaillons centraux, les armes de
la famille Czartoryski ; ils furent donc attribués
aux manufactures polonaises. Par la suite, tous les
tapis de ce type furent appelés polonais.1 Les fleu-
rons de la collection princière avaient été proposés
pour la première fois aux regards parisiens dans la
« Salle polonaise » du Musée rétrospectif, à l’expo-
sition de l’Union centrale des Beaux-arts appliqués
à l’industrie tenue en 1865 au Palais de l’Industrie.2
En 1869 le plus connu de ces tapis polonais fut re-
produit dans Les Collections célèbres d’œuvres d’art
dessinées et gravées par Édouard Lièvre. Une notice
expliquait les raisons de la naissance du goût des
orientalia en Pologne:
« Les Polonais ajoutaient à leur costume des cein-
tures fabriquées en Perse qui se distinguaient par
l’ampleur, par la finesse du tissu & l’éclat des cou-
leurs. […] Ces habitudes de luxe eurent pour consé-
quence naturelle de faire naître & de généraliser
dans le pays l’usage d’orner l’intérieur des maisons
de tapis & de divans. […] Ces tapis, comme les cein-
tures, étaient d’abord tirés exclusivement de la
Perse & de la Turquie, mais la consommation s’en
accrut tellement que, au cours du seizième siècle,
1 Friedrich Spuhler, Seidene Repräsentationsteppiche der
mittleren bis späten Safawidenzeit. Die sogennanten Pol-
lentepiche. Berlin : Freie Universität, 1968.
2 Exposition de 1865. Musée rétrospectif. Salle polonaise. Paris
: Librairie Centrale, 1865.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_007
on vit s’élever en Pologne de nombreuses fabriques
établies par des riches & illustres familles. Ces ef-
forts furent puissamment secondés par l’arrivée
dans le pays d’un assez grand nombre d’industriels
& d’artisans étrangers […]. »3
Grâce à sa position géographique, la Pologne fut,
effectivement, ouverte d’une façon toute naturelle
aux influences orientales qui devinrent l’un des
facteurs majeurs ayant forgé l’identité culturelle
polonaise depuis le Moyen Âge jusqu’au xviiie
siècle. Les relations politiques et commerciales
avec le Proche Orient ainsi qu’une forte présence
de « passeurs »—Arméniens, Tartares, Karaïtes—
contribuèrent à l’intégration des éléments orien-
taux dans la tradition artistique polonaise.4 L’idée
du « sarmatisme », en référence au mythe d’une
origine polonaise supposée chez les conquérants
Sarmates, avec l’adaptation de l’habit d’inspiration
orientale, constitue l’un des meilleurs exemples
de cette « orientalité » polonaise très particu-
lière, pour reprendre le terme proposé par Jan
3 Félicien de Saulcy et al., Les Collections célèbres d’œuvres
d’art dessinées et gravées par Edouard Lièvre. Paris : Goupil
& Co, 1869, 60.
4 Tadeusz Mańkowski, Orient w kulturze polskiej. Wrocław/
Cracovie : Ossolineum, 1959 ; Zdzisław Żygulski jun., « The
Impact of the Orient on the Culture of Old Poland », dans
Art in Poland 1572–1764 : Land of winged horsemen, cata-
logue d’exposition éd. par Jan K. Ostrowski (Walters Art
Gallery, Baltimore, 1999). Alexandria : Yale University Press
1999, 69–79. Ce phénomène d’intégration d’éléments pui-
sés dans le mode de vie, la langue, la mode vestimentaire
et le répertoire décoratif orientaux, lié aux échanges entre
les deux cultures, est comparable à ce qui se produisit en
Espagne sous la domination mauresque.
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Orientalisme versus orientalité
­Kieniewicz.5 Ainsi, la noblesse polonaise, élite
­dominante dans la République des Deux Nations
(République nobiliaire) entre la fin du xvie et la fin
du xviiie siècle, se laissa conquérir par l’esthé-
tique orientale au lieu d’adapter celle-ci à la sienne.
Indépendamment de leurs liens avec l’Orient, les
Polonais se considérèrent pourtant toujours
comme des Occidentaux, contrairement à leurs
voisins russes, qui ne « découvrirent » leur côté eu-
ropéen qu’au tournant du xviiie siècle, grâce aux
efforts de Pierre le Grand.6 Leurs engagements mi-
litaires aux confins de la Chrétienté, contre les
Turcs, les Tartares et la Moscovie, d’une part, la
bonne maîtrise et l’usage presque quotidien de la
langue latine, de l’autre, en constituent la preuve.
Totalement intégrées, les influences orientales
se sont enrichies au siècle des Lumières et à
l’époque romantique d’éléments puisés dans les
modes venues de l’Europe de l’Ouest, turqueries et
chinoiseries en premier lieu. À ceci se sont ajoutés
la connaissance directe de l’Orient et l’intérêt
croissant pour la littérature et les langues ori­
entales : des collections de manuscrits se for-
mèrent et l’École polonaise des langues orientales
d’Istanbul fut créée par le roi Stanislas Auguste
Poniatowski (1732–98) en 1767.7 Les relations avec
5 Jan Kieniewicz, « Orientalność polska », dans Andrzej
Garlicki (éd.), Sąsiedzi i inni. Varsovie : Czytelnik, 1978,
75–93 ; Stanisław Grzybowski, Sarmatyzm. Varsovie : kaw,
1996. Pierre Schneider utilise le terme « orientalité », en
opposition à « orientalisme », à propos des relations de
Matisse avec l’art oriental : Pierre Schneider, « ‘La grande
pensée’ : tapis d’Orient et xxe siècle », dans Le Ciel dans un
tapis, catalogue d’exposition éd. par Eric Delpont, Maria
Fernanda Passos Leite et João Carvalho Diaz (Paris, Insti-
tut du Monde Arabe, 7.12.2004–27.03.2005, Lisbonne,
­Fondation Calouste Gulbekian, 28.04–31.07.2005). Gand:
Éditions Snoeck, 2004, 81.
6 David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye, Russian Orienta-
lism. Asia in the Russian Mind from Peter the Great to the
Emigration. New Haven/London : Yale University Press,
2010.
7 Tadeusz Majda, « L’école polonaise des langues orientales
d’Istanbul au xviiie siècle », dans Frédéric Hitzel (éd.), Is-
tanbul et les langues orientales. Actes du colloque l’inalco,
Istanbul 1995. Paris : L’Harmattan, 1997, 123–28.
49
l’Empire Ottoman évoluèrent : dans la nouvelle si-
tuation politique, la Turquie devint non seulement
le but des voyages d’exploration, mais aussi l’un
des centres de l’émigration polonaise.
À la différence de la traditionnelle « orientali-
té » polonaise, le dialogue visuel entre l’Orient et
l’Occident, qui contribua au développement de
l’orientalisme pictural en Europe autour de 1830,
n’a pas véritablement changé le cours de l’histoire
de l’art en Pologne ; Stanisław Chlebowski (1835–
84), élève de Jean Léon Gérôme et peintre de cour
du sultan Abdulaziz (1830–76), reste le représen-
tant le plus reconnu de l’orientalisme polonais.8
Les Polonais n’ont pas cherché non plus à revenir
vers la légende “sarmate” au moment de la nais-
sance de la nouvelle école artistique, au tournant
du xixe siècle, à l’exemple des Hongrois qui, préci-
sément à cette époque, « regardaient vers l’Est »,
selon l’appel de l’architecte Ödön Lechner (1845–
1914).9 Les motifs orientaux, bien lisibles dans la
peinture polonaise de la deuxième moitié du xixe
siècle, depuis l’historicisme et l’académisme
jusqu’à la Jeune Pologne,10 n’ont véritablement ga-
gné de l’autonomie qu’au début du xxe siècle. De
8 Agata Wójcik, Stanisław Chlebowski, « nadworny far-
biarz Jego Sułtańskiej Mości » : życie i twórczość. Varso-
vie : Wydawnictwa Drugie, 2016.
9 L’appel orne l’entrée du bâtiment du Musée des Arts
Décoratifs à Budapest de Lechner et Gyula Pártos ; cité
par Mirjam Dénes, « Shades of Japonisme. The recep-
tion of Japanese Art and Culture in Hungary », dans
Katalin Gellér et Mirjam Dénes (éd.), Japonisme in
Hungarian Art. Budapest : Kovács Gábor Müvészeti
Alapitvány, 2017, 134.
10 Cuda Orientu, catalogue d’exposition éd. par Małgorza-
ta Ruszkowska-Macur (Gdańsk, Muzeum Narodowe,
27.06–26.07.2006). Gdańsk : Muzeum Narodowe, 2006 ;
Tadeusz Majda (éd.), Masterpieces of Persian Art from
Polish Collections, vol. i–ii. Téhéran : Moassesseh
Math/Varsovie : National Museum, 2013 ; Orientalizm w
malarstwie i rysunku w Polsce w xix i 1. połowie xx wieku,
catalogue d’exposition éd. par Anna Kozak et Tadeusz
Majda (Warszawa, Muzeum Narodowe, 17.10–
21.12.2008). Varsovie : Muzeum Narodowe, 2008 ; Jan
Reychman, Orient w kulturze polskiego Oświecenia.
Wrocław/Cracovie : Ossolineum, 1964.
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fait, c’est la première décennie du siècle qui vit la
naissance d’une nouvelle vague orientaliste, sous
l’influence de la « renaissance orientale » euro-
péenne : on peut citer les travaux d’Alois Riegl, de
Joseph Strzygowski, de Wilhelm von Bode, ou les
expositions organisées par Gaston Migeon, Frie-
drich Sarre et Fredrik Robert Martin. Grâce aux
activités d’un groupe de collectionneurs et d’ama-
teurs, les arts de l’Islam s’imposèrent peu à peu sur
la scène artistique et scientifique polonaise. Tapis,
tissus, et autres objets artisanaux, changèrent de
statut : investis d’une valeur esthétique, ils de-
vinrent des œuvres d’art à part entière. Feliks Ja-
sieński (1861–1929) de Cracovie et Włodzimierz
Kulczycki (1862–1936) de Lwów furent les figures
de proue de ce courant, à l’origine d’une véritable
révolution « décorative » et scientifique.
Connu surtout comme collectionneur et pro-
pagateur de l’art japonais en Pologne, Feliks Ja-
sieński fut pourtant bien plus : mécène, éditeur,
publiciste—le représentant-type de la nouvelle
vague du collectionnisme polonais.11 Pianiste de
formation, journaliste de métier, il était dilettante
et fier de l’être. Ses études à Berlin et à Paris le
mirent au courant de toutes les nouveautés artis-
tiques de l’époque, dont deux tendances, le japo-
nisme et la renaissance de la gravure originale,
furent primordiales pour sa carrière. En se renfor-
çant mutuellement, elles dirigèrent ses intérêts
vers l’art c­ ontemporain, et plus particulièrement
vers la jeune « école polonaise ». À Paris, il entra en
contact avec les marchands d’art japonais, tels
­Siegfried Bing, Tadamasa Hayashi, Charles Vignier,
et les spécialistes des arts graphiques, notam-
ment Edmond Sagot et Gustave Pellet.12 Après son
11 Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójcik, Feliks « Manggha » Ja-
sieński i jego kolekcja w Muzeum Narodowym w Kra­
kowie. Feliks « Manggha » Jasieński and his Collection at
the National Museum in Krakow, Korpus daru Feliksa
Jasieńskiego. Corpus of Feliks Jasieński’s Donation, vol. i.
Cracovie : Muzeum Narodowe, 2014.
12 Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójcik, « Feliks Manggha-Ja-
sieński (1861–1929), collectionneur d’estampes », Nou-
velles de l’estampe, 205, 2006, 6–12; Agnieszka Kluczews-
ka-Wójcik, Feliks « Manggha », 112–20.
Kluczewska-Wójcik
retour en Pologne, en 1901, il devint le critique
­musical de la revue varsovienne Chimera de ­Zenon
Przesmycki (1861–1944), porte-parole du moder-
nisme polonais.13 Parallèlement, il organise avec
un grand éclat médiatique les premières présenta-
tions de sa collection, destinée, comme il le souli-
gna dès le début, à la nation. Ses expositions ayant
été décriées, il quitte Varsovie pour la ville des
­universitaires et des artistes. À Cracovie, il put
poursuivre avec succès ses activités de critique, de
commissaire d’expositions, de conférencier, d’édi-
teur d’albums graphiques et de la première mono-
graphie de la peinture contemporaine polonaise
(Art polonais. La peinture, 1903–5), d’ami et de
complice des peintres, membres de la société
« Art », ainsi que des professeurs de l’Académie
des Beaux-Arts. Sa collection s’enrichit pour for-
mer un panorama de la peinture, de la sculpture et
des arts graphiques polonais de la fin du xixe et du
début du xxe siècle. Avec le temps, il y ajouta aussi
les arts décoratifs contemporains et anciens, et
surtout les tapis orientaux et les ceintures dites
polonaises.
« Manggha » Jasieński, du titre de son ouvrage
Manggha. Promenades à travers le monde, l’art et
les idées (en hommage à Hokusai),14 fut aussi un
grand amateur d’art décoratif oriental, de la litté-
rature et de la musique orientalistes. C’est son
voyage en Terre Sainte, entrepris en 1897, qui lui
permet de confronter ses visions artistiques avec
la réalité. Ses découvertes commencent à Istanbul,
où il s’arrête pour goûter à cet « Orient rêvé, avec
son charme triste et exquis », et « se refaire, pour
ainsi dire, une âme plus jeune de quelques
siècles15 ». Il visite Jaffa, Jérusalem, Beyrouth, Da-
mas, Baalbek, Le Caire et Alexandrie. Au Caire,
13 Grzegorz Paweł Bąbiak, Metropolia i zaścianek : W
­kręgu « Chimery » Zenona Przesmyckiego. Varsovie : Wy-
dział Polonistyki UW, 2002 ; Anna Szczepańska, « Chi-
mera » : tekstowa kolekcja Zenona Przesmyckiego.
Gdańsk : Słowo, obraz, terytoria, 2008.
14 Feliks Jasieński, Manggha. Promenades à travers le
monde, l’art et les idées. Paris/Varsovie : Vieweg, 1901.
15 Jasieński, Manggha, 52.
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Orientalisme versus orientalité 51

« une des plus belles capitales du monde, […] gref-

fée sur une des villes orientales les plus pitto-
resques », il admire « une multitude de mosquées,
bijoux les plus précieux de l’art arabe » ; à Damas,
les bazars « immenses et uniques en leur genre16 ».
« Après des fouilles patientes, j’y ai découvert hier
un superbe manteau arabe en soie mauve, très
épaisse, brodée d’argent. Mais ces bonnes au-
baines deviennent de plus en plus rares ; les coton-
nades anglaises envahissent jusqu’aux bazars de
Damas, et bientôt les objets divers, censés être fa-
briqués en Orient et fabriqués réellement en
Orient, seront un mythe17 »—écrit-il.
Il portait avec aisance le costume oriental rap-
porté de son voyage. Portraituré “en arabe” par son
ami, peintre et graveur, Leon Wyczółkowski (1852–
1936) (fig. 4.1), il est déguisé en roi Hérode sur un
dessin de Józef Mehoffer (1869–1946),18 esquisse
pour le vitrail « Adoration des Mages », réalisé
pour la Cathédrale Saint-Nicolas de Fribourg, et
encore une fois « en bédouin » sur une aquarelle
de Zofia Stryjeńska (1891–1976) (fig. 4.2), l’une des
élèves de l’école artistique pour les femmes de Ma-
ria Niedzielska (1876–1947), à Cracovie, où le col-
lectionneur enseignait entre autres l’histoire des
arts décoratifs orientaux.
De son périple, il rapporte, outre quelques sou-
venirs, prémices de sa collection orientale, une sé-
rie de photographies de monuments historiques,
pour enrichir ses conférences consacrées à l’art
arabe. Beaucoup plus qu’un simple récit de voyage,
ses présentations constituent une introduction
aux études de l’art et de la culture de l’Islam, et
plus particulièrement de l’ornementation (décora-
tions murales, plafonds, mosaïques, lambris, dal-
lage, vitraux, étoffes, tapis, reliures, faïences), la
première de ce genre en Pologne.19 Ses ­conférences
Figure 4.1 Leon Wyczółkowski, Portrait of Feliks Jasieński,
1908, huile sur toile, 133 × 60, Musée national de
Cracovie (collection Jasieński), mnk ii-b-919
16 Jasieński, Manggha, 83.
17 Jasieński, Manggha, 67.
18 Józef Mehoffer, Feliks Jasieński en roi Hérode, 1904,
crayon sur papier, 48,0 × 47,2 cm, Muzeum Narodowe w
sont illustrées également par des livres : La Décora-
Krakowie, mnk iii-ra-70-999. tion arabe (1890), d’Émile Prisse d’Avennes, L’Art
19 Wystawy sztuki w salonie Chimery, Chimera, 1/2, 1901, arabe d’Albert Gayet (1893), Altorientalische Tep-
361–62. piche (Leipzig, 1891) d’Alois Riegl, Les Arts du tissu

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Figure 4.2 Zofia Stryjeńska, Souvenir de Manggha (La conférence de Feliks Jasieński), aquarelle, crayon,
gouache sur papier, 1912, 33 × 38,5, Musée national de Cracovie (collection Jasieński) mnk iii-ra-5767
(1909) et Manuel d’art musulman (1907–27) de
Gaston Migeon, Islamische Kunstwerke (Berlin,
1928) de Raymond Koechlin, le manuel de Wil-
helm von Bode et Ernst Kühnel Vorderasiatische
Knüpftepiche aus älterer Zeit (Leipzig, 1914),
­Miniaturmalerei in islamischen Orient de Kühnel
(Berlin, 1923), ainsi que par des publications de
son maître à penser Ernest Renan.20
C’est pourtant sa collection qui constitue la
meilleure preuve du goût de Jasieński pour l’art
oriental, et plus particulièrement ses tapis.21 Il
20 Toutes ces publications se trouvent aujourd’hui à la Bi-
bliothèque du Musée national de Cracovie.
21 Beata Biedrońska-Słotowa, Kobierce tureckie (Turkish
carpets), Muzeum narodowe w Krakowie Katalog zbiorów
Tom iii (The National Museum in Kraków Collection Ca-
talogues Volume iii). Cracovie : Muzeum Narodowe,
1983 ; Agnieszka Kluczewska-Wójcik, « A new approach
to Islamic art : The collecting of Eastern c­arpets in
Kluczewska-Wójcik
commence à en acheter dès le début de sa carrière,
mais sa passion s’intensifie dans les années 1910–
20.22 Il est correspondant de Charles Vignier
(­Paris), de Rex & Co et R. Wagner (Berlin), mais
surtout des antiquaires de Cracovie, Varsovie et
Lwów (Léopol, aujourd’hui Lviv).23 Pendant la
­ oland at the beginning of the 20th century », dans Bea-
P
ta Biedrońska-Słota, Magdalena Ginter-Frołow, Jerzy
Malinowski (éds.), The Art of the Islamic World and the
Artistic Relationships between Poland and Islamic Coun-
tries. Cracovie : Manggha Museum, Polish Institute of
World Art Studies, 2011, 371–84.
22 Tapis, tissus et ceintures polonaises constituent la ma-
jeure partie des achats de Jasieński après la donation
de sa collection au Musée de Cracovie en 1920 :
­Archives de la Conservation du Musée national de Cra-
covie, TD Jas, p. 34–65.
23 Kluczewska-Wójcik, Feliks « Manggha », 168–70 ; Ar-
chives du Musée national de Cracovie, Donation Ja-
sieński, S1/16, S1/19.
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Orientalisme versus orientalité
Figure 4.3 Ceinture polonaise, Słuck, période de Jan Madżarski (1767–80), soie à fil d’or et d’argent, taqueté façonné et
crocheté, broché, 447,0 × 36,0 cm, Musée national de Cracovie (collection Jasieński), mnk xix-2289
Grande Guerre, il voyage en Galicie et Podolie (au-
jourd’hui Ukraine) à la recherche de tapis et de
­kilims. Ces mêmes kilims qui, découverts par les
artistes polonais, sont à l’origine du développe-
ment de la tapisserie en Pologne au début du
siècle—signe distinctif de la nouvelle école déco-
rative polonaise.
Les ceintures dites polonaises, ou de Słuck,
constituent le deuxième centre d’intérêt du collec-
tionneur (fig. 4.3).24 En soie, parfois à fil d’or ou
d’argent, longue de quelques mètres, la ceinture
accompagnait le costume de la noblesse polo-
naise, mais n’était pas fabriquée forcément en Po-
logne. D’ailleurs, Jasieński les considère comme
des œuvres « limitrophes », adaptées par la tradi-
tion polonaise, et souligne toujours leurs origines
orientales.25 Et ce n’est pas pour des raisons senti-
mentales qu’il les apprécie mais pour leurs valeurs
24 Maria Taszycka, Pasy wschodnie (Eastern sashes). Kata-
logi zbiorów Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie Kraków
(Catalogues of the Collection National Museum in Cra-
cov). Cracovie : Muzeum Narodowe, 1990.
25 Feliks Jasieński, « Jakiej sztuki Polsce trzeba? », Świat,
13, 1914, 13.
53
décoratives, comme le prouve le mieux sa collec-
tion. Leurs décors, coloris, et formes trouvent un
écho inattendu dans les ceintures obi japonaises
de son recueil, mais aussi dans les batiks javanais
et ceux fabriqués par les apprenties des Ateliers de
Cracovie (fondés en 1911).
Autour de Jasienski se forme un cercle d’ama-
teurs d’orientalia. Son ami Wyczółkowski non
­seulement le peint en costume arabe, mais aussi
l’accompagne dans ses voyages chez les mar-
chands de Berlin où ils achètent, selon le témoi-
gnage du peintre, des tapis pour quelques ­milliers
de marks.26 Pendant ses séjours parisiens, le
peintre Józef Pankiewicz (1866–1940), muni d’un
carnet d’adresses soigneusement fourni par le
26 Maria Twarowska (éd.), Leon Wyczółkowski. Listy i
­wspomnienia. Wrocław/Cracovie : Ossolineum, 1960,
82. Les restes de la collection d’art oriental de
­Wyczółkowski se trouvent aujourd’hui au Musée natio-
nal de Poznań : Wojciech Lipowicz et al. (éd.), Z kolekcji
Leona Wyczółkowskiego. Dar artysty dla Muzeum
­Wielkopolskiego w Poznaniu. Catalogue d’exposition
(Muzeum Okręgowe Leona Wyczółkowskiego, Byd-
goszcz 13.04–30.06.2011). Bydgoszcz : Muzeum Okrę-
gowe Leona Wyczółkowskiego, 2011.
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54
Figure 4.4 Józef Pankiewicz, Vase persan, 1908, 90 × 64 cm,
Musée national de Cracovie (collection
Jasieński), mnk ii-b-889
c­ ollectionneur, flâne dans la capitale à la recherche
de poteries et d’étoffes orientales—objets de col-
lection et sujets de ses tableaux (fig. 4.4). Comme
le rapporte Pankiewicz en septembre 190727 :
« Il y a une chance d’acheter quelques faïences
persanes (plus exactement ce sont des poteries
vernissées) extraordinaires et très bon marché.
Moi-même, j’ai déjà acheté un vase […]. Pour
quelque 300 francs, on peut acheter des choses di-
vines. […] Peut-être réfléchirez-vous à ce propos.
[…] Je suis allé chez Vignier. Les prix [y sont] hor-
ribles. Les morceaux d’étoffes à plusieurs centaines
de francs. Que faire ? Vignier vous écrira lui-même.
27 Lettres de J. Pankiewicz à F. Jasieński, Paris le 4 et le 16
septembre 1907, manuscrits, Archives du Musée natio-
nal de Cracovie, 633/51 ; traduction de l’auteur.
Kluczewska-Wójcik
J’ai acheté des faïences persanes, de [vraies] mer-
veilles ! De l’argent que vous m’aviez envoyé, com-
bien dois-je dépenser pour des faïences ? car je
pourrais acheter encore quelque chose d’autre.
Pour que vous sachiez quels sont les prix des pote-
ries ailleurs. »
Jasieński entretient les relations avec d’autres
amateurs, notamment Erazm Barącz (1859–1928),
peintre de la famille des collectionneurs léopol-
diens d’origine arménienne ; il sera le représentant
de Barącz au moment de la donation de sa collec-
tion au musée de Cracovie en 1922. Avec le temps
« Manggha » devient l’autorité reconnue dans le
domaine des tissus orientaux. Raymond Koechlin,
secrétaire général de la Société des amis du Louvre
et vice-président de l’Union centrale des arts déco-
ratifs, l’un des organisateurs des grandes exposi-
tions d’art islamique, visite en 1906 le « Musée Ja-
sienski » : « Vous avez une collection exquise, d’un
choix parfait » écrit-il au collectionneur.28 D’ail-
leurs, fondateur du « Département du Musée na-
tional de Cracovie » (le nom qu’il utilise pour sa
collection depuis 1903), Jasieński se rapproche par
son goût et ses convictions des cercles d’amateurs
d’art parisiens travaillant avec et pour les musées,
tels que Koechlin, Jules Maciet ou Migeon, et des
marchands, tels que Vignier ou Dikran Kelekian,
intéressés par les deux traditions orientales.29
Le 11 mars 1920, Jasieński lègue au Musée de
Cracovie un ensemble de plus de quinze mille
œuvres d’art, la plus importante collection privée
jamais offerte à une institution muséale en Po-
logne. Elle constituait pour le musée, appartenant
à la ville mais considéré par les Polonais comme le
premier musée national, un enrichissement de
premier ordre dans le domaine de la peinture,
28 Lettre de R. Kœchlin à F. Jasieński, Archives du Musée
national de Cracovie, S1/14, p. 113.
29 Rémi Labrusse, « Paris, capitale des arts de l’Islam ?
Quelques aperçus sur la formation des collections fran-
çaises d’art islamique au tournant du siècle », Bulletin
de la Société de l’Histoire de l’Art français, 1997,
275–309.
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Orientalisme versus orientalité
de la sculpture et des arts décoratifs contempo-
rains polonais. Son cabinet des estampes, en pre-
mier lieu des gravures polonaises et françaises du
tournant du siècle, était tout aussi exceptionnel.
L’ensemble composé de tapis orientaux, d’objets
d’art, de peintures et d’estampes japonaises plaçait
le musée cracovien parmi les premières institu-
tions publiques en Europe. Indépendamment de
sa grande valeur artistique, la collection, réunis-
sant l’avant-garde, l’Islam et le Japon, témoignait—
et témoigne encore aujourd’hui—de l’engagement
de Jasieński dans le mouvement du renouveau de
l’art national polonais sur les bases d’une « relec-
ture » du patrimoine artistique du Proche et de
l’Extrême Orient.
Si le milieu des islamophiles français, « le petit
groupe de pionniers des années 1910 »,30 dont Ja-
sieński se sentait si proche, concentrait ses efforts
sur la réception et l’appréciation esthétique de l’art
de l’Islam, c’était en revanche la démarche scienti-
fique qui dominait en Allemagne et en Autriche.31
Pendant qu’Émile Prisse d’Avennes et Adalbert de
Beaumont analysaient les règles de l’ornement
oriental, Ernst Herzfeld, Ernst Kühnel, Moritz Bec-
ker et Wilhelm von Bode bâtissaient les bases de
l’islamologie et de l’histoire de l’art islamique. Ce
sont justement les publications et les expositions
préparées par les chercheurs de Berlin et de
Vienne—celle de 1891, en premier lieu—qui
­servirent de point de départ pour les activités de
Włodzimierz Kulczycki. Zoologiste, professeur
d’anatomie et recteur de l’Académie vétérinaire de
Lwów (Lviv), il constitua un très important en-
semble de tapis orientaux, aujourd’hui divisé entre
les Collections artistiques nationales du Château
30 Labrusse, « Paris, capitale des arts de l’Islam ? », 1997,
297–99.
31 Annette Hagedorn, « The development of Islamic art
history in Germany in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries », dans Stephen Vernoit (éd.), Dis-
covering Islamic art. Scholars, collectors and collections
1850–1950. London/New York : I.B. Tauris, 2000, 117–27.
55
de Wawel à Cracovie et le Musée de Tatras Tytus
Chałubiński à Zakopane.32
Situé au carrefour des routes commerciales,
Lwów, capitale de la Galicie autrichienne, grâce à
ses institutions scientifiques—l’Institut orienta-
liste de l’Université Jan Kazimierz et la Société
orientale polonaise (créée en 1922)—, et la
­présence d’une forte minorité arménienne, consti-
tue une place de choix pour un passionné des ­tapis
orientaux. Kulczycki les achète chez des mar-
chands léopoldiens, tels que Filip Haas & Cie (la
première acquisition certifiée remonte à 1906),
Abdul Kerim, A. Zucker, M. Schulberg, Bolesław
Jaroszewski, Samuel Schein (de Vienne) et surtout
Tadeusz Wierzejski (1892–1974)—historien de
l’art, antiquaire puis propriétaire de la salle des
ventes, conseiller et ami du collectionneur.33 Le
cercle d’amateurs d’art oriental de la ville est d’ail-
leurs assez large, avec notamment Roman Barącz
(médecin) et son frère Tadeusz (sculpteur), Mie­
czysław Reyzner (peintre), Aleksander Skarbek
(homme politique), et Wilhelm Wolf (explorateur
qui a passé une dizaine d’années à Istanbul), et les
objets passent fréquemment d’une collection à
l’autre. Si les premiers achats de Kulczycki ont un
caractère plutôt banal, ceux qui suivent sont beau-
coup plus réfléchis, comme le prouvent les notes
conservées dans les archives du collectionneur qui
concernent les échanges de tapis modernes contre
des pièces plus anciennes.34 Conscient du manque
de ressources pour une étude plus approfondie de
32 Magdalena Piwocka (éd.), Kobierce i tkaniny wschodnie
z kolekcji Kulczyckich. Cracovie : Państwowe Zbiory Sz-
tuki na Wawelu, 2006. Jerzy (1898–1974), fils de Kulczy-
cki, lui aussi collectionneur, vend une partie de la col-
lection familiale au musée de Wawel en 1964, le reste
est légué par sa femme Anna au musée de Zakopane,
en 1977, et exposé au Département Kulczycki du Musée
des Tatras depuis 1981.
33 Piwocka, Kobierce i tkaniny, 20–22.
34 Anna Piotrowicz-Kulczycka, « Dzieje kolekcji ko-
bierców wschodnich Włodzimierza i Jerzego Kulczy-
ckich », dans Kobierce i tkaniny wschodnie z kolekcji
Kulczyckich, catalogue d’exposition éd. par Maria
­Podlowska-Reklewska (Kraków, Państwowe Zbiory
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56
Figure 4.5 Tapis de la collection Włodzimierz Kulczycki,
exposé à l’Exposition des tapis mahométans,
céramique orientale et européenne au Musée
national de Cracovie, 1934, photographie,
Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
l’art oriental, Kulczycki complète alors sa biblio-
thèque, composée surtout de publications en
langue allemande, et commence ses propres re-
cherches.35 Bientôt, il publie le catalogue du Mu-
sée grec-catholique de Lwów (1910),36 ainsi que
celui de sa propre collection (1914).37 En 1926, il en
S­ ztuki na Wawelu, juillet-septembre 2006). Cracovie :
Państwowe Zbiory Sztuki na Wawelu, 2006, 11.
35 La première position du catalogue de sa bibliothèque
orientale est la version manuscrite du catalogue de l’ex-
position de tapis de Vienne de 1891 ; Archives de la fa-
mille Kulczycki.
36 Włodzimierz Kulczycki, Kobierce wschodnie xvii w. w
muzeum staropigijnem we Lwowie. Cracovie : Drukarnia
Narodowa, 1910.
37 Włodzimierz Kulczycki, Beiträge zur Kentnis der orien-
talischen Gebetteppiche hauptsächlich auf Grunt eige-
Kluczewska-Wójcik
présente une partie, à l’occasion de l’exposition
L’Orient en Pologne, organisée par la Société de
sauvegarde des monuments historiques de
­Varsovie—il l’accompagne par la préparation d’un
catalogue manuscrit en trois exemplaires.38
Les deux expositions suivantes, à Lwów en 1928
et à Cracovie en 1934, dont Kulczycki est un des or-
ganisateurs, constituent une étape décisive de la
redécouverte de l’art oriental en Pologne. La pré-
sentation des tapis et « d’autres productions artis-
tiques » des collections de Lwów, intitulée L’Orient
mahométan, est organisée par la Société des amis
des beaux-arts et du Musée d’industrie artistique de
la ville (fig. 4.5). Elle est accompagnée d’un cata-
logue, dont l’introduction par Kulczycki fait le point
sur les recherches dans les domaines des tech-
niques, de l’histoire et de l’esthétique de tapis orien-
taux.39 Sa version augmentée Tapis mahométans
avec 60 illustrations. Étude basée sur la collection de
l’auteur, paraît une année plus tard,40 et éveille un
vif intérêt pour la collection et pour les thèses déve-
loppées par le collectionneur, et plus particulière-
ment pour le choix du terme d’ « art mahométan »,
au lieu d’ « art arabe41 ».
ner Teppichsammlung. Lemberg [Lviv] : B. Połoniecki,
1914. Les versets du Coran sont traduits par Mojżesz
Schorr, professeur à l’Université de Varsovie.
38 Włodzimierz Kulczycki, Pamiętnik xxii wystawy Tow.
Opieki nad Zabytkami Przeszłości w Warszawie w 1926 w
kamienicy Baryczków, zebrany przez autora w trzech rę-
kopisach…, [manuscrit] Varsovie, 1926, Archives de la
famille Kulczycki.
39 Włodzimierz Kulczycki, « Kobierce mahometańskie »,
dans Wschód mahometański. Wystawa kobierców i in-
nych wyrobów przemysłu artystycznego ze zbiorów
lwowskich, catalogue d’exposition (Lwów, Muzeum
Przemysłowe, avril-mai 1928). Lwów : Muzeum Prze-
mysłowe, 1928, 3–14.
40 Włodzimierz Kulczycki, Kobierce mahometańskie z 60
reprodukcjami. Studium na podstawie zbiorów autora,
Sztuki Piękne, v (3–4), 1929, 81–141.
41 Alfred Holender, Zbiory prof. Włodzimierza Kulczyckie-
go. Najwspanialszy komplet dywanów wschodnich w
rękach polskich. Cracovie : Wydawnictwo « Czasu »,
1930.
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Orientalisme versus orientalité
Figure 4.6 Vue de l’Exposition des tapis mahométans, céramique orientale et européenne, Musée national de Cracovie, 1934,
photographie, Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe
Dans l’introduction au catalogue de l’exposition
au Musée national de Cracovie en 1934, Kulczycki
écrit :
« Les tissus mahométans anciens, tapis en pre-
mier, unissent tous les éléments du grand art, et
commencent à surpasser dans nos intérêts les
autres. Les deux dernières expositions en font la
preuve. […] Ces expositions […] ont prouvé non
seulement que notre public est capable d’appré-
cier cet art, mais ont aussi entamé une vive discus-
sion dans la presse de Varsovie, Cracovie et Lwów.
Elles ont montré également que, bien que les tapis
mahométans aient été présents dans nos de-
meures depuis bien longtemps, les plus anciens et
les plus beaux y sont très rares. Traités comme des
objets purement utilitaires, ils se détériorèrent et
disparurent progressivement. Un des buts de cette
exposition est justement la propagation de l’idée
57
du connoisseurship et du collectionnisme de tapis,
et du développement de la réflexion critique les
concernant (fig. 4.6). »42
En réponse à Kulczycki, l’orientaliste Tadeusz Ko-
walski publie un article polémique où il revient sur
la question de la terminologie—il juge l’expres-
sion « d’art mahométan » liée directement à la re-
ligion, donc trop restrictive—et, en expliquant les
règles de la classification et de la décoration des
tapis orientaux, propose une étude historique et
42 Włodzimierz Kulczycki, « Słowo od zbieracza », dans
Alfred Holender (éd.), Katalog wystawy kobierców
mahometańskich, ceramiki azjatyckiej i europejskiej.
Cracovie : Muzeum Narodowe, 1934, 8–9 (traduction de
l’auteur).
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58
Figure 4.7 Musée des Princes Czartoryski, salle de la bataille de Vienne, Cracovie [vers 1930], photographie, Narodowe
Archiwum Cyfrowe
linguistique du sujet, la première synthèse de ce
genre.43 « La réponse du collectionneur » qui s’en-
suit sanctionne en quelque sorte la nouvelle vision
de l’art « islamique » en Pologne.44
L’exposition du 1934 réunit des « tapis mahomé-
tans, céramique orientale et européenne », prove-
nant des collections publiques et privées des deux
centres de l’islamophilie polonaise : Lwów, avec la
collection Kulczycki, et Cracovie, avec celles de
43 Tadeusz Kowalski, « Uwagi orientalisty na marginesie
wystawy kobierców wschodnich w Muzeum Naro-
dowym w Krakowie », Przegląd Współczesny [Craco-
vie], 143, 1934, 428–42.
44 Włodzimierz Kulczycki, « Odpowiedź zbieracza na
uwagi orientalisty », Przegląd Współczesny [Cracovie],
145, 1934, 296–305.
Kluczewska-Wójcik
J­asieński, faisant désormais partie du Musée na-
tional. Un domaine néanmoins en est absent : la
­miniature. En effet, ni Kulczycki ni Jasieński, féru
d’estampes japonaises, ne s’intéressaient à cet art,
qui était pourtant présent dans les bibliothèques
des grandes familles aristocratiques polonaises—
les Czartoryski, les Zamoyski, les Ossoliński…—et
ceci depuis le début du xixe siècle.45
45 Tadeusz Majda, Katalog rękopisów tureckich i perskich,
Katalog rękopisów orientalnych ze zbiorów polskich, vol.
5/2, Varsovie: pwn, 1967 ; Magdalena G ­ inter-Frołow,
« Miniatures from Persian manuscripts : The history of
Polish collections », dans Beata Biedrońska-Słota, Mad-
galena Ginter-Frołow, Jerzy Malinowski (éds.), The Art
of the Islamic World and the Artistic Relationships
between Poland and Islamic Countries. Krakow :
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Orientalisme versus orientalité
Le prince Ladislas Czartoryski, possesseur des
fameux tapis dits polonais, avait hérité de la collec-
tion des manuscrits de son père Adam Jerzy (1770–
1861), bon connaisseur de la littérature persane,
et parlant plusieurs langues orientales. Lui-même
amateur de miniatures persanes, il agrandit la bi-
bliothèque par des acquisitions faites à Paris,
Londres, Istanbul et Téhéran.46 Transférée à Cra-
covie en 1878, la collection familiale devint le
­Musée des Princes Czartoryski, ouvert au public—
aujourd’hui partie du Musée national de Craco-
vie.47 Tout au long du xxe siècle, le Musée conserve
le caractère muséographique caractéristique du
siècle précédent, avec la galerie des peintures,
dont la perle est La Dame à l’hermine de Léonard
de Vinci, et les collections archéologiques
grecques, étrusques et égyptiennes, comme deux
points forts.48 Les orientalia des Czartoryski
étaient répartis entre la salle d’armes, les salles es-
pagnole, de céramiques, et de curiosités, et la bi-
bliothèque. L’accent spécial était mis sur les tapis,
les tentes d’apparat et d’autres objets provenant—
ou supposés provenir—du butin de guerre du roi
Jean iii Sobieski (1629–96) (fig. 4.7). Et c’est préci-
sément cette provenance légendaire de la bataille
de Vienne qui constituait la renommée de la col-
lection orientale de Czartoryski auprès du public,
bien plus que sa valeur historique et artistique. Les
­ anggha Museum, Polish Institute of World Art Stu-
M Cuda Orientu, catalogue d’exposition, éd. par Małgorza-
dies, 2011, 401–13.
46 Stefan Komornicki, « Les principaux manuscrits à
peintures orientaux du Musée des Princes Czarto-
ryski », Bulletin de la Société française de reproduction
des manuscrits à peintures, xviii, 1935, 165–84.
47 Zdzisław Żygulski jun. (éd.), The Princes Czartoryski
Museum: a History of the Collection. Cracovie : National
Museum, 2001. Rattachée au Musée national de Craco-
vie après la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, la collection
Czartoryski a intégré le Musée en 2016.
48 Roman Jodko, Katalog topograficzny Muzeum xx Czar-
toryskich, 3 vols., manuscrit, [1912], Bibliothèque Czar-
toryski, EW xvii 3081–3. À une exception près, tous les
catalogues publiés par le Musée concernaient cette
partie de la collection ; voir la bibliographie : Żygulski,
The Princes Czartoryski Museum.
59
miniatures persanes, exclues de cette légende,
n’étaient connues que d’un petit groupe d’ama-
teurs et de savants.
Les expositions de 1926, 1928 et de 1934 ont don-
né un vrai essor aux recherches sur l’art islamique
en Pologne. Les années trente, avec les travaux de
Tadeusz Mańkowski (1878–1956), approfondissent
la réflexion sur la place de l’Orient dans la culture
polonaise. Mańkowski, issu du milieu léopoldien,
répondra en quelque sorte à l’appel émanant du
cercle des premiers orientalistes polonais.49 En ef-
fet, ce sont des collectionneurs et des érudits,
comme Jasieński et Kulczycki, qui, dans les deux
premières décennies du xxe siècle, imposent cet
art considéré comme « mineur » auprès du public
et des critiques, dans l’univers de la muséogra-
phie, d’une part, et celui de l’histoire de l’art,
de l’autre.
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 Part 2
Appropriation, Reuse and Eclecticism

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 Chapter 5
Appropriating Damascus Rooms
Vincent Robinson, Caspar Purdon Clarke and Commercial Strategy in Victorian London
Moya Carey
This article examines different social and commer-
cial agendas which underscored Middle Eastern
art-collecting in late nineteenth-century E ­ urope.*
This was a collecting practice that encompassed
many different art media, and extended even to ar-
chitecture, albeit in fragmentary state. Here, a Lon-
don case-study will demonstrate the interlinking
trade histories of carpets sold in tandem with the
Syrian interiors known then to art-dealers as “Da-
mascus Rooms”. European dealers and curators
coined this evocative term to describe the import-
ed and reconstructed interiors they displayed in
their salesrooms and exhibition galleries. As dem-
onstrated here, these very “Rooms” conjured an
intimate context within which to exhibit (and sell)
diverse art objects.
The term “Damascus Rooms” refers to beautiful
wood-paneled interiors created for the private
houses of urban notables in the Syrian capital, of
which surviving examples typically date from the
late seventeenth through to the nineteenth centu-
ries. The paneling, cornicing, alcove-doors, win-
dows and ceilings are profusely decorated in bright
colors, enlivened with reflective metal foil and re-
lief effects of raised pastiglia plasterwork. There
* With grateful thanks to Anke Scharrahs, Audrey Whitty,
Mercedes Volait, and Mariam Rosser-Owen, who curated
the display A Room from Damascus at the V&A, April
2015– April 2016, and organized the study day “Introducing
Damascus Rooms: The Decorated Interiors of 18th and
19th Century Syria,” V&A, October 3, 2015, with papers by
Stefan Weber, Anke Scharrahs, Brigid Keenan, and Zahed
Taj-Eddin. A blog about the display was published to coin-
cide with the study day: <https://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/
asiadepartment/the-damascus-room-is-ready-to-receive-
visitors> (accessed February 1, 2019).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_008
are many different design schemes and painted
elements, including radial geometry, fine knot-
work, urban vignettes and floral or fruit still life
compositions. This variety reflects changes in Ot-
toman Syrian taste over two centuries. Verses of
poetry, or of pious texts, typically run along the up-
per frieze. Within the original room, this paneled
zone was typically a raised seating area, located
beneath a high ceiling, with colored glass windows
at clerestory level (fig. 5.1).1 By the second half of
the nineteenth century, these bright interiors may
have been falling out of fashion in Syria: at this
point, Damascus Rooms became subject to a new
and foreign appropriation, which is the topic of
this article. With a specific focus on art-dealer Vin-
cent J. Robinson (1829–1910) and his relationship
with the South Kensington Museum (today the
Victoria and Albert Museum, or V&A) in London, I
will argue that this growing interest may be chart-
ed through commercial networks to national
­museum collections across Europe and America.
Furthermore, this fashion for displaying Damas-
cus Rooms was determined by the earlier travel
experiences of a European cultural elite, who re-
called the caliber of the Syrian domestic architec-
ture they had visited personally.
With new demand abroad, examples of Damas-
cus Rooms were purchased from private house-
holds in the Syrian city, de-installed, and exported.
Such was their appeal that modern versions were
being made “in historic style” and also exported.
This continued throughout the late nineteenth
and into the early twentieth centuries. Intimate
1 Anke Scharrahs, Damascene ʿAjami Rooms. Forgotten Jew-
els of Interior Design (London: Archetype, 2013).
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66
Figure 5.1 James Wild, An Upper Room in the House of Mohamed Aga Chaweesh, Damascus, May 1847. Watercolor painting
on sketchbook page, 41.5 × 29.8 cm. London, V&A E.3869–1938
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
and distinctive, imported Syrian Rooms became
fashionable in public and private European
­contexts. International exhibitions, renowned for
their temporary installations of characteristic na-
tional architectures, evidently were a significant
and influential forum for this display trend as
well.2 Art dealers appropriated Damascus Rooms
as charming display environments for a heteroge-
neous range of Middle Eastern objects, enclosed
within their salesrooms.3 This layout appealed to
2 For Middle Eastern architectural display contexts at the
1878 Paris exhibition, see Moya Carey and Mercedes Volait,
“Framing ‘Islamic Art’ for Aesthetic Interiors: Revisiting
the 1878 Paris Exhibition,” International Journal of Islamic
Architecture, 2020 (forthcoming).
3 The salesroom deliberately laid out in the style of a private
interior is discussed in David Roxburgh, “Au Bonheur des
Carey
private clients, but also to museum curators, as
this article proposes. Between 1880 and 1895, a se-
ries of Damascus Rooms was offered for sale to the
South Kensington Museum, which confirms a
­contemporary trend for displaying thematic archi-
tectural interiors.4 These successive museum
­purchases also demonstrate the key role of archi-
tectural salvage in the history of collecting, in
nineteenth-century Syria and Egypt. Finally, this
article will conclude with an account of how a
Amateurs: Collecting and Exhibiting Islamic Art, ca. 1880–
1910,” Ars Orientalis, 30, Exhibiting the Middle East: Collec-
tions and Perceptions of Islamic Art (2000): 9–38.
4 On the enduring history of themed rooms in museum dis-
plays, see Julius Bryant, “Museum Period Rooms for the
Twenty-first Century: Salvaging Ambition,” Museums Man-
agement and Curatorship 24, no. 1 (2009): 73–84.
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Appropriating Damascus Rooms
­ amascus homeowner negotiated the sale of a
D decontextualization for industrial ­application, be
paneled interior room in January of 1877.
1 Collecting for a Design Museum
The South Kensington Museum was established in
the wake of London’s Great Exhibition of 1851, and
opened its doors in 1857. More than a social ame-
nity, the museum was formally intended as a
­reference collection for Britain’s modern design
industries. It was estimated that the right study
material would improve British manufacturing,
and thus also the economic health of the nation
state (and the empire).5 What was especially ap-
preciated for this purpose were selective design
traditions from the Islamic world (here mostly
limited to a contact zone extending across Spain
and India). This focus of appropriation was most
prominently proposed by the design theorist
Owen Jones, whose key publication The Grammar
of Ornament (1856) set out a veritable manifesto
for reforming design in Victorian Britain. The
South Kensington Museum duly sought art objects
and architectural fragments as useful reference
material. These acquisitions were not studied for
their cultural context; they were ­appropriated as
aesthetic “fuel” to invigorate contemporary de-
sign.6 Industrial museums in other countries fol-
lowed the same rather mechanical principle of
5 The genesis of the South Kensington Museum is discussed
in Julius Bryant, ed., Art and Design for All. The Victoria and
Albert Museum (London: V&A, 2011).
6 This reductive approach is noted in Gülru Necipoğlu,
“L’idée de décor dans les régimes de visualité islamiques,”
in Purs Décors? Arts de l’Islam, regards du xixe siècle. Col-
lections des Arts Décoratifs, ed. Rémi Labrusse (Paris: Les
Arts Décoratifs, 2007), 10–23. For Britain, the evident impe-
rialism of the South Kensington appropriation of Indian
design traditions in particular is laid out in Tim Barringer,
“The South Kensington Museum and the Colonial Project,”
in Colonialism and the Object. Empire, Material Culture and
the Museum, ed. Tim Barringer and Tom Flynn, (London:
Routledge, 1998): 11–27.
67
it in Paris, Vienna, Budapest, Berlin or Dublin.
That at least was the theory of the museum’s
mission. In order to achieve its goal, however, the
South Kensington reference collection had to be
built first, and effectively from scratch. That
­gradual process of acquisition was grounded in
commercial and cultural realities, relating to art
market availability, trending fashion, and social as-
piration. Museum curators were susceptible to all
of these contemporary trends, and themselves
acted within commercial networks. Increasingly,
the habits of specific art connoisseurs and collec-
tors would determine how Islamic Middle Eastern
art was displayed, as a widening bourgeois society
admired and aspired to domestic trends of the
elite. This enthusiasm was quite the opposite of
procuring decontextualized specimens for design-
ers to study, but it nonetheless also influenced
how South Kensington acquired and displayed the
arts of the Middle East.
2 1873: Leighton in Damascus
A social aura surrounded significant figures of the
Aesthetic Movement, who were the leading taste-
makers of the Victorian age. For example, Royal
Academy painter Frederic Leighton (1830–96) was
a well-traveled cultural figure, and his London
­studio-house displayed a renowned collection of
Syrian tiles, along with other architectural fittings
appropriated from the Middle East and Southeast
Asia.7 These furnishings sometimes worked their
way into his genre paintings. Using new steamship
routes, Leighton regularly traveled to the Mediter-
ranean, visiting Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Palestine,
Turkey and Syria. As his 1873–74 paintings confirm,
Leighton deeply responded to the splendid urban
7 Louise Campbell, “Decoration, Display, Disguise. Leighton
House Reconsidered,” in Frederic Leighton: Antiquity Re-
naissance Modernity, ed. Tim Barringer and Elizabeth
Prettejohn (New Haven and London: Yale University Press,
1999), 267–93.
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68 Carey

Figure 5.2 Frederic Leighton, Old Damascus—Jews’ Quarter, also titled Gathering Citrons, 1873–74. Oil painting on canvas
© Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images

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Appropriating Damascus Rooms
fabric of Damascus (fig. 5.2).8 The city’s courtyard
mansions were often recorded by visiting artists
and writers, who were impressed by the aesthetic
grandeur of these historic houses, and the warm
experience of hospitality within.9 Like other simi-
lar travelers, Frederic Leighton collected architec-
tural fragments, which he used to decorate a new
extension of his home. Designed in 1877–79 by
George Aitchison (1825–1910), Leighton’s Arab Hall
is a creative confection of salvaged components of
wood, stone and tilework and new complementa-
ry elements by British craftsmen, including tiles by
William de Morgan and mosaics by Walter Crane.
The Hall gives the strong impression that Leighton
had brought the exquisite fragments home with
him, as re-appropriated mementos of his worldly
travels, and evidence of his aesthetic flair—with
contemporary British additions completing the
creative conversation. However, despite his exten-
sive personal travels, many of Leighton’s Syrian
tiles came to his London address via commer-
cial agents, working on commission, as well as
by ­personal acquaintances.10 One of Leighton’s
8 Old Damascus—Jews’ Quarter, also referred to as Gath-
ering Citrons, today in private collection and Interior of
the Grand Mosque (Preston: Harris Museum, Art Gal-
lery & Library, prsmg: P366) were shown at the Royal
Academy’s annual exhibition in 1874 and 1875, respec-
tively (Emilie Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of
Frederic Leighton, vol. 2, (New York: Macmillan, 1906),
205–06).
9 “We stood in a great flagged court, with flowers and cit-
ron trees about us, and a huge tank in the centre that
was receiving the water of many pipes. We crossed the
court and entered the rooms prepared to receive four
of us. In a large marble-paved recess between the two
rooms was a tank of clear, cool water […]. Nothing, in
this scorching, desolate land could look so refreshing as
this pure water flashing in the lamplight […]. Our
rooms were large, comfortably furnished, and even had
their floors clothed with soft, cheerful-tinted carpets.
[…] All this luxury was as grateful to systems and sens-
es worn out with an exhausting day’s travel, as it was
unexpected.” Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad (Lon-
don: Penguin, 2002, first published 1869), 340.
10 Richard Burton (1821–90) wrote to Leighton from Da-
mascus in March 1871. He promised to locate “good old
69
confirmed Damascus sources was Caspar Purdon
Clarke (1846–1911), whose purchasing strategy is
central to this article.
Museum curators and the general public alike
were attracted by intimate access to elite private
collections such as Leighton’s, at least as much as
to their aesthetic selections of art objects. Art deal-
ers were quick to respond to the nuance of this
combination. Across the network of Victorian art,
taste and commerce, the most influential individ-
uals operated in several capacities. William Morris
(1834–96), for example, was a businessman, de-
signer, craftsman, collector, conservationist, and
radical socialist thinker. Some dealers were keen
to become art scholars: this, for instance, was the
ambition of Vincent Robinson, a London-based
importer whose family business specialized in In-
dian textiles. Some curators turned out to be natu-
ral brokers: this was the case with Caspar Purdon
Clarke, who made extensive acquisitions through-
out the Middle East and India. Trained at South
Kensington as an architect, Dublin-born Purdon
Clarke eventually became the Director of the
South Kensington Museum (in 1896), and in 1905
went on to direct the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York. Social, urban and transport infra-
structures were all changing, creating new condi-
tions of mobility, for objects as well as for people.
For the interest of late nineteenth-century Euro-
peans in Islamic art, these new conditions enabled
a very central act of appropriation: architectural
salvage. In the following account, a sequence of
events related to the Damascus Room acquisitions
by South Kensington will be discussed from the
perspective of two individual agents, Vincent Rob-
inson and Caspar Purdon Clarke. This concludes
that both were driven by vested interests, and
aimed to improve their personal and professional
status, respectively.
specimens” of Damascus tilework and hinted about
locating tiles from Jerusalem. Yet it is not clear which
tiles he actually sent. A later letter (July 1876, Trieste)
noted that he had just shipped Leighton tiles from “the
tomb (Moslem) of Sakhar, on the Indus [modern Paki-
stan]” (Barrington, Leighton, 2: 218–19).
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70
3 1878, London: “A Room Complete From
Damascus”
In March 1878, William Morris wrote a letter to his
daughter May on the occasion of her sixteenth
birthday:
“I have seen a very pretty thing this week; that is an
exhibition of eastern things at the Carpet-man’s
Vincent Robinson’s. He has bought a room com-
plete from Damascus, walls, ceiling, window and
all and ‘tis put together properly with only the due
amount of light in it—due in Syria I mean not in
London—it is all vermillion & gold & ultramarine,
very beautiful and it is just like going into the Ara-
bian Nights: he has also the most beautiful tiles,
and brass & copper engraved bowls & vessels very
fine: one little casket of the 13th century I thought
the finest piece of metal-work I had ever seen on
that scale.”11
Morris had visited Vincent Robinson’s shop on
Wigmore Street in London. Robinson had inherit-
ed the business, which had long focused on Indian
textile imports. In his census returns, Robinson de-
scribed himself as a carpet merchant or an East
India merchant. He had loaned carpets to the In-
dia Museum at Whitehall, formerly the corporate
collection of the East India Company. Robinson’s
firm also imported carpets from across the Middle
East.
This begs the question why Robinson was now
offering a Damascus Room full of tiles and metal-
work. The answer lies in Robinson’s long-term as-
sociation, and friendship, with Caspar Purdon
Clarke. For at least four years, Robinson had been
working in tandem with Purdon Clarke, a junior
architect at the Works Department of the South
Kensington Museum, who also maintained a side-
line as a freelance purchasing agent. Together
11 Letter to May Morris, dated March 21, 1878 (Norman
Kelvin, ed., The Collected Letters of William Morris, vol.
1, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984),
464–65).
Carey
­ obinson and Purdon Clarke had been developing
R
architectural reconstruction as a form of commer-
cial stagecraft: in 1874, they collaborated on a rep-
lica of an “Egyptian villa” displayed at Alexandra
Palace, a public exhibition venue in north London.
The interior was described in the press as “copied
from an example in Cairo”: Purdon Clarke sup-
plied the Cairo designs, whereas Robinson provid-
ed the carpets.12
For the next two years (1874–76), Purdon Clarke
was in Iran on a different professional mission,
working on the British Legation (today the embas-
sy) in Tehran.13 In addition to this role, he bought a
broad range of objects (reportedly for “some thou-
sands of pounds”), on a commission for the art fur-
niture firm of Christopher Dresser (1834–1904): the
firm sold a consignment of these on to the South
Kensington Museum.14 From Iran, Purdon Clarke
also sent examples of carpets to Vincent Robinson,
evidently pressing for a commission from the car-
pet dealer.15
In early 1877, Caspar Purdon Clarke was in Syria:
again, he was on commission, this time working
12 “A Novelty in Preparation at the Alexandra Palace,” The
Workshop 7, no. 10 (1874): 160. Caspar Purdon Clarke
had traveled to Egypt in 1872, reportedly to work on the
completion of St Mark’s Church in Alexandria, de-
signed by his mentor James Wild (Moya Carey, Persian
Art. Collecting the Arts of Iran for the V&A (London:
V&A, 2018), 41). As Wild’s assistant, he would also travel
to Tehran in 1874, on a similar mission for Wild (see
next note).
13 Carey, Persian Art, 41–67; John Gurney, “Legations and
Gardens, Sahibs and their Subalterns,” Iran 40 (2002):
218–19.
14 V&A Archive, MA/2/P7/1 (Purchases by Officers on Vis-
its Abroad), memos signed by Edward Poynter, George
Wallis and Richard Thompson, dated November 30,
1876. 113 items of tilework, glass and textiles were sold
to the South Kensington Museum (V&A 1 to 113–1877).
Carey, Persian Art, 45, n.56.
15 “I sent Vincent Robinson a letter by this post on the
subject of carpets, see if you can stir him up for a com-
mission to buy” (V&A Archive of Art & Design,
AAD/2003/10/21 (Charles Holme), letter to Christopher
Dresser, dated August 10, 1875).
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Appropriating Damascus Rooms
for two different parties: Frederic Leighton and the
South Kensington Museum. He later noted, “Leigh-
ton had asked me, if I went to Damascus, to go to
certain houses and try to effect the purchase of
certain tiles. […] I returned with a precious load,
and in it some large family tiles [i.e. group sets],
the two finest of which are built into the alcove of
the Arab Hall. Leighton made no difficulty about
the price, and insisted upon paying double what I
had given.”16 The Museum had authorized him to
spend up to £250.17
During these five weeks in Damascus, Purdon
Clarke bought the Room that would eventually be
offered for sale, one year later, at Vincent Robin-
son’s showroom. As observed by William Morris,
in the spring of 1878 this impressive Damascus
Room was on display in Wigmore Street, filled
with the tiles and metalwork that (as noted) were
not Robinson’s usual stock. This was because Cas-
par Purdon Clarke had supplied the Room’s con-
tents, as well as the Room itself. The following
­account explains the significant delays between
Purdon Clarke’s Syrian purchase (in January 1877),
Robinson’s London display (in March 1878) and
South Kensington Museum’s eventual purchase of
the Damascus Room (in June 1880).
Over the summer of 1878, Robinson and Purdon
Clarke both worked in Paris, on the British India
section at the international exhibition. Purdon
Clarke was the official commercial agent, and also
designed the India pavilion.18 As a commercial
16 Quoted in Barrington, Leighton, 2:218. In 1883, Purdon
Clarke described the tiles elsewhere as “a unique pair
of large panels of tiles with sunken niches now forming
a part of Sir Frederick Leighton’s Arab Hall” (V&A Ar-
chive, ED/84/205 (Official Visits Abroad by keepers of
the Museum with reports on foreign Museums, collec-
tions, etc.), memo by Caspar Purdon Clarke, dated June
11, 1883).
17 V&A Archive, MA/2/P7/1 (Purchases by Officers on Vis-
its Abroad), memo from Philip Cunliffe-Owen, dated
December 28, 1876.
18 Reproduced in The Illustrated London News supple-
ment (July 13, 1878): ii. See Carey and Volait, “Framing
‘Islamic Art.’”
71
e­ xhibitor, Robinson’s firm put out an extensive dis-
play of carpets: some were from India, but many
others came from Iran and elsewhere. Robinson
included large examples from Safavid Isfahan, and
later carpets from Kurdistan, Hamadan, Kerman-
shah, Daghestan, Bukhara and Turkoman Central
Asia. He also showed a range of ceramic, glass and
brass vessels from Iran.19
The 1878 Paris exhibition offered to the public
eye an unprecedented range of fine carpets from
Safavid Iran.20 These came not only from Robin-
son’s display, but also from the collections
­exhibited by art connoisseurs Castellani, Goupil,
Czartoryski, Rothschild and others. Impressive
private collections were increasingly displayed at
International Exhibitions, revealing an intimate
world to the wider public in dedicated display ar-
eas.21 In this instance, the publicity forced a new
consensus about the true quality of historic car-
pets, and about the critical centrality of Iran. A
leading voice in that debate was George Birdwood
(1832–1917), former British government adminis-
trator in India, and now Director of the India Mu-
seum in London. He was an active promoter of
Indian craft revival, and published a long account
of the carpet industries of Asia, praising their long
history and underlining Iran’s foundational sta-
tus.22 In Birdwood’s new assessment, Robinson
19 A contemporary illustration of the display (heavily em-
phasizing the carpets) was published in Émile Berger-
at, “Maison Vincent Robinson & Co.,” Les Chefs-D’Œuvre
d’Art à l’Exposition Universelle de 1878 (Paris: Ludovic
Baschet, 1878) 172 (Carey and Volait, “Framing ‘Islamic
Art’,” fig.2). This range may be contrasted with Robin-
son’s stock at the Paris exhibition in 1867, which report-
edly focused on Indian textiles, see Matthew Digby
Wyatt, “Report on Carpets, Tapestry, and other Stuffs
for Furniture. (Class 18.),” in On the Arts of Decoration at
the International Exhibition at Paris, a.d. 1867, (London,
1868), 19–20.
20 Carey, Persian Art, 197–204.
21 Carey and Volait, “Framing ‘Islamic Art.’”
22 George Birdwood, The Industrial Arts of India (London:
Chapman & Hall, 1880), much of the carpet chapter
was published earlier for the 1878 Paris exhibition as
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72
Figure 5.3 Model of the Damascus Room sold by Vincent
Robinson, 1880. Pencil and watercolor on card.
London, V&A Archive, MA/1/R1314/1 (Vincent J.
Robinson)
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
recognized a critical promotion for the art status of
carpets, which might well transform the commer-
cial value of his own stock. Carpets were the central
pillar of R
­ obinson’s business, and following the 1878
Paris event, he carefully approached the South
Kensington Museum in order to display and ulti-
mately sell his carpets in a prestigious public con-
text. First, he secured the Museum authorities’ at-
tention by steering them toward the recent rising
trend for Damascus Rooms. The opportunity to
display such a Room had come from his associate,
Caspar Purdon Clarke. As to be discussed below,
Robinson also wished this institutional engage-
ment to create a different social profile for himself.
4 1880, London: Robinson’s Damascus Room
In January 1880, Birdwood’s India Museum trans-
ferred to South Kensington Museum, and its
George Birdwood, “Handbook to the Indian Court,”
Handbook to the British Indian Section. Paris Universal
Exhibition of 1878 (London, 1878). Birdwood’s impact is
discussed in Carey, Persian Art, 198–99.
Carey
c­ollection was absorbed. Caspar Purdon Clarke
was appointed curator of the new Indian Section,
his first permanent position at the Museum. As
the permanent carpet collection was still insuffi-
cient for long-term display, the Museum now bor-
rowed (or rather rented) carpets from Robinson’s
firm for the first few months of 1880.23 This was a
circulation arrangement: carpets and other tex-
tiles went back and forth between the shop and
the museum. Others remained on long-term loan
in the galleries, for what would be years. South
Kensington was not buying from Robinson as yet;
the following account suggests a deliberate strat-
egy on Robinson’s part, to entice the Museum to
buy more comprehensively from his principle
stock: carpets.
Over the summer of 1880, Robinson made an
interesting marketing pitch. He invited the muse-
um’s director and art curator to visit his salesroom,
to see the Damascus Room with all its interior fur-
nishings. It is unrecorded whether Caspar Purdon
Clarke joined them: given the following informa-
tion, this seems unlikely. Like William Morris two
years earlier, the visitors were impressed by this
paneled interior from Syria. By this date—1880—
the South Kensington Museum held collections of
Iranian objects, Iznik ceramics and plaster cast
specimens of Cairo architecture—the decontextu-
alized items usually required by a design museum.
But they had nothing quite as theatrical as a fur-
nished Damascus Room, and it is clear that the
South Kensington staff were attracted to Robin-
son’s setup. A miniature pop-up model, made of
watercolor-painted card, remains in the V&A Ar-
chives, and is stored there together with the Rob-
inson correspondence (fig. 5.3).
Robinson followed up the visit with a persua-
sive note, that “the Curious Damascus Room” must
now be purchased or lost to another client: “There
is the possibility of placing this room more
23 V&A Archive, MA/1/R1314/1 (Vincent J. Robinson), loan
correspondence dating 1880–1; Carey, Persian Art,
204–06.
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Appropriating Damascus Rooms
Figure 5.4 Wall from a Damascus Room, Syria, 1170 ah/1756–77, as installed at South Kensington Museum. Museum
Guardbook photograph. London, V&A 2676–1902, negative number 24334, photograph depicts V&A 411–1880
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
a­ dvantageously, in a pecuniary way, than the one
[I proposed] this morning, but I have a personal
wish to see it in the National Collection.”24 The
pressure worked: the Damascus Room and its con-
tents were sold to the Museum for £850.25 It was
installed on display at South Kensington by Caspar
Purdon Clarke (fig. 5.4).
The contents were described as “ordinary 19th
century Syrian and Persian manufacture”: lamps,
tables, ceramic pots and dishes, metalwork, a
bookstand, a hookah pipe base, twenty-one cush-
ions, eight mattresses and four carpets. The Arabic
inscription around the frieze was a pious poem,
24 V&A Archive, MA/1/R1314/1 (Robinson), letter from
Robinson to Cunliffe-Owen, dated June 18, 1880.
25 V&A 411–1880 (“Room and Fittings from Damascus”),
including 72 parts and subparts numbered 411a to
411rr-1880.
73
concluding with the date 1170 ah (1756–57); the
Museum had it translated in August 1880.26
It was later reported that Robinson’s impressive
showroom was not the first place where the South
Kensington authorities had seen this very Damas-
cus Room. Apparently, they had seen it before, and
indeed had refused to buy it. Writing in 1919, the
American designer Lockwood de Forest (1850–
1932) remembered that when Caspar Purdon
Clarke had first brought the Room (“from a house
just taken down”) from Syria to Britain (i.e. in early
1877), it had been entirely at his own expense, and
that the Museum had then refused to buy it from
26 One of the Museum’s long-term art referees for Spanish
art, Juan Facundo Riaño (1829–1901) translated this and
other Persian inscriptions (V&A MSL/1906/691; V&A
Archive, ED/84/208 (Employment of Experts and
Professional Assistance for Special Tasks), memo
­
signed Phillip Cunliffe-Owen, dated August 14, 1880).
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74
him: “He was in despair and did not know what to
do as he could not afford to hold any such thing.”
At this stage, Robinson had stepped in: “his friend,
Vincent Robinson, came to his rescue and pur-
chased and put it up in his store. The Kensington
trustees saw it there and wanted it.” It was only in
1880 then, on encountering the Damascus Room
in a persuasively commercial context, that the mu-
seum staff could finally perceive it as worthwhile
for the collection. De Forest noted with dismissive
satisfaction that Robinson had charged the muse-
um ten times Clarke’s asking price, “determined to
give them a lesson.”27 Aside from relieving Purdon
Clarke’s difficulty, Robinson’s sale was a calculated
overture to attract the South Kensington Museum
to buy much more from him, as it soon did.
Once the Damascus Room transaction had tak-
en place, Vincent Robinson’s firm approached the
Museum again, now offering three further sets of
Middle Eastern objects. The first set consisted of
items presumably also sourced by Caspar Purdon
Clarke in Iran (1874–76) and Syria (1877). The
­Iranian objects included a gilded steel flask from
Isfahan, and the Syrian material included a tile
spandrel from the 1581 Sinaniya Mosque in Damas-
cus. Two groups of carpets followed: the first con-
sisting of four very expensive examples, of which
one was compared to the great Isfahan carpets re-
cently displayed (i.e. by Robinson) at the Paris Ex-
hibition in 1878. After these came a larger set of
twenty carpets, surveying Iran, Turkey and Central
Asia. It was said they would “illustrate a wider
field of Asiatic manufacture.” The latter two con-
signments relate more obviously to Robinson’s
­principle a­ctivity as a “Carpet-Man.” A glowing
­recommendation to purchase these carpets was
27 “Clarke knew the importance of the room when he saw
and bought it. The trustees thought they knew better
and did not trust him or take his advice. When at last
they found out their mistake it cost the museum the
difference between one hundred pounds and one
thousand.” (Smithsonian Institution, Archives of
American Art, Lockwood de Forest papers, 1858–1980,
Box 2, Folder 12, “Museum Management” dated June
1919, with grateful thanks to Mercedes Volait).
Carey
written by Purdon Clarke himself. He made no ref-
erence to his earlier role as a commissioned agent
for Robinson’s firm. The museum bought all three
groups of objects.
The Damascus Room had therefore been an
­impressive means to win over the museum authori-
ties, and the episode is full of coordinated commer-
cial strategy and overture. By selling to a national
institution, Robinson worked to promote a higher
art value for well-made historical c­ arpets—and a
different status for himself. This continued when
(with George Birdwood’s help), ­Robinson pub-
lished an influential color-­illustrated book in 1882.
The book, Eastern Carpets, Twelve Early Examples,
was offered as a prize at art school competitions
across Britain and distributed by the South Kens-
ington Museum. As limited as it was, Robinson’s
scholarship remained attached to commercial ad-
vantage: of the twelve featured carpets, many still
belonged to him. He would sell further specimens
to South Kensington in 1884, including one pub-
lished in Eastern Carpets. He retired from his firm
shortly afterwards, leaving the new managing
­director, Edward Stebbing, to recover the many
long-term loans that Robinson had made to South
Kensington since 1880. This was especially embar-
rassing for three large-scale Isfahan carpets, which
the Museum authorities now refused to buy for
£1,000. After two tense years of correspondence,
one of these Isfahan carpets was finally purchased.
It had been on display in Paris in 1878 and therefore
was one of the objects that changed critical opinion
about the value of historical carpets.
5 1881–88: More Rooms
South Kensington was now focusing more upon
Middle Eastern art collecting, with “Persian Court”
galleries (opened in April 1876) re-named “the
Persian and Saracenic Courts” to demonstrate
­
expanding horizons. From Robinson’s personal
­
perspective, his initial impact on the Museum’s
displays grew less visible with every passing year.
The Museum was increasingly making bulk
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Appropriating Damascus Rooms
Figure 5.5 Cupboard doors from a Damascus Room, Syria, 1204 ah/1789–90. London,
V&A 504:1–1883 and 504:2–1883
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
a­ cquisitions of salvaged architectural fittings, or-
ganized and supplied by a range of commercial
firms and independent agents in Egypt and Syria:
several re-appropriated rooms were now installed
within the galleries of the South Kensington Mu-
seum. In 1883 Robinson’s Damascus Room was
joined by a­ nother Damascus Room of slightly later
date (1204 ah/1789–90), bought from Paris-based
art dealer Henri Vuagneux (fig. 5.5).28 Two Cairo
Rooms were purchased as well, sent directly from
Cairo by Greville Chester (in 1881) and Stanley
Lane-Poole (in 1883), respectively.29
28 In 1883, Henri Vuagneux sold the Museum “a Room
from Damascus” for £500 (V&A 504–1883), composed
of decorated walls, ceiling, alcoves and windows.
29 In 1881, Rev. Greville John Chester (1830–92) sold South
Kensington an extensive range of architectural salvage,
75
These four purchases were part of a wider ex-
port trend, of sourcing decorative interiors in
Egypt and Syria, and directly marketing them to
European museums. As noted above, this was not
limited to stripping out historic houses of Damas-
cus or Cairo—there also was an active replica in-
dustry. This is confirmed in a correspondence
sourced from both Cairo and Damascus. The Cairo ma-
terials included tile sets, wooden mashrabiya window
screens, stained glass windows set in stucco, and a
wooden ceiling attributed to “the house of Sheikh Bakri
at Cairo” in the 1881 Art Inventory (V&A 102 to 150–
1881). In 1883, the Museum bought from Stanley Lane-
Poole (1854–1931) a “Room from Cairo” composed of
wooden walls, cornices, ceiling, lattice windows, door
and stucco windows (V&A 1193–1883), and a further 276
tiles and 15 architectural fragments (V&A 1193 to
1234–1883).
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76
b­ etween the Dublin Museum of Science and Art (a
sister institution of South Kensington), and the
art-importers Mawe & Co., in 1888. Mawe offered a
Damascus Room they had currently placed on dis-
play at the international exhibition in Brussels, “a
copy of an Old Damascus Room, such as were used
for the Harem.”30 The firm also owned two more
(modern, newly constructed) Damascus Rooms,
as well as an “old” example (meaning an original
salvaged interior), which they sold to the Budapest
Museum at the 1885 Antwerp international
exhibition.
In October 1884, an article in The Times newspa-
per complained about an incoherent sprawl of
“Saracenic objects,” located in various galleries
across the South Kensington Museum site: to the
writer, it was clear that the Museum’s Middle East-
ern art collections were expanding beyond any ex-
isting narrative of its gallery displays.31 ­Acquisitions
30 “This one is not old but very careful work, and we think
it would interest you. If so, we will take £175 for it. If
desired we could supply all the fittings of a Syrian
Room” (Dublin nmi Archive, Art & Industry Corre-
spondence, letter dated October 30, 1888). Longfield
(the curator in Dublin) noted in a memo (dated Octo-
ber 31): “Rooms of this kind are very difficult to manage
in a Museum when they can never be properly seen
and I think it would be much preferable to have panels
showing the different styles of decoration—in any case
it would be better to secure some genuine specimens of
the Old work.” This comment about display logistics
may explain Longfield’s later decision (discussed be-
low) to purchase a single wall from a much older Da-
mascus Room, in 1894.
31 “The Saracenic objects are scattered about in various
parts of the Museum, according as room can be found
for them. […] At present, we have to search for them in
holes and corners, and the general public does not like
to have the trouble of finding as well as looking […]. It
really is a Sabbath day’s journey to take a complete
view of the Saracenic collection at the South Kensing-
ton Museum, but the result is worth the fatigue” (Stan-
ley Lane-Poole, “Saracenic Art at the South Kensington
Museum,” The Times, October 23, 1884, 3. I am grateful
to Mariam Rosser-Owen for identifying the (otherwise
anonymous) author as Stanley Lane-Poole (personal
communication, January 18, 2018).
Carey
had continued. The vendor of the 1883 Damascus
Room, Henri Vuagneux, was involved in mediating
an enormous bulk purchase from Gaston de Saint-
Maurice that was completed in 1884. This private
domestic collection would be the Museum’s most
substantial acquisition of Middle E ­ astern art to
date, including over 400 examples of metalwork,
ceramics, carpets and textiles.32 Saint-Maurice had
served at the Khedival court in Cairo for a decade,
and with his return to France in 1878, he showed his
personal house collection at the Paris Exhibition.
Placed within the official Egyptian displays, Saint-
Maurice’s collection occupied a single gallery enti-
tled L’Égypte de Khalifes.33 This was more than an
assembly of art objects—it was an important series
of salvaged architectural fittings and plaster cast
specimens molded from historic mosques and Cai-
rene houses. Now removed to Paris, these had all
been embedded into the walls, doors, windows and
ceilings of Saint-Maurice’s spectacular maison
arabe in Cairo.
At South Kensington, a massive acquisition
such as this must surely have eclipsed the diverse
material sold earlier by Vincent Robinson, but
there was more to come. From 1892 onwards, Rob-
inson’s company successor, Edward Stebbing, now
coordinated the sale to South Kensington of a re-
markable sixteenth-century carpet from a Safavid
shrine in northwestern Iran—it was an exception-
al carpet to outshine all others. Stebbing also
wrote a new book about it, The Holy Carpet of
­Ardabil, which in its content (and, for the 1893
elephant-folio edition, even in its scale) far
­
­surpassed Robinson’s Eastern Carpets.34 The 1893
edition c­ irculated around the national network of
32 V&A 880 to 1048–1884, and 1058 to 1063–1884.
33 The Egyptian display rationale for Paris 1878 is dis-
cussed in Carey and Volait, “Framing ‘Islamic Art.’”
34 Carey, Persian Art, 173–81. Stebbing’s monograph ad-
dressed carpet history with reference to twenty-three
carpets from the Robinson firm stock, with a focused
account of the Ardabil carpet and its Safavid cultural
context. It was printed in two editions, the first in 1892,
and a very large format with five hand-colored plates in
1893 (fifty copies, by private subscription).
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Appropriating Damascus Rooms
art museums, where the large-scale color images
now allowed textile workers to copy the complex
designs. The Ardabil Carpet itself was delivered to
the museum in April 1893.
The next year, Vincent Robinson wrote to the
South Kensington authorities:
“I have a Damascus ceiling of a room much finer
than the one in the room which the Museum had
of me some years ago. As you are aware I am now
retired from all affairs of business so that I pro-
pose—if the South Kensington Museum authori-
ties will accept the ceiling as a present to send it to
you—but I must impose one condition, and that is
that my name shall be attached to the room. I was
originally induced to part with the room on Sir
Philip Owen’s promise that this should be done
but I should now make a condition of the Museum
accepting my proposal.”35
This rather competitive demand for publicity
­suggests that Robinson was now concerned about
fixing his social status through personal legacy,
­established by his various contributions to the Mu-
seum. His initial wish to have his own name pub-
licly acknowledged in the South Kensington
galleries had been disappointed, and other named
collectors and suppliers were now being celebrated
in the same spaces. His handbook Eastern Carpets
was being superseded by other writers, i­ncluding
his own business successor Edward Stebbing.
Hence his insistence on a public credit in 1894.
6 1894–95: The Habra Brothers’ Damascus
Room
Months later, the South Kensington Museum was
contacted by Habra Brothers, an art-dealing com-
pany with branches in London, Beirut and Damas-
cus. They offered a Damascus Room for sale, which
35 V&A Archive, MA/1/R1314/2 (Robinson), letter from
Robinson to John Donnelly, dated February 3, 1894. The
ceiling was accessioned: V&A 618–1894.
77
the Museum decided not to purchase.36 By 1894,
South Kensington had two Damascus Rooms
(from Robinson in 1880, from Vuagneux in 1883),
two Cairo Rooms (from Chester in 1881, from Lane-
Poole in 1883), and even a new ceiling recently do-
nated by Vincent Robinson (in February 1894).
Other museums within South Kensington’s na-
tionwide network (such as the Science and Art
Museums of Dublin and Edinburgh), however, had
none. In Dublin, the museum’s curator T.H. Long-
field had already turned down an offer in 1888 (as
noted above) to buy a modern replica of a Syrian
room, firstly because it was not “genuine,” but sec-
ondly because he felt that “Rooms of this kind are
very difficult to manage in a Museum when they
can never be properly seen.”37 Perhaps on these
grounds, Caspar Purdon Clarke (or someone at the
South Kensington Museum) now made a radical
and pragmatic decision on behalf of the wider mu-
seum network. The Habra Brothers’ offer of a Da-
mascus Room was accepted, and it was sent to
South Kensington—there, its four decorated walls
were dismantled and separated, to be distributed
to three different museums. In October 1894, Hab-
ra Brothers sold one wall to the Dublin Museum,
where it remains to this day in the National Muse-
um of Ireland (fig. 5.6).38
36 This collates archival correspondence and acquisition
records for both the V&A and the National Museum of
Ireland (Decorative Arts and History branch), V&A Ar-
chive, MA/1/H16 (Habra Bros.); nmi Archive, Art & In-
dustry Correspondence. The documentation confirms
that Philip Habra’s firm sold extensively to both Dublin
and South Kensington Museums from July 1894 on-
wards; these were principally architectural fittings, such
as a marble-inlaid fountain basin (V&A 76–1896), deco-
rative stone pavement and hundreds of Syrian tiles.
37 See note 30 above.
38 Dublin, National Museum of Ireland DF:1894.759. Date-
able to the mid-seventeenth-century, the Dublin wall
was re-identified in 2016 when Audrey Whitty and I in-
vestigated the Middle East collections at the National
Museum of Ireland. The dismantled panels were exam-
ined in January 2017, by specialist conservator Anke
Scharrahs. With new photography of the panels, the
museum’s Photographic Department used Purdon
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78
Figure 5.6 Wall from a Damascus Room, Syria, ca. 1081 ah/1670–71, digital reconstruction of extant components. Dublin,
National Museum of Ireland, DF:1894.759
Photography by Valerie Dowling and Peter Moloney, digital reconstruction by Richard Weinacht,
Photographic Department, National Museum of Ireland
As Longfield worked out how to re-assemble
the panels and cornices for re-display in Dublin,
he wrote to Purdon Clarke in London for advice. In
response, Purdon Clarke drew and sent him an el-
evation sketch and a detailed ground plan of the
likely original house site in Damascus (fig. 5.7). The
two curators also discussed the Room’s Arabic
Clarke’s outline sketch to create a digital reconstruction
of the whole wall (with thanks to Valerie Dowling, Peter
Moloney and Richard Weinacht). Melbourne’s National
Gallery of Victoria has now identified 81 components
(215-D2) from two further walls of this room: “Paneling
of two sides of the Interior of a Room at Damascus,” ac-
quired “by the kind and very valuable assistance of Mr
Purdon Clarke” in 1896 (Trustees’ Report to the Honor-
able The Chief Secretary (1896), 25–6, with grateful
thanks to Richard Gillespie and Sophie Couchman,
Melbourne). The final wall has not been identified at
the Edinburgh Museum, although it was ­reportedly
sent there to the director Robert Murdoch Smith.
Carey
i­nscriptions, which praise the Prophet
Muḥammad.39 In a regretful letter to Longfield,
Purdon Clarke expanded upon the fate of this par-
ticular Damascus Room, and the ongoing market
supply of similar examples:
“Unfortunately your room has been divided up, the
other long side is at Edinburgh and the ends at Mel-
bourne. […] I am very sorry we had to break up the
room. Another one has arrived in London at six
times the price, and vulgar Turkish work of the
present century. Your room is older than the condi-
tion of the woodwork shows—at least the style.”40
39 With thanks to Behnaz Atighi-Moghaddam for identi-
fying the ismāʾ al-ḥusnā (personal communication,
April 7, 2017).
40 Dublin nmi Archive, Art & Industry Correspondence,
letter dated 29 January 1895. While the Dublin panels
do not include an inscribed date, Anke Scharrahs has
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Appropriating Damascus Rooms 79

7 Conclusion: Purchasing from Private

Houses in Damascus

Before he became a permanent member of the cu-

ratorial staff in 1880, Caspar Purdon Clarke had
been an effective field agent for South Kensington
Museum, as well as for Robinson, Leighton, Dress-
er and presumably other private clients. In 1883, he
wrote a six-page internal memo, briefing museum
colleagues on his collecting experience in Turkey
and Syria in 1876–77. He noted likely competition
from rival collectors (including “all the European
consuls”) and any European export firms, and
warned South Kensington curators to avoid them.
Instead, to purchase valuable historical art objects,
Purdon Clarke recommended not to contact “the
delals or brokers,” but “the local bankers”: they
would know which of their clients was privately in
need of cash and could make discreet introduc-
tions. Thus he described how in January 1877, he
had negotiated the purchase of what would be-
come the museum’s “first” Damascus Room (even-
tually sold to South Kensington by Vincent
­Robinson’s firm):
Figure 5.7 Caspar Purdon Clarke, interior elevation
and ground plan of Damascus Room as
“I was taken to the houses of people who were anx-
remembered in situ, sketches made in London,
ious to sell but desirous of keeping from other resi- October 17, 1894, and November 2, 1894. Dublin,
dents the knowledge of their being compelled to National Museum of Ireland, Archives, Art &
part with heirlooms. Thus I acquired the Damascus Industry Correspondence
Room now in the Museum and a unique pair of
large panels of tiles with sunken niches now form- gift, the return presented being fixed at £10 for the
ing a part of Sir Frederick Leighton’s Arab Hall. owner’s family and £5 for the servants.”41
Many objects were offered upon the condition that
they would be received as a gift but a return pres- This was therefore a transaction of social as well as
ent in money would be received. This was nearly commercial delicacy. The Syrian householder had
always a genuine offer made on account of a super- decided to sell the paneled room-fittings, but he
stitious repugnance to sell family relics and the wished for the exchange to be handled discreetly,
genuineness proved by the lowness of the sum and without the judgmental knowledge of his Da-
asked. […] The Damascus room was accepted as a mascus neighbors. Purdon Clarke’s observations
suggest that the commercial supply of Damascus
Rooms was not an open market, but a private situ-
ation, rooted in personal dignities.42
noted their close parallels with the earliest known dat-
ed Damascus Room, on display at the Manial Palace in 41 V&A Archive, ED/84/205 (Official Visits), memo by
Cairo, and inscribed 1081 ah/1670–71 ad (Anke Caspar Purdon Clarke, dated June 11, 1883.
Scharrahs, email message to author and Audrey Whitty, 42 Bids for personal transactions were not necessarily suc-
January 24, 2017). cessful, as Henry Wallis discovered when he tried to

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80
My introduction suggested that the late nine-
teenth-century European demand for imported
Syrian rooms was related to the reputations of
well-traveled figures in the elites of European soci-
ety, with the painter Frederic Leighton and his
Arab Hall set as an example. Art-dealers such as
Vincent Robinson could benefit from this associa-
tion, by selling other objects (in his case particu-
larly carpets) displayed inside such evocative and
admired interiors. The web of transactions de-
scribed here would then follow. One final citation
shows how long such impressive associations
could endure and be exploited for commercial ad-
vantage: in 1913, a short article in The Connoisseur
advertised another Damascus Room for sale in
London, again at “Messrs. Vincent Robinson’s
galleries.”43 The anonymous author noted that
Leighton’s 1873 visit to Damascus had been memo-
rialized by his well-known painting of a domestic
courtyard in the Jewish quarter (Gathering Citrons,
illustrated above), and then claimed (improbably)
that the room now currently for sale had been
­dismantled from the very same Syrian house—as
had the V&A’s Damascus Room.44 However un-
convincing the coincidence, this shared prove-
nance account demonstrates how commercially
buy a paneled room in Cairo in 1891: “The mufti (the
owner of the room) […] prefers to see the room
wrecked and the ornamentation demolished to selling
it [to me]” (V&A Archive, MA/1/W330/1 (Henry Wallis),
letter dated February 5, 1891).
43 “A Room from ‘the Street called Straight,’” The Connois-
seur, 1913, 132–34.
44 The author claimed that this Jewish house was the
source of the Damascus Room purchased by Purdon
Clarke for Robinson, and sold to South Kensington as
one of its “treasures” in 1880. These and other details
suggest the information was supplied from within Rob-
inson’s firm, as part of an impressive but loose pedigree
for the current room on sale. At this date (1913), all of
the protagonists (Leighton, Purdon Clarke and Robin-
son himself) had died. I am grateful to Anke Scharrahs
for confirming that Bayt Farhi, the house painted by
Leighton, could not be the original site of the V&A’s
1880 Damascus Room, as its dimensions do not match
those of the house.
Carey
attractive such associations (with Lord Leighton,
and with the V&A) continued to be.
This article has set out a series of acquisitions
made by South Kensington, which appropriated
and adapted Syrian architectural fragments for re-
display in the museum. Vincent Robinson and Cas-
par Purdon Clarke were influential negotiators, re-
sponding to and partly shaping an apparently
expanding commercial supply of historic interiors
and modern replicas coming from Syria. In 1877, a
private householder had made the decision to sell
an interior room to a visiting commercial agent
(Purdon Clarke): he shipped it back to London only
for the South Kensington Museum to refuse to buy
it from him. Ironically, the museum would eventu-
ally buy exactly the same Damascus Room at a
much higher price, from a London-based art dealer
(Robinson) in 1880. Robinson in turn would use the
Room to entice further business from the national
design museum, and in later life, he also expected
the same Room to elevate his own social credit. By
1894, institutional opinion had truly changed: an
export firm such as Habra Brothers, which dealt in
historic interiors as well as modern replicas, could
approach the South Kensington Museum directly
and be confident of a successful sale.
Throughout his career, Caspar Purdon Clarke
worked on public and private projects that re-­
assembled, re-created or simply re-imagined
­historical interior rooms: his 1874 Cairo “villa” in
Alexandra Palace, the Damascus tilework that
­
entered Leighton’s 1877–79 Arab Hall, his
­
­self-designed Indian pavilion constructed for the
1878 Paris e­xhibition, and the more convoluted
“Durbar Hall” c­ reated for the 1886 Colonial and In-
dian Exhibition in London.45 Seen in this context,
45 In 1886, Caspar Purdon Clarke oversaw the construction
of this “Durbar Hall,” combining composite design ideas
from across the Indian subcontinent, sections plaster
cast directly from Mughal architecture, and newly pro-
duced woodwork carved by specialist Punjabi crafts-
men. Reversing the typical trend, this “themed room”
was acquired later for a private domestic context,
leaving the South Kensington Museum for Lord
­
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Appropriating Damascus Rooms
Purdon Clarke’s 1877 purchase of the Damascus
Room shows that he was consistently engaged
with a contemporary display trend, rooted in ar-
chitectural salvage—as well as the impression
(through plaster casts) and imitation (through
replica styles) of such salvage. Like many others,
he had realized correctly that spectacular themed
rooms were particularly attractive to museum-­
going members of the public, possibly because
they evoked fashionable private interiors which
anyone might aspire to inhabit—or at least wish
to visit. The international exhibitions also con-
firmed the popular success of replica architecture
as visitor attractions. Art ­dealers (such as Robin-
son in London) already understood that thematic
interiors stimulated consumers. Caspar Purdon
Clarke may have trained as an architect, but his
successful future was in the world of museums.
Bibliography
Anon. “A Novelty in Preparation at the Alexandra Pal-
ace.” The Workshop. 7, no. 10 (1874): 160.
Anon. “A Room from the ‘Street called Straight’.” The
Connoisseur. (1913): 132–34.
Barringer, Tim. “The South Kensington Museum and
the Colonial Project.” In Colonialism and the Object.
Empire, Material Culture and the Museum, edited by
Tim Barringer and Tom Flynn, 11–27. London: Rout-
ledge, 1998.
Barrington, Emilie. The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
Leighton. 2 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1906.
Bergerat, Émile. “Maison Vincent Robinson & Co.” In
Les Chefs-d’Œuvre d’Art à l’Exposition Universelle de
1878, 172. Paris: Ludovic Baschet, 1878.
Birdwood, George. The Industrial Arts of India. London:
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Bryant, Julius, ed. Art and Design for All. The Victoria
and Albert Museum. London: V&A, 2011.
Campbell, Louise. “Decoration, Display, Disguise.
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ringer and Elizabeth Prettejohn, 267–93. New Haven
and London: Yale University Press, 1999.
Carey, Moya. Persian Art. Collecting the Arts of Iran for
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Carey, Moya and Mercedes Volait. “Framing ‘Islamic
Art’ for Aesthetic Interiors: Revisiting the 1878 Paris
Exhibition.” International Journal of Islamic Architec-
ture, 2020 (forthcoming).
Digby Wyatt, Matthew. “Report on Carpets, Tapestry,
and other Stuffs for Furniture. (Class 18.).” In On the
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Paris, a.d. 1867, Consisting of Reports to the British
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“Ouvrage de Tapissier et de Decorateur”, by Jules Diet-
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Subalterns.” Iran 40 (2002): 202–32.
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Necipoğlu, Gulru. “L’idée de décor dans les régimes de
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ratifs, 2007.
Roxburgh, David. “Au Bonheur des Amateurs: Collect-
ing and Exhibiting Islamic Art, ca. 1880–1910.” Ars
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and Perceptions of Islamic Art (2000): 9–38.
Scharrahs, Anke. Damascene ʿAjami Rooms. Forgotten
Jewels of Interior Design. London: Archetype, 2013.
Twain, Mark. The Innocents Abroad. London: Penguin,
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lishing Company, 1869.
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 Chapter 6
Le remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans dans l’œuvre
construit d’Ambroise Baudry en Égypte et en France
Mercedes Volait
L’architecte Ambroise Baudry (1836–1908) a prati-
qué au Caire durant les années 1870 une forme
particulière d’historicisme orientaliste dont les
­ est de l’architecture néo-islamique, elle est bien
­ramifications temporelles, matérielles et interna-
tionales sont encore mal identifiées. Le parti archi-
tectural consistait en une revivification des styles
historiques de l’Égypte médiévale et postmédié-
vale par le biais de l’incorporation de grands dé-
cors et de fragments anciens (portes, écrans de
bois tourné, lambris de mosaïques de marbre, re-
vêtements c­ éramiques) dans un bâti moderne, en
les agrémentant de répliques d’ornements histo-
riques obtenues par moulages en plâtre, et com-
plétés d’éléments historicistes « à la manière de »
dessinés expressément pour s’harmoniser avec les
pièces anciennes ou pour servir de raccord. Il est
tentant de rattacher ce genre à la tradition millé-
naire du remploi en Égypte, mais rien ne prouve
qu’il lui soit directement corrélé. Il est certain en
revanche qu’il y connaît une postérité notable,
puisque la réutilisation d’éléments anciens conti-
nue à se pratiquer très couramment aujourd’hui. Il
existe de fait des établissements spécialisés dans la
récupération et la revente de décors anciens, telle
la maison ʿAbd al-Wuddūd, active depuis les an-
nées 1930.1
1 Menha El-Batraoui, « Un rêve d’architecte : Omar El Fa-
rouk », Qantara, 96 (2015), 57–60 ; enquête personnelle,
2011 ; Mercedes Volait, « Le goût mamelouk au xixe siècle :
d’une esthétique orientaliste à un style national géné-
rique », dans Mercedes Volait et Emmanuelle Perrin (dir.),
Dialogues artistiques avec les passés de l’Égypte : une pers-
pective transnationale et transmédiale. Paris : ­InVisu, 2017,
<http://journals.openedition.org/inha/7207> (consulté le
7 février 2018).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_009
Si la pratique du recyclage moderne de frag-
ments anciens est encore mal connue pour ce qui
mieux cernée pour ce qui est de l’historicisme eu-
ropéen. En France dès les années 1850, aux États-
Unis à partir des années 1890, l’« art de la reprise2 »
a représenté une véritable industrie, avec archi-
tectes experts en assemblages, corps de métiers
spécialisés et entrepôts dédiés. Le phénomène
correspond à la « fétichisation des objets du pas-
sé » au sein de sociétés en proie à l’industrialisa-
tion, et répond à la fois à la demande sociale d’une
bourgeoisie en quête de décors authentiques pour
ses intérieurs et à la pénurie d’objets et de frag-
ments anciens en nombre suffisant pour satisfaire
son obsession.3 Les salles de style et autres period
rooms qui peuplent les musées du monde repré-
sentent le versant public de cette quête du passé ;
elles traduisent au passage la démocratisation
d’univers longtemps réservés aux seuls érudits et
aristocrates.
1 Un architecte collectionneur
D’extraction modeste mais cadet du peintre Paul
Baudry, qui fut l’une des gloires de la peinture aca-
démique sous le Second Empire, Ambroise Baudry
2 L’expression est de Jean-Pierre Criqui, responsable scienti-
fique du colloque « L’art de la reprise : Remplois, détourne-
ments et assemblages à travers l’histoire », 23–4 mai 2008,
Musée du Louvre.
3 Manuel Charpy, Le Théâtre des objets, Espaces privés,
culture matérielle et identité bourgeoise. Paris, 1830–1914,
Thèse, Université de Tours, 2010, chapitre 5 passim.
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Le remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans
fait ses classes à bonne école, en particulier
comme inspecteur des travaux sur le chantier de
l’Opéra de Paris, sous la direction de Charles Gar-
nier qui le prend sous son aile et entreprend de
parfaire sa formation artistique et sa culture géné-
rale. Lorsque le conflit franco-prussien entraîne la
fermeture du chantier en 1870 et la dispersion des
dizaines d’artistes et d’ouvriers qui y travaillaient,
Baudry se trouve obligé de rechercher un nouveau
gagne-pain. La réalisation d’un piédestal pour la
statue équestre du grand pacha Muḥammad ʿAlī, à
ériger sur une place d’Alexandrie, le conduit en
Égypte en 1871. Il y passe les quinze années sui-
vantes et y fait une carrière fulgurante, dans l’or-
bite de la cour égyptienne ; de 1875 à 1877, il de-
vient officiellement l’architecte du palais khédivial
de Gīza. Dès 1872, il fait venir sur place deux colla-
borateurs, Charles Guimbard et Marcel Gouron
Boisvert pour l’assister sur ses chantiers.4
L’un de ses premiers clients égyptiens est
l’homme d’affaires Alphonse Delort de Gléon
(1843–99), très investi dans la création ex-nihilo de
nouveaux quartiers au Caire pour le compte de la
dynastie régnante ; il en supervise les tracés, la via-
bilisation et la distribution des terrains à bâtir.
Pour l’un de ces terrains, devenu la propriété de
Delort de Gléon, Baudry dessine en 1872 une mai-
son de « style arabe » qui incorpore quelques frag-
ments authentiques, dont des moucharabiehs et
des céramiques.5 Delort s’est passionné pour les
objets d’art d’islamique dès son arrivée au Caire en
1868 ; léguée par la suite au musée du Louvre, sa
collection, et le legs financier qui l’accompagne, y
permettent l’ouverture en 1922 d’une section isla-
mique. La villa Delort est en partie une mise en
espace des trésors amassés sur place et dans la
4 Marie-Laure Crosnier Leconte et Mercedes Volait, L’Égypte
d’un architecte : Ambroise Baudry (1838–1906). Paris : Somo-
gy, 1998.
5 Ambroise Baudry, Élévations, coupes et détails décoratifs de
la maison Delort de Gléon au Caire, dessins, crayon, plume,
encre et aquarelle sur papier, dimensions diverses, entrés
en 2000 dans les collections du Musée d’Orsay à Paris, inv.
aro 2000 380–85.
83
r­égion ; elle est conçue par un architecte qui est
depuis son plus jeune âge un collectionneur né, en
dépit de moyens financiers très limités. À 17 ans,
Baudry a déjà réuni un ensemble conséquent de
monnaies et de médailles antiques pour le plaisir
éprouvé à l’érudition historique, et les ressources
que celle-ci offre à son imaginaire, ainsi qu’il l’écrit
à son frère Paul en 1855 : « parce que j’ai soif d’ins-
truction et que l’étude de l’Antiquité est très
­instructive et très amusante. Avec une pièce, je re-
construis un règne, je vois l’empereur. J’apprends
quelles sont ses habitudes, ce qu’il a fait, etc. Avec
le secours de l’imagination, je reconstruis un passé
depuis longtemps évanoui et les moments que je
passe en cette occupation me procurent un plaisir
infini6 ». Le collectionneur en herbe n’aurait su
mieux dire les émotions que procurent la posses-
sion et la contemplation des témoins du passé,
avant même d’assoir un statut social.
La découverte émerveillée des monuments du
Caire, et l’aisance financière que lui procure sa po-
sition égyptienne, permettent à Baudry d’étendre
ses collections aux « objets arabes », ainsi qu’il les
désigne dans son testament en 1902.7 Grâce à
un œil aiguisé, Baudry s’avère un extraordinaire
dénicheur de métaux, de bois et de céramiques
­islamiques sur les marchés cairote et damascène.
Une partie de son ancienne collection se trouve au
musée du Louvre depuis 1898 et une autre dans les
collections du Metropolitan Museum of Art de-
puis 1907 ; un ensemble de pièces conservé en
mains privées a été dispersé en 1999.8
La villa Delort offre la première formulation
d’un art de la reprise dont Baudry acquiert avec
le  temps une remarquable maîtrise. C’est un
style  ­savant, nourri par une connaissance intime
6 Lettre d’Ambroise Baudry à son frère Paul, 14 avril 1855
(collection particulière, transcription au Centre de docu-
mentation du Musée d’Orsay).
7 Suite du testament d’Ambroise Baudry, décembre 1902
(collection particulière, transcription au Centre de docu-
mentation du Musée d’Orsay).
8 Catalogue de vente Arts d’Orient, Paris-Drouot Montaigne,
lundi 7 juin 1999, lots n° 76–147.
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84
Figure 6.1 Le Caire, Villa Ambroise Baudry, élévation et coupe, Baudry, 1875, plume et lavis rose (collection particulière)
des  monuments du Caire qu’il visitait fréquem-
ment et dont il aida à produire l’un des premiers
­inventaires en 1883.9 Ses réalisations ultérieures, à
commencer par sa propre maison réalisée entre
1875 et 1876 au Caire (fig. 6.1), témoignent de sa fa-
miliarité avec la culture visuelle et matérielle du
Caire m­ onumental. L’inspiration offerte pour la
courbe d’une arcature ou le dessin d’une baie n’ex-
clut pas la création.
Dans son habitation, Baudry reprend l’idée,
déjà tentée pour la villa Delort, des carreaux de cé-
ramique disposés en tour de porte, avec un mode
9 Mercedes Volait, « Amateurs français et dynamique patri-
moniale : aux origines du Comité de conservation des mo-
numents de l’art arabe », dans La France et l’Egypte à
l’époque des vice-rois 1805–1882, sous la direction de Daniel
Panzac et André Raymond. Le Caire : Institut français d’ar-
chéologie orientale, 2002, 311–26.
Volait
d’accrochage particulièrement élégant retenant
chaque spécimen par de simples griffes, plutôt que
serti dans un cadre en bois comme cela devint la
norme (fig. 6.2). Pareille présentation ne doit rien
à l’art mamelouk et tout à l’architecte français.
L’art de la reconstitution mis au point par Am-
broise Baudry fait immédiatement des émules.
L’exemple le plus extraordinaire est l’hôtel particu-
lier réalisé au Caire entre 1872 et 1879 pour le comte
Gaston de Saint-Maurice (1831–1905), appelé à la
cour égyptienne en 1868 pour occuper les fonc-
tions de grand écuyer.
2 Remplois et répliques
Bien que la paternité en ait été en fin de compte
attribuée à ses deux inspecteurs de travaux (Guim-
bard et Gouron Boisvert) ainsi que cela est
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Le remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans
c­ alligraphié en arabe à l’intérieur de l’édifice, l’ar-
chitecte-collectionneur est pour beaucoup dans le
singulier projet mis en œuvre par le comte de
Saint-Maurice pour sa propre habitation cairote
(fig. 6.3).10 L’aristocrate revendique avoir eu l’in-
tention de construire « une maison sur un plan
ancien, avec des matériaux provenant des plus
10 Mercedes Volait, Maisons de France au Caire : le remploi
de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans dans une ar-
chitecture moderne. Le Caire : Publications de l’IFAO,
2012.
85
Figure 6.2
Le Caire, Villa Ambroise Baudry,
céramiques en tour de porte, Baudry,
1875–76, photographe anonyme
(collection particulière)
belles habitations des xive, xve et xvie siècles11 ».
La presse la décrit comme une « restauration
arabe12 » dans le sens que les architectes français
de l’École des Beaux-arts conféraient au terme au
xixe siècle : soit une restitution complète d’un
11 Londres, Victoria and Albert Museum Archive,
Saint-Maurice nominal file, MA/1/S180, Lettre de
Saint-Maurice à Sir Philip Cunliffe Owen, directeur du
South Kensington Museum, 24 octobre 1882.
12 Ch. Gabriel (pseudonyme de Gabriel Charmes), « L’art
arabe au Caire », Journal des débats, 26 août 1879, i, 2.
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86
Figure 6.3 Le Caire, Hôtel particulier Saint-Maurice, élévation principale, Guimbard et Gouron Boisvert, arch., 1872–79
(Bibliothèque de l’INHA)
­ onument à partir des vestiges qui en avaient
m qui caractérisent les demeures mameloukes et
subsisté et des extrapolations qui pouvaient être
faites sur la base de sources textuelles ou de monu-
ments similaires. En l’occurrence, l’exercice de-
mandé à Guimbard et Gouron était de réinventer
entièrement une habitation à partir des éléments
de bric et de broc que le comte avait pu récupérer
dans les chantiers de démolition du Caire, ou
­encore fait venir de Damas.13 L’élément le plus
­authentique, si l’on puit dire, est le grand salon
cruciforme qui règle toute la distribution de la
maison. Mais c’est une authenticité toute relative,
qui ne vaut que par rapport au reste de la rési-
dence et non par rapport aux grandes salles nobles
13 Volait, Maisons de France, 2012.
Volait
­ottomanes du Caire. Par son ouverture sur une
large terrasse, comme par la symétrie quasi par-
faite des quatre branches de son plan, le grand
­salon Saint-Maurice est une recréation entière-
ment artificielle. Certains décors, comme les
grandes plaques d’albâtre ornant les parois de la
terrasse, sont de même sans équivalent dans l’ar-
chitecture historique du Caire. On pourrait multi-
plier les exemples de détournement des formes
conventionnelles de l’architecture mamelouke et
ottomane. Le comte engloutit une fortune dans
sa construction, quelque 850.000 F de l’époque
(plus de 3 millions d’euros actuels), soit l’équiva-
lent de 50 annuités des appointements qu’il perce-
vait à titre de grand écuyer du vice-roi égyptien. Le
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Le remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans
c­ aractère luxueux des intérieurs réalisés, à grands
renforts de dallages en marbre ou de boiseries
marquetées, est frappant, même si les photogra-
phies noir et blanc par lesquelles ces décors inté-
rieurs nous sont principalement connus ne
rendent pas justice à leur éclatante polychromie. Il
faudrait la restituer par voie de modélisation nu-
mérique pour pouvoir en apprécier pleinement les
chatoiements.
Devenue en 1884 propriété de la France pour
servir de représentation diplomatique, l’habita-
tion fut longtemps la plus en vue au Caire, celle
qu’artistes et visiteurs de marque se pressaient
pour visiter, celle que les journalistes qualifiaient
de « petit Alhambra14 »—faute de référence plus
adéquate sans doute. Exceptionnellement bien
documenté, l’hôtel particulier Saint-Maurice per-
met d’analyser de près la fabrique d’une reconsti-
tution qui tient à la fois du pavillon d’exposition
universelle et du décor historiciste Second Empire,
façon « Maison pompéienne » du prince Napo-
léon, édifiée à Paris entre 1854 et 1870. Il montre
comment des éléments de nature très différente—
remplois, répliques et réinterprétations—et de
médialité non moins diverse—stuc, céramique,
pierre, bois—sont assemblés pour donner l’illu-
sion d’une architecture historique. Les parois de la
grande terrasse tapissées d’ornements moulés sur
des décors originaux illustrent la fortune de ce
type de dispositif décoratif. Elles arborent des ré-
pliques qui copient strictement, ou reprennent
plus librement, des rosaces, linteaux, vitraux ou
panneaux de stuc ajouré situés dans des mosquées
d’époque mamelouke, respectivement les sanc-
tuaires al-Mū’ayyad (1420), Sultān Ḥasan (achevée
en 1363) ou Qijmās al-Isḥāqī (1480). Les moulages
remplacent à des fins d’authenticité les remplois
lorsque ceux-ci ne sont pas disponibles. La tech-
nique de la reproduction par le plâtre se développe
un peu partout en Europe à partir des années 1840 ;
elle connaît son acmé après que 15 pays ont ratifié
lors de l’Exposition universelle de 1867 une
14 « Une fête chez le ministre de France au Caire », Le
Monde illustré, 9 mai 1885, 318.
87
« Convention internationale pour la promotion
universelle des reproductions d’œuvres d’art »,
proposée par Henry Cole, premier directeur du
South Kensington Museum, afin d’encourager la
circulation de copies en plâtre entre les musées
européens.15 Ce vocabulaire décoratif se retrouve
dans les intérieurs qu’Ambroise Baudry réamé-
nage pour son ami Ernest de Blignières en sa
demeure familiale du Bot en Bretagne entre
­
1878  et  1882 (fig. 6.4), de même que dans le fas-
tueux fumoir néo-mamelouk dessiné en 1889–93
pour l’hôtel parisien d’Edmond de Rothschild16
(fig. 6.5).
Un entrepreneur français du Caire, Jean Ja-
ladon, dont on sait encore peu de choses si ce n’est
qu’il travailla pour Baudry en 1873, en fait sa spé-
cialité. En 1891, il passe pour avoir en stock « tous
les moulages des mosquées du Caire17 ». Les portes
à vantaux marquetés en bois et en os, surmontées
d’un moulage en plâtre, et complétées d’huisseries
encadrées de céramiques moyen-orientales, for-
ment un arrangement standard qu’on retrouve
d’un « hall arabe » à l’autre. Les niches plates à arc
en carène et à décor radiant constituent un autre
dispositif récurrent. La Rue du Caire reconstituée
à Paris à l’occasion de l’Exposition universelle de
1889 sur les instructions de Delort de Gléon en pré-
sente des spécimens, également obtenus par voie
de moulages, qui furent par la suite offerts au Mu-
sée de Sculpture comparée sans qu’on sache ce
qu’il en advint.18 Le décor néo-mamelouk par voie
15 Voir le numéro spécial : « Le moulage. Pratiques histo-
riques et regards contemporains », In Situ, 28 (2016).
16 Crosnier Leconte et Volait, L’Égypte d’un architecte,
1998, 121–25.
17 Lettre de Raphael Suarès à Ambroise Baudry, 25 avril
1891 (collection particulière). Le Metropolitan Museum
of art de New York a possédé des moulages islamiques
dus à Jaladon, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cata-
logue of the Collection of Casts. New York : Metropolitan
Museum of Art, 2e éd., 1910, 222–24 ; je remercie Ma-
riam Rosser-Owen pour cette indication.
18 Paris, Musée des monuments français, msc 5, Mou-
lages exécutés au Caire (Égypte) près les plus beaux mo-
numents de l’art des Califes par feu le Baron Delort de
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88 Volait

Figure 6.4 Paris, Hôtel particulier Edmond de Rothschild, fumoir, Baudry architecte,
1889–93 (Archives Waddesdon Manor)

Figure 6.5 Hennebont, Château du Bot, salles de réception, Baudry architecte,

1880–82 (Musées du Mans)

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Le remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans
de moulages n’est plus la lubie d’un seul, c’est deve-
nu un procédé décoratif. De tels moulages peuvent
être aperçus sur des clichés photographiques da-
tant des années 1890 pris au Caire par le photo-
graphe Beniamino Facchinelli. Tous portent au
dos la mention « Museo arabo », ce qui laisse à
penser qu’un atelier de moulages fonctionna sans
doute un temps au sein de ce Musée (aujourd’hui
Musée d’art islamique).19
3 Des objets composites
Les objets composites que les réalisations archi-
tecturales de Baudry ont livrés à la postérité ne
sont pas aisés à classer dans les catégories historio-
graphiques établies. En désignant la maison
Baudry comme un « Cluny arabe » dans une lettre
écrite du Caire en 1875, son frère Paul Baudry a ex-
plicitement livré une des généalogies de ce genre
décoratif ou imaginaire architectural, soit le re-
meublement par Alexandre du Sommerard d’une
des dernières demeures médiévales de Paris, au-
jourd’hui le musée de Cluny, pour installer ses col-
lections. Il en a ce faisant pointé le caractère inter-
culturel.20 Faute de témoignages probants, il est
impossible de dire si ce mélange des genres relève
de l’intentionnel (la conception d’une architecture
interculturelle) ou de l’impensé (une déclinaison
pragmatique des pratiques clunisiennes). Tout au
plus sait-on que la frénésie syncrétique anime les
collectionneurs bien au-delà de leur séjour égyp-
tien, et des fragments islamiques. À son retour en
France après avoir vendu ses collections isla-
miques au V&A Museum et son hôtel particulier
Gléon et offerts au Musée de sculpture comparée par
Henri Vuagneux, 24 septembre 1901.
19 Maryse Bideault et al., Le Caire sur le vif, Beniamino
Facchinelli photographe (1875–1895). Paris : inha, 2017,
catalogue d’exposition, 53–5.
20 Mercedes Volait, « Les intérieurs orientalistes du comte
de Saint-Maurice et d’Albert Goupil : des « Cluny
arabe » au Caire et à Paris à la fin du xixe siècle », dans
Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot et Mercedes Volait
(eds.), The Period Rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte,
collezionismo e museologia. Bologne : Bononia Univer-
sity Press, 2017, 103–14.
89
égyptien à la ­ diplomatie française, Gaston de
Saint-Maurice entreprend à nouveau un projet de
« restauration », cette fois sur la Côte d’Albâtre. La
bâtisse qu’il érige par assemblage de fragments,
dont une façade à pans de bois achetée dans une
ville normande, met en scène de nombreux rem-
plois (dont de la céramique moyen-orientale) et
des copies « de toutes provenances : au rez-de-
chaussée, fenêtres de l’hôtel de Cluny à Paris, ar-
cade ogivale de Rouen, fenêtre de l’hôtel de la Tré-
moille, armoiries de Jacques Cœur de Bourges et
au-dessus de la porte, armes de France », selon
l’architecte et historien d’art Charles Normand
(1900).21
Mêlant temporalités et géographies, la période
mamelouke et le Second Empire, la céramique de
Damas et la boiserie marquetée du Caire, les créa-
tions de Baudry ont produit, dans le domaine du
décor comme du mobilier, des hybrides dont le
destin patrimonial et muséal n’est pas simple à
fixer. Les moulages modernes de décors histo-
riques constituent un premier genre d’objets, dont
la place n’est pas assurée hors de rares musées tel
que le Victoria and Albert Museum qui réfléchit
désormais à des salles illustrant, par l’universalité
de sa collection de moulages, la mondialisation
propre au xixe siècle. Les meubles incorporant
des parties anciennes dans des structures mo-
dernes représentent un autre cas de figure.22 Le
vaisselier moderne que Baudry fit fabriquer par un
menuisier maltais au Caire à partir d’éléments an-
ciens (copiés ou insérés) (fig. 6.6) figure a­ ujourd’hui
dans une des salles dédiées aux dynasties mame-
loukes du Musée d’art islamique du Caire. Le guide
des collections convient que l’objet est un unicum
pour cette époque.23 Son invention est de fait pos-
térieure de plus de 3 siècles ! Des salles consacrées
21 Cité in Volait, « Les intérieurs », 106.
22 Mercedes Volait, « Goût de la réplique et art de la re-
prise : le mobilier ‹ de style arabesque › au Caire après
1860 », dans Sylvia Naef, Pauline Nerfin et Nadia Rad-
wan (dir.), D’une rive à l’autre : patrimoines croisés. Ge-
nève : Slatkine, 2018, 223–34.
23 Bernard O’Kane (ed.), The Illustrated Guide to the Mu-
seum of Islamic Art in Cairo, avec des contributions de
Mohamed Abbas et Imam R. Abdulfattah. Le Caire: The
American University in Cairo Press, 2012, 134.
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90
Figure 6.6 Le Caire, Vaisselier présenté dans les salles mameloukes du Musée d’art islamique mais réalisé sur les plans d’Ambroise Baudry,
vers 1875, Musée d’art islamique du Caire, inv. 23767
Photographie M. Volait, 2017
au xixe siècle, ou mieux encore un espace dédié à
la réception des arts de l’Islam au siècle de l’indus-
trie, seraient plus appropriées ; elles restent à
­imaginer. Des boiseries composites, datant proba-
blement de la même époque, sont actuellement
exposées au nouveau National Museum of Egyp-
tian Civilisation ouvert au Caire en 2016 ; d’autres
sont présentées dans le petit musée archéologique
Volait
de l’Université du Caire. C’est une production qui
ne fut pas marginale, mais qui n’a jamais été systé-
matiquement étudiée.
En attendant que le temps fasse son œuvre et
permette à l’art islamique tardif et composite de
prendre ses marques dans la sphère muséale,
on retiendra que le collectionnisme ouvert à la
­curiosité extra-européenne a inspiré en Égypte
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Le remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans
une modalité particulière d’historicisme architec-
tural consommateur de remplois et de copies. Le
phénomène, on l’a dit, n’est pas propre à l’Égypte.
Il a pour pendant, en France, la dispersion à peu
près contemporaine des grands décors des xviie et
xviiie siècles en vue de leur remontage aux quatre
coins du globe.24 Les intérieurs anglais ont connu
un destin similaire.25 Des architectes américains
se sont fait par la suite une spécialité du ­remontage
de ces décors démembrés.26 L’histoire antique et
médiévale du remploi a inspiré de nombreuses
études. C’est à faire son histoire moderne qu’il fau-
drait désormais s’atteler.
Bibliographie
Bideault, Maryse et al., Le Caire sur le vif, Beniamino
Facchinelli photographe (1875–1895), catalogue d’ex-
position (Paris, INHA, 21 avril-8 juillet 2017). ­Paris :
INHA, 2017.
Catalogue de vente Arts d’Orient, Paris-Drouot Mon-
taigne, lundi 7 juin 1999.
Charpy, Manuel, Le Théâtre des objets, Espaces privés,
culture matérielle et identité bourgeoise. Paris, 1830–
1914, Thèse, Université de Tours, 2010.
Craven, Wayne, Stanford White, Decorator in opulence
and dealer in Antiquities. New York : Columbia Uni-
versity Press, 2005.
Crosnier Leconte, Marie-Laure et Volait, Mercedes,
L’Égypte d’un architecte : Ambroise Baudry (1838–
1906). Paris : Somogy, 1998.
El-Batraoui, Menha, « Un rêve d’architecte : Omar El Fa-
rouk », Qantara, 96 (2015), 57–60.
24 Bernard Pons, Grands décors français 1650–1800, recons-
titués en Angleterre, aux États-Unis, en Amérique du Sud
et en France. Dijon : Faton, 1995.
25 John Harris, Moving Rooms: The Trade in Architectural
Salvages. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2007.
26 Wayne Craven, Stanford White, Decorator in opulence
and dealer in Antiquities. New York : Columbia Univer-
sity Press, 2005.
91
Gabriel, Ch. (pseudonyme de Gabriel Charmes), « L’art
arabe au Caire », Journal des débats, 26 août 1879, i, 2.
Harris, John, Moving Rooms : The Trade in Architectural
Salvages. New Haven : Yale University Press, 2007.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Catalogue of the Col-
lection of Casts. New York : Printed for the Museum,
2e éd., 1910.
O’Kane, Bernard (éd.), The Illustrated Guide to the Mu-
seum of Islamic Art in Cairo, avec des contributions de
Mohamed Abbas et Imam R. Abdulfattah. Le Caire :
The American University in Cairo Press, 2012.
Pons, Bernard, Grands décors français 1650–1800, recons-
titués en Angleterre, aux États-Unis, en Amérique du
Sud et en France. Dijon : Faton, 1995.
Volait, Mercedes, « Amateurs français et dynamique pa-
trimoniale : aux origines du Comité de conservation
des monuments de l’art arabe », dans Daniel Panzac
et André Raymond (éds.), La France et l’Egypte à
l’époque des vice-rois 1805–1882. Le Caire : Institut
français d’archéologie orientale, 2002, 311–26.
Volait, Mercedes, Maisons de France au Caire : le remploi
de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans dans une
architecture moderne. Le Caire : IFAO, 2012.
Volait, Mercedes, « Le goût mamelouk au xixe siècle :
d’une esthétique orientaliste à un style national gé-
nérique », dans Mercedes Volait et Emmanuelle Per-
rin (éds.), Dialogues artistiques avec les passés de
l’Égypte : une perspective transnationale et transmé-
diale. Paris : InVisu (CNRS-INHA) (« Actes de col-
loques »), 2017, <http://journals.openedition.org/
inha/7207> (consulté le 7 février 2018).
Volait, Mercedes, « Les intérieurs orientalistes du comte
de Saint-Maurice et d’Albert Goupil : des ‘Cluny
arabe’ au Caire et à Paris à la fin du xixe siècle »,
dans Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot et Mercedes
Volait (éds.), The Period Rooms. Allestimenti storici
tra arte, collezionismo e museologia. Bologne : Bono-
nia University Press, 2017, 103–14.
Volait, Mercedes, « Goût de la réplique et art de la re-
prise : le mobilier ‘de style arabesque’ au Caire après
1860 », dans Sylvia Naef, Pauline Nerfin et Nadia Rad-
wan (éds.), D’une rive à l’autre : patrimoines croisés,
Genève : Slatkine, 2018, 223–34.
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 Chapter 7
International Fashion and Personal Taste
Neo-Islamic Style Rooms and Orientalizing Scenographies in Private Museums
Francine Giese
This article focuses on two collectors of Islamic
art, both eccentric amateurs, passionate travelers
and high officials,1 who at the end of the nine-
teenth and the beginning of the twentieth centu-
ries installed private museums in their residences
in Stuttgart, at the time the capital of the Kingdom
of Wurttemberg, and the Swiss town of Neuhau-
sen, respectively. Following display strategies that
Alexandre Du Sommerard (1779–1842) had intro-
duced in Paris during the first half of the nine-
teenth century and that were reinvented by French
architect Ambroise Baudry (1838–1906) in Cairo
during the 1870s and 1880s,2 Karl, Prince of Urach,
Count of Wurttemberg3 (1865–1925) and Henri
1 Whereas Henri Moser’s biography is well-known, see esp.
Roger N. Balsiger and Ernst J. Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und
Khan. Henri Moser Charlottenfels 1844–1923 (Schaffhausen:
Meier, 1992), 11–63, there is far less information published
on the adventurous life of Karl Prince of Urach, see Wolf-
gang Schmierer, “Karl Fürst von Urach, Graf von Württem-
berg,” in Das Haus Württemberg. Ein biographisches
Lexikon, ed. Sönke Lorenz, Dieter Mertens and Volker
Press (Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 1997), 390; Harald Schukraft,
Kleine Geschichte des Hauses Württemberg (Tübingen: Sil-
berburg-Verlag, 2007), 251–52; Eberhard Merk, “Karl Fürst
von Urach. Ein Orientreisender aus dem Haus Württem-
berg,” Archivnachrichten 40 (2010): 10–2.
2 On the significance of Alexandre Du Sommerard for the
introduction of period and style rooms in private and pub-
lic museums during the nineteenth century, see the contri-
butions in Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot, and Mercedes
Volait, ed., The Period rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte,
gusto e collezionismo (Bologna, bpu, 2016) with further
references.
3 For convenience only, the abbreviated name “Karl von
Urach” will be used in the following.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_010
Moser Charlottenfels (1844–1923) translocated the
internationally established trend of displaying Is-
lamic artworks in Orientalizing style rooms to Ger-
many and Switzerland.4 For this purpose, the two
cosmopolitan collectors benefited from their ex-
tensive personal and professional networks, as will
be shown in the following.
4 Moser’s style room has been closely studied by the author
in recent years, see Francine Giese, “Theodor Zeerleder
und Henri Moser—zwei Schweizer Orientreisende und
ihre Fumoirs,” in Mythos Orient. Ein Berner Architekt in
Kairo, ed. Stiftung Schloss Oberhofen (Hünibach: Jost
Druck, 2015), 41–4; Francine Giese, “From Style Room to
Period Room: Henri Moser’s fumoir in Charlottenfels
Castle,” in The Period rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte,
gusto e collezionismo, ed. Sandra Costa, Dominique Pou-
lot, and Mercedes Volait (Bologna, bpu, 2016), 153–60; Fran-
cine Giese, “Orientalisierende Fumoirs in der Schweiz.
Islamische Architekturzitate zwischen Nachahmung, Ab-
guss und Assemblage,” in Der Orient in der Schweiz.
­Neo-islamische Architektur und Interieurs des 19. und 20.
Jahrhunderts, ed. Francine Giese, Leïla el-Wakil, and Ari-
ane Varela Braga (Berlin: Walter De Gruyter, 2019), 59–84;
Francine Giese and Ariane Varela Braga, “Translocating
Metropolitan Display Strategies in 19th-century Europe.
Frederick Stibbert, Henri Moser and their Orientalist
Style Rooms,” International Journal of Islamic Architecture
8, no. 1 (2019): 115–40, doi: 10.1386/ijia.8.1.115_1. In contrast,
there are still only few publications on the so-called Arab
Rooms (Arabische Räume) at Palais Urach in Stuttgart.
For a definition of the term “style room,” see Benno
Schubiger, “‘Period Rooms’ als museographische Gattung:
‘Historische Zimmer’ in Schweizer Museen,” Zeitschrift
für Schweizerische Archäologie und Kunstgeschichte 66,
no. 2–3 (2009): 82.
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International Fashion and Personal Taste
1 Displaying Islamic Art in Orientalizing
Style Rooms—a Global Trend
The origins of collecting and displaying Islamic art
in the nineteenth century were closely related to
the exclusive circles of connoisseurs, artists and
art dealers who were global trend-setters in an in-
creasingly entangled world.5 In this context, Paris
stands out as the uncontested cultural capital of
the second half of the nineteenth century, with Al-
bert Goupil (1840–84) and Edmond James de
Rothschild (1845–1934) as two of its main protago-
nists.6 Both were famous for their Islamic art col-
lections, which they presented in Orientalizing
style rooms that have been created by assembling
original pieces and contemporary replicas. The
aim was to re-contextualize the artefacts through
what we may call a scenography “parlante,” and to
integrate collections into the domestic spaces of
5 David J. Roxburgh, “Au Bonheur des Amateurs: Collecting
and Exhibiting Islamic Art, ca. 1880–1910.” Ars Orientalis 30
(2000): 9–38; Sven Kuhrau, Der Kunstsammler im Kaiser-
reich. Kunst und Repräsentation der Berliner Privatsam-
mlerkultur (Kiel : Ludwig, 2005), esp. 27–31; Neil Harris,
“Period Rooms and the American Art Museum,” Winter-
thur Portfolio 46, no. 2/3 (Summer–Autumn 2012): 117–38;
Artur Ramon Navarro and Clara Beltrán Catalán, “Del col-
eccionismo privado a los museos. Una reflexión sobre la
importancia del mecenazgo en tiempos turbulentos,” Goya
345 (October–December 2013): 285–303; María Antonia
Casanovas, “De lo útil y lo bello. El coleccionismo de
céramica,” Goya 345 (October–December 2013): 326–41;
Solmaz Mohammadzadeh Kive, “The Exhibitionary Con-
struction of the ‘Islamic Interior,’” in Oriental Interiors. De-
sign, Identity, Space, ed. John Potvin (London and New
York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2015), 39–57; Carlos G. Na-
varro, “La historia domesticada. Fortuny y el coleccionismo
de antigüedades,” In Fortuny (1838–1874), ed. Javier Barón
(Madrid : Museo Nacional del Prado, 2017), 373–425.
6 See esp. Mercedes Volait, “Les intérieurs orientalistes du
comte de Saint-Maurice et d’Albert Goupil : des ‘Cluny ar-
abes’ au Caire et à Paris à la fin du xixe siècle,” in The Peri-
od Rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte, collezionismo e
museologia, ed. Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot and Mer-
cedes Volait (Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2016),
103–14.
93
their families, as Ulrich Leben argues.7 Whereas
Leben analyzes the cultural and artistic influence
of Edmond de Rothschild’s fumoir arabe, executed
by Ambroise Baudry between 1889 and 1892,8 on
other members of the banking dynasty, Sven
Kuhrau emphasizes the importance of the de-
scribed display strategy for Berlin, the capital of
the German Empire, during the so-called Kaiser-
zeit (1871–1918).9 Here, art collectors were not only
influenced by Alexandre Du Sommerard’s out-
standing period room ensemble at the Hôtel de
Cluny, but also by other nineteenth-century Pari-
sian art collectors, including members of the Roth-
schild family.10 The transfer of these aesthetics
from Paris to Berlin was promoted by the Jewish
banker and art collector Oskar Hainauer (1840–
94), the representative of the Rothschild bank in
Berlin as of 1864.11 Even though the majority of
German collectors discussed in Kuhrau’s book had
a faible for Western art, Arthur Gwinner’s 1891 rein-
tegration of the Nasrid dome of the Torre de las
Damas from the Alhambra’s Partal Palace into his
house at Rauchstraße 1 in Berlin attests that during
the nineteenth century original Islamic artefacts
were present in Berlin as well.12
7 Ulrich Leben, “A High Victorian legacy at Waddesdon
Manor: Baron Ferdinand’s smoking room and its con-
tents since the creation of Waddesdon,” Journal of the
History of Collections 27, no. 3 (November 2015):
335–45.
8 M.-L. Crosnier Leconte and M. Volait, ed., L’Égypte d’un
architecte. Ambroise Baudry (1838–1906) (Paris : Somogy
Éditions d’Art, 1998), 70–94. As for the date, see Volait,
“Les intérieurs orientalists,” 113.
9 Leben, “A High Victorian legacy,” 335–45. On the Roths-
child family and their art patronage, see Pauline
­Prevost-Marcilhacy, ed., Les Rothschild. Une dynastie
de mécènes en France (Paris : Somogy, Bnf, Louvre éd.,
2016).
10 Kuhrau, Der Kunstsammler im Kaiserreich, 32–39.
11 Kuhrau, Der Kunstsammler im Kaiserreich, 39–45, 275.
12 Gwinner had kept this precious souvenir from the
­Partal Palace, which he owned from 1885/86 until he
donated it to the Spanish state in 1891, see Jens Kröger,
ed., Islamische Kunst in Berliner Sammlungen (Berlin:
Parthas, 2004), 85; Anna McSweeney, “Arthur von
­
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94
2 International Networks and the
Significance of Cultural Centers
In contrast to Paris and Berlin, the translocation of
the so-called “Rothschild taste”13 to Wurttemberg
and Switzerland is much lesser known. The imple-
mentation of a display strategy in Stuttgart and
Neuhausen that had originated in the metropoles
of the time may surprise at first. Taking a closer
look at the biographies of Karl von Urach and
Henri Moser, however, it becomes apparent that
they both had been part of the cultural elite of
Paris, since they had lived in the French capital
temporarily or even permanently during the late
nineteenth and early twentieth century. Accord-
ingly, the house of Urach possessed two estates at
16 rue Saint-Guillaume and 208 Boulevard Saint-
Germain,14 whereas Henri Moser moved to Paris in
1893 as a result of his diplomatic activities for Aus-
tria-Hungary, acting as the Commissioner General
of the occupied territories of Bosnia and Herze-
govina for several years.15 As a personal friend of
Edmond de Rothschild, who, together with his
wife, had accompanied the Swiss Orient traveler
during his fourth journey through Central Asia in
1888–89, Moser had first-hand knowledge of the
Rothschild collection and especially of Edmond’s
Gwinner und die Alhambra-Kuppel,” in Wie die Isla-
mische Kunst nach Berlin kam. Der Sammler und Muse-
umsdirektor Friedrich Sarre, ed. Julia Gonnella and Jens
Kröger (Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 2015), 89–102.
The installation of one of the very few original pieces
from the Alhambra within a contemporary interior dif-
fers from the abundant reuse of original Mamlūk piec-
es, see Mercedes Volait, Maisons de France au Caire. Le
remploi de grands décors mamelouks et ottomans dans
une architecture modern (Cairo : Institut Français
d’Archéologie Orientale, 2012), 49–70.
13 Ulrich Leben defines the “Rothschild taste” as a prac-
tice of embedding artworks in historicist settings with-
in the domestic spaces of collectors, see Leben, “A High
Victorian legacy,” 343.
14 HStAS GU 120 Bü. 298.
15 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 178–84.
Giese
fumoir arabe, of which five ink sketches have sur-
vived as part of Henri’s legacy.16
However, the networks of our two collectors ac-
tually extended the Rothschilds’ by far. Karl, who
used to travel under his pseudonym of Baron
Charles de Neuffen, even owned a house in
­Heliopolis—a suburb outside of Cairo established
in 1905.17 During the nineteenth century, the
­Egyptian capital was known for attracting foreign
architects, who brought European trends to the
Khedivial city. Whereas German architects Julius
Franz (1831–1915) and Carl von Diebitsch (1819–69)
had a predilection for neo-Moorish style,18 Am-
broise Baudry transferred the practice of reusing
original furniture in historicist interiors from
France to Egypt. Telling examples are the Maison
de Delort de Gléon (1872), the Hôtel Saint-Maurice
(1875–79) and his own residence, built in the same
16 bhm Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.38. Two of the men-
tioned sketches are published in Francine Giese and
Ariane Varela Braga, “Translocating Metropolitan Dis-
play Strategies in Nineteenth-Century Europe: Freder-
ick Stibbert, Henri Moser, and their Orientalist Style
Rooms,” International Journal of Islamic Architecture 8,
no. 1 (2019), figs. 7–8, doi: 10.1386/ijia.8.1.115_1.
17 HStAS GU 10 Bü. 165; HStAS GU 120 Bü. 297.
18 Elke Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz, “Islamisierte Architektur in
Kairo : Carl von Diebitsch und der Hofarchitekt Julius
Franz—Preußisches Unternehmertum im Ägypten des
19. Jahrhunderts,” PhD diss., Rheinische Friedrich-
Wilhelms University Bonn, 2003; Elke Pflugradt-Abdel
Aziz, “Orientalism as an Economic Strategy: The Archi-
tect Carl von Diebitsch in Cairo (1862–1869),” in Le
Caire—Alexandrie : Architectures européennes, 1850–
1950, ed. Mercedes Volait (Cairo : Institut français
d’archéologie orientale, 2004), 3–22; Elke Pflugradt-
Abdel Aziz, “Carl von Diebitsch: Moorish Style as State-
of-the-Art Architecture in 19th-century Cairo,” in The
Myth of the Orient. Architecture and Ornament in the
Age of Orientalism, ed. Francine Giese and Ariane
Varela Braga (Bern: Peter Lang, 2016), 63–77; Elke
­
Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz, “Carl von Diebitsch und der
­
maurische Stil als State-of-the-Art-Architektur im
Ägypten des 19. Jahrhunderts,” in A Fashionable Style.
Carl von Diebitsch und das Maurische Revival, ed. Fran-
cine Giese and Ariane Varela Braga (Bern: Peter Lang,
2017), 199–210.
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International Fashion and Personal Taste
Ismāʾīliyya neighborhood in 1875–76. After his re-
turn to Paris, affluent French collectors of Islamic
art commissioned Baudry to create several neo-
Mamlūk style rooms, amongst which we find
­Edmond de Rothschild’s fumoir arabe at his hôtel
particulier at 41 Faubourg Saint-Honoré.19
Baudry’s 1896 project for a neo-Mamlūk mosque
in Paris is noteworthy as well, even though the
building was never executed.20 According to Mer-
cedes Volait, Baudry elaborated the plans together
with the Parisian architect Henri Saladin (1851–
1923).21 Saladin met Henri Moser during the 1900
Paris World Fair, for which he had created the Tu-
nisian pavilion, while Moser had been responsible
for the much-acclaimed pavilion of Bosnia and
19 Mercedes Volait has worked extensively on the French
architect Ambroise Baudry, see, for instance, Crosnier
Leconte and Mercedes Volait, L’Égypte d’un architecte,
56–133; Mercedes Volait, “Passions françaises pour les
arts mamelouks et ottomans du Caire (1867–1889),” in
Rémi Labrusse, ed., Purs Décors? Arts de l’Islam, regards
du xixe siècle. Collections des Arts Décoratifs (Paris : Les
Arts Décoratifs and Musée du Louvre, 2007), 98–103;
Volait, Maisons de France au Caire, 49–51; Mercedes
Volait, “Les intérieurs orientalistes du comte de Saint-
Maurice et d’Albert Goupil : des ‘Cluny arabes’ au Caire
et à Paris à la fin du xixe siècle,” in The Period Rooms.
Allestimenti storici tra arte, collezionismo e museolo-
gia, ed. Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot and Mer-
cedes Volait (Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2016),
­103–14; Mercedes Volait, “De l’usage du remploi et du
moulage : l’hôtel particulier du comte de Saint-­
­
Maurice,” in Le Caire sur le vif. Beniamino Facchinelli
photographe (1875–1895), ed. Maryse Bideault, Thomas
­Cazentre, Jérôme Delatour, and Mercedes Volait (Paris:
inha, 2017), 53–55, as well as her contribution in this
volume.
20 Crosnier Leconte and M. Volait, L’Égypte d’un archi-
tecte, 126–27.
21 My thanks go to Mercedes Volait for pointing out this
fact to me. On Saladin’s activities as architect, scholar
and art critic, see Myriam Bacha, “Henri Saladin (1851–
1923). Un architecte ‘Beaux-Arts’ promoteur de l’art
­islamique tunisien,” in L’Orientalisme architectural en-
tre imaginaires et savoirs, ed. Nabila Oulebsir and
­Mercedes Volait (Paris : Picard, 2009), 215–30; Giese,
“Theodor Zeerleder und Henri Moser.”
95
Herzegovina.22 As attested by a hand-written letter
from May 10, 1905, the Parisian architect was im-
pressed by the artefacts on display and acquired
some of them.23 In the following years Moser and
Saladin exchanged various letters relating to
the Swiss traveler’s extensive photo collection—
Saladin even included some reproductions of
them to his publications—, his specialized litera-
ture on Bosnia and Central Asia or his first-hand
knowledge on art institutions in Sarajevo.24 In
1907, when the work on Moser’s private museum
and his fumoir arabe began, their correspondence
even intensified.25
3 The Arab Rooms of  Palais Urach—
Witnessing Metropolitan Trends in
Stuttgart
After traveling great parts of the world, including
Spain, North Africa and the Near East, and after hav-
ing assembled a remarkable Islamic art collection,
Karl von Urach decided to install several
­Orientalizing style rooms at Palais Urach, the fami-
ly residence at Neckarstraße 68 in Stuttgart. The
property, destroyed by bombs in 1944, which
­formerly had been known as Palais Taubenheim,
was renamed after its acquisition by Karl’s mother
Florestine, Duchess of Urach, Countess of Wurt-
temberg, in 1869. According to documents
preserved at the municipal archive of Stuttgart
(Stadtarchiv),  Florestine submitted a project to
connect the ­originally detached annex building
22 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 178–
84. Also see Ágnes Sebestyén’s contribution in this
volume.
23 bhm Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.81.
24 bhm Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.81.
25 Moser’s legacy, donated to Bern Historical Museum
(bhm) in 1914, conserves an impressive number of
hand-written letters by Henri Saladin that attest the
close collaboration between architect and patron dur-
ing the realization of the Swiss collector’s Arab smok-
ing room, bhm Ethno Inv. 1908.670.162.
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96
with the main residence at first floor level.26 The
plans by local architect Karl Mayer, dating from
March 24, 1893, were approved in April. Within this
newly built wing, which initially housed a salon and
atelier, Karl von Urach commissioned the afore-
mentioned architect Karl Mayer, to create a series
of Orientalizing interiors inspired by neo-Moorish
and neo-Mamlūk architecture, the so-called Arab
Rooms (Arabische Räume) (figs. 7.1–7.2). Both Is-
lamic styles were important references in von
Urach’s life, since he had grown up in close proxim-
ity to one of the most important neo-Moorish
building ensembles of the nineteenth century—
Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von Zanth’s Wilhelma.
­Moreover, between 1887 and 1918 he extensively
traveled across the Mediterranean, with frequent
stays in Egypt, particularly in Cairo, where he
owned the above-mentioned house, which is a rea-
son why he was likewise familiar with Mamlūk
architecture.27
Based on available archive materials we can
identify five different building phases: according
to a typed description of the Arab Rooms most
probably written after Karl’s death for their public
inauguration, works on the neo-Moorish room (1)
started in 1893. During a second phase two neo-
Mamlūk style rooms (2a–b) were added between
1899 and 1902 (fig. 7.3).28 This first exhibition
space, on which I will focus here, was extended in
1907, 1909 and 1924–25.29 As we know from the
conserved documentation, the implementation of
the interior designs for these early rooms was
26 Stuttgart. Baugesuch Ihrer Durchlaucht der Frau Herzo-
gin von Urach Gräfin von Württemberg betreffend die
Herstellung eines Flügelbaus am Palais Neckarstrasse
No 68, StAS, Nachlass Mayer 32.
27 Wolfgang Schmierer, “Karl Fürst von Urach, Graf von
Württemberg,” 390.
28 Merkblatt für den Fremdenführer in den arabischen Räu-
men Neckarstrasse 68, HStAS, GU 120 Bü. 20.
29 Building application (Baugesuch), K. Mayer Architekt,
Stuttgart, May 21, 1907, HStAS GU 10 Bü. 55; building ap-
plication (Baugesuch), K. Mayer Architekt, Stuttgart,
April 6, 1909, HStAS GU 10 Bü. 51; building application
(Baugesuch), E. Barth Architekt, Stuttgart, June 11, 1924,
HStAS GU 10 Bü. 55.
Giese
time-consuming: Karl von Urach was occupied
with obtaining original architectural pieces, plas-
ter replicas, as well as visual reproductions of inte-
riors or parts of it. As of 1895, the Stuttgart-based
collector therefore began searching for Nasrid and
Mamlūk plaster casts, as well as for original wood-
work and stained glass windows from Cairo.30
Likewise, detailed sketches of the spectacular ceil-
ings of Baudry’s Hôtel Saint-Maurice testify to its
significance as reference building of the time.
In fact, the ceilings of Karl’s Arab Rooms 1 and
2b were largely based on the examples from
Saint-Maurice.31
4 The Availability of Islamic
Reproductions—an International Business
Various hand-written letters and sales receipts
preserved at the family legacy allow for a deeper
insight into the international network of Karl von
Urach.32 Exceeding first expectations, they reveal
that he entertained relations to the most impor-
tant institutions and illustrious persons of his
time. Moreover, they also testify to the reproduc-
ibility and commercialization of Islamic architec-
ture in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Karl’s correspondence with London and Madrid is
most interesting in this regard, as both cities were
30 HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
31 The Stuttgarter Hauptstaatsarchiv holds various un-
dated pencil drawings related to the vestibule ceiling at
Saint-Maurice by Karl von Urach, as well as an ink
sketch of two neo-Mamlūk rooms by Cairo-based ar-
chitect Max Herz (fig. 7.4), with architectural details
appropriated from the same building, HStAS GU 120
Bü. 316. For detailed sketches of the ceiling of Palais
Urach’s neo-Mamlūk style room 2b, which follows the
general outline of the central latern of the grand salon
at Saint-Maurice, see Fürst Carl v. Urach, Plafond im
Atelier, Karl Mayer, July 4, 1898, StAS Nachlass Mayer
32; Palais Urach, Maurischer Plafond, Karl Mayer, Au-
gust 1898, StAS Nachlass Mayer 32. For a historic photo-
graph of the mentioned ceiling, see StAS Nachlass
Mayer 32.
32 HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
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 International Fashion and Personal Taste

Figure 7.1 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, interior of a neo-Moorish style Figure 7.2 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, interior of a neo-Mamlūk style room,
room, Karl Mayer, begun in 1893. HStAS GU 99 Bü. 557b. Karl Mayer, begun in 1907. HStAS GU 99 Bü. 557b.
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98
Figure 7.3 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, floor plan of the first two building phases indicating the planned ceilings
and domes, Karl Mayer, undated. HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
important centers of the Moorish Revival and at
the same time internationally known for their cast
collections.33 With contacts to Henry Gillman, the
general manager of the Crystal Palace Company,
Arthur B. Skinner, at that time assistant director of
the South Kensington Museum, and Juan Facundo
Riaño, the director of Madrid’s Museo de Reproduc-
33 The vast collection of Islamic casts at V&A has been
studied only partially so far. The Mamlūk casts that
­primarily came from Cairene buildings are widely un-
published still, whereas the extensive collection of
­Alhambra casts and models have been the matter of
various publications, see esp. Antonia Raquejo Grado,
“El arte árabe : un aspecto de la visión romántica de
España en la Inglaterra del siglo xix.” PhD diss., Univer-
sidad Complutense Madrid, 1987, 456–559; Fiona Les-
lie, “Inside Outside. Changing attitude towards archi-
tectural models in the Museums at South Kensington,”
Architectural History 47 (2004): 159–200; Mariam Ross-
er-Owen, “Coleccionar la Alhambra : Owen Jones y la
España Islámica en el South Kensington Museum,” in
Owen Jones y la Alhambra, ed. Juan Calatrava, Mariam
Rosser-Owen, Abraham Thomas, and Rémi Labrusse
(London and Granada: Victoria and Albert Museum,
Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife, 2011), 43–69. As
for the mentioned cast courts, see Tanya Harrod, “The
Cast Courts at the V. & A. London,” The Burlington Mag-
azine 127, no. 983 (February 1985): 110–11.
Giese
ciones Artísticas and member of the Royal Spanish
Academies of History, Language and Fine Arts, the
key figures and collections of historical casts were
at Karl’s disposal. From the mentioned documents
we learn that the Stuttgart-based collector was not
only interested in purchasing copies of Owen
Jones’s Alhambra casts, which had been on display
in a separate room of his 1854 Alhambra Court at
Sydenham,34 but also of two Mamlūk plaster casts
34 Owen Jones, The Alhambra Court in the Crystal Palace
(London: Crystal Palace Library and Bradbury & Evans,
1854), 86–8. For further reading see Kathryn Ferry,
“Owen Jones and the Alhambra court at the Crystal Pal-
ace,” in Revisiting al-Andalus. Perspectives on the Mate-
rial Culture of Islamic Iberia and Beyond, ed. Glaire
Anderson and Mariam Rosser-Owen (Leiden: Brill,
­
2007), 225–46; Juan Calatrava, “Owen Jones y el Alham-
bra Court de Sydenham, 1854,” in Owen Jones. El Patio
Alhambra en el Crystal Palace. Con estudios introducto-
rios de Juan Calatrava y José Tito (Granada and Madrid:
Patronato de la Alhambra y Generalife and Abada Ed.,
2010), 7–40; Ariane Varela Braga, “How to Visit the Al-
hambra and ‘Be Home in Time for Tea.’ Owen Jones’s
Alhambra Court in the Crystal Palace of Sydenham,” in
A Fashionable Style. Carl von Diebitsch und das Mau-
rische Revival, ed. Francine Giese and Ariane Varela
Braga (Bern: Peter Lang, 2017), 71–83.
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International Fashion and Personal Taste
kept at the South Kensington Museum, today the
Victoria and Albert Museum. A hand-written l­ etter
from Skinner, dated July 8, 1896, and a payment re-
ceipt from July 15, 1896, indicate that the two casts
in question consisted of partial copies of a dome
and a pendentive from a Cairene house with traces
of original coloring.35
At a certain point, Karl seems to have wanted to
design his neo-Moorish room after the model of
Maximilian von Scherer’s Moorish Hall in Castell
Castle in the Swiss town of Tägerwilen, executed in
1891–94 by Stuttgart architect Emil Otto Tafel
(1838–1914).36 A telegram from November 2, 1896,
sent by the painting and plaster workshop Schmidt
& Söhne in Zurich to the studio of Royal Court
Plasterer (Kgl. Hofstuckateur) Eugen Rau at Heu-
steigstrasse 15b, Stuttgart, states that Schmidt &
Söhne, who executed the stucco decoration in
Tägerwilen, had been asked to provide one general
view of the interior and six close-ups of its neo-
Nasrid stuccowork.37 In addition, the Swiss work-
shop agreed to provide one plaster cast of each
Moorish mold (“maurische Modelle”), along with a
corresponding license for a price of 600 Frs.
­According to Karl von Urach’s hand-written com-
ment on the back of the telegram, the stucco deco-
rations in Castell Castle had not appeared authen-
tic enough to the demanding collector.
This is where Juan Facundo Riaño comes into
play, whom Karl contacted in 1898 and asked for
35 HStAS GU 120 Bü 316.
36 On Tafel’s Moorish Hall see Johannes Meyer, “Ge-
schichte des Schlosses Kastell,” Thurgauische Beiträge
zur vaterländischen Geschichte 43 (1903): 70–191; Regine
Abegg, Peter Erni, and Alfons Raimann, Die Kunstdenk-
mäler des Kantons Thurgau, vol. viii: Rund um Kreu-
zlingen (Bern: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunst-
geschichte gsk, 2014): 340–60; Francine Giese, “From
al-Andalus to Germany—Artistic Transfer in 19th-cen-
tury Europe,” in Asia and Europe Interconnected: Agents,
Concepts, and Things, ed. Angelika Malinar and Simone
Müller (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2018), 131–53.
37 HStAS GU 120 Bü. 83.
99
original Alhambra casts. Unfortunately, Riaño was
unable to satisfy Karl’s demand, since neither the
Royal Academy of History, nor the Royal Academy
of Fine Arts in Madrid possessed such casts. In a
hand-written letter from February 17, 1898, Riaño
therefore recommends Karl to try his luck in
Granada and contact Mariano Contreras, the son
of the famous Rafael Contreras Muñoz (1824–90),
who was known for his casts and models of the Al-
hambra.38 From where exactly Karl eventually got
his casts is difficult to say, for there are not any fur-
ther letters related to the purchase of Alhambra
casts in Spain.
5 Buying Mamlūk Reproductions and
Furniture in Nineteenth-Century Cairo
In contrast, purchasing Mamlūk pieces proved less
difficult. Thus Karl von Urach ordered the required
items from Cairo directly, as is testified by various
hand-written documents. We have notice of a first
order from May 4, 1895, at L. Almendary & J. Jala-
don’s entreprise de travaux publics that comprises
of a total of 19 items, including plaster casts and
original pieces of architecture.39 Three years later,
on March 28, 1898, when works on the interior de-
signs of phases 1 and 2 of the Arab Rooms were
well underway, Karl bought from Jaladon again.40
This time we even have knowledge of the exact
transportation route—the objects were shipped to
Stuttgart via Trieste in June 1898.41 According to
the above-mentioned description of the Arab
Rooms, Karl this time only acquired a selection of
original items, from which his architect Karl Mayer
made faithful copies, “of all ceiling and wall
38 HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
39 L. Almendary & J. Jaladon, Note des Moulages. Ara-
besques. et Vitraux anciens à Fournir à Monsieur de
Steuffen [sic], Cairo, May 4, 1895, HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
40 Hand-written letter from J. Jaladon to Charles de
Neuffen, Cairo, March 28, 1898, HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
41 Hand-written letter from J. Jaladon to Charles de
Neuffen, Cairo, June 13, 1898, HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
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100
d­ecorations always one authentic piece was
brought from the Orient to serve as sample; and
these pieces were then copied in Stuttgart.”42 What
we can observe here is the creation of assemblages
of original pieces, contemporary replicas and plas-
ter casts similar to those of Baudry’s neo-Mamlūk
interiors in Cairo and France.
The availability of casts and original pieces
from Cairo’s historic monuments may surprise a
present-day observer. In the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries, however, there was a
considerable demand for architectural remains
coming from Mamlūk and Ottoman buildings. In
fact, this can be regarded as a sell-out of Egypt’s
Islamic heritage, which was an immediate result of
Ismāʿīl Pasha’s (r. 1863–79) controversial remodel-
ing of urban spaces.43 In this context, the involve-
ment of Max Herz (1856–1919), the chief architect
of Cairo’s Comité de Conservation des Monuments
de l’Art Arabe and an authority of the Mamlūk
Revival,44 is very significant as well. According to
42 “Von allen Decken und Wandverzierungen ist immer
ein echtes Stück als Muster vom Orient mitgebracht
und es sind dann in Stuttgart die gleichen Stücke nach-
geahmt worden,” English translation by Michael Con-
rad, Merkblatt für den Fremdenführer in den arabischen
Räumen Neckarstrasse 68, HStAS, GU 120 Bü. 20.
43 Volait, Maisons de France au Caire, 39. On Cairo’s urban
development and its nineteenth-century moderniza-
tion, see Caroline Williams, “Transforming the Old:
Cairo’s New Medieval City,” Middle East Journal 56, no.
3 (2002): 457–75; Nezar AlSayyad, Irene A. Bierman,
and Nasser Rabbat, ed., Making Cairo Medieval (Lan-
ham, MD: Lexington Books, 2005); Paula Sanders, Cre-
ating Medieval Cairo, Empire, Religion, and Architectur-
al Preservation in Nineteenth-Century Egypt (Cairo:
American University of Cairo Press, 2008).
44 On the various activities of Max Herz, see István Or-
mos, “Max Herz (1856–1919): His Life and Activities in
Egypt.” In Le Caire—Alexandrie. Architectures europée-
nnes, 1850–1950, edited by Mercedes Volait, 161–78. 2nd
ed. Cairo : Institut français d’archéologie orientale,
2004; István Ormos, “The Cairo Street at the World’s
Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893,” in L’Orientalisme
architectural entre imaginaires et savoirs, ed. Nabila
Oulebsir and Mercedes Volait (Paris: Picard, 2009),
Giese
Jaladon’s abovementioned letter from June 13,
1898,45 Herz played a crucial role in the trade
with Mamlūk casts and original pieces of furni-
ture. Moreover, he also worked for European pa-
trons, including our collector from Stuttgart, a
­collaboration attested by the abovementioned ink
sketch for two neo-Mamlūk rooms from March
1898 (fig. 7.4).46 Whereas the localization of the
two rooms shown in the sketch remains difficult,
the ceiling with a star-shaped central melon dome
(“plafond lis avec la coquille”) depicted on the
right side, can be regarded as direct model for the
ceiling in Palais Urach’s neo-Moorish style room
(fig. 7.1). Cooperations like the one between Karl
von Urach and Max Herz were no exceptions; this
becomes apparent when taking into account Hen-
ri Moser’s correspondence on the execution of his
fumoir arabe which makes references to the same
architect.
6 Henri Moser’s fumoir arabe—the
Translocation of a Parisian Fashion
Even though Moser had an aversion to the neo-
Moorish style,47 his exhibition rooms and espe-
cially his fumoir arabe, which he considered inte-
gral parts of his private museum and were installed
at Charlottenfels Castle between 1907 and 1909,
bear witness to the same trend of presenting art
objects in Orientalizing atmospheres. Similar to
Karl von Urach, who was in close contact with
his architect and provided numerous sketches
for the interiors,48 Henri Moser himself took an
active part in the designing process of the room,
195–214; Mercedes Volait, Fous du Caire. Excentriques,
architectes & amateurs d’art en Égypte 1863–1914 (n.p.:
L’Archange Minotaure, 2009), 193–96.
45 See note 41.
46 Croquis pour deux chambres en style arabe, Max Herz,
1898, HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
47 See the contribution by Katrin Kaufmann in this
volume.
48 HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
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International Fashion and Personal Taste
supervised by the aforementioned architect Henri
Saladin from January 1907 onwards.49 It is there-
fore no surprise that Moser’s fumoir shows even
­stronger ties to Paris, since this was where Moser
had ­purchased original pieces from art dealers and
­private collectors, and it was here that contempo-
rary replicas were manufactured by specialized
workshops.50 Nevertheless, a hand-written letter
from Moussa Arouani from the Damascus-based
furniture manufacturer and antiquary Au Musée
Oriental attests that the Swiss collector also
“shopped” on an international scale.51 Likewise, he
49 NOTES des honoraires dûs à M. HENRI SALADIN, AR-
CHITECTE, January 15, 1908, bhm Inv. 1908.670.162.
50 This aspect has been analyzed in detail elsewhere, see
Giese, “From Style Room to Period Room,” 156–58.
Giese and Varela Braga, “Translocating Metropolitan
Display Strategies.”
51 bhm Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.79.
101
Figure 7.4
Croquis pour deux chambres en style arabe, Max Herz,
March 1898. HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
may have followed Saladin’s advice and contacted
Max Herz for the acquisition of the mašrabīya that
was later incorporated into his style room (fig. 7.5).52
It is therefore justified to say that an assemblage of
original pieces and nineteenth-century reproduc-
tions was applied to Moser’s fumoir that resembled
Karl’s in many ways; this time, however, it was the
collector’s eclectic taste that had motivated the
creation of an equally eclectic interior (fig. 7.6).
7 Display and Orientalizing Scenography
Our two collectors not only played very active
parts in the conception and execution of their
style rooms; their scenographies also followed
their personal tastes. Whereas Henri Moser’s tour-
ing exhibition on Central Asia gave him numerous
52 bhm Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.77.
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102 Giese

Figure 7.5 Neuhausen, Charlottenfels Castle, Henri Moser’s fumoir arabe. Bernisches Historisches Museum, Bern, bhm
Ethno Ph1.240.07566.

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International Fashion and Personal Taste
Figure 7.6 Mr. H. Moser à Charlottenfels, Fumoir arabe, coupé en long, Henri Saladin, Paris, 20 Décembre 1907. Bernisches
Historisches Museum, bhm Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.55.
opportunities to elaborate a coherent display
strategy,53 Karl von Urach was a rather unexperi-
enced newcomer to the field. He nonetheless
had very precise ideas as to how he wanted his
­collection to be presented, as is testified by various
pencil drawings preserved at the Hauptstaatsar-
chiv in Stuttgart.54 Following the internationally
accepted display strategies used at important ex-
hibitions of Islamic art in Paris (1893), Stockholm
(1897), Berlin (1899) or Algiers (1905),55 Karl hung
53 The touring exhibition was shown in Schaffhausen
(1876/86), Geneva (1886), Bern (1886), Zurich (1887), as
well as in Stuttgart and Paris, see Balsiger and Kläy, Bei
Schah, Emir und Khan, 61, 169–74.
54 HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
55 On these exhibitions, see David J. Roxburgh, “Au Bon-
heur des Amateurs : Collecting and Exhibiting Islamic
103
Art, ca. 1880–1910,” Ars Orientalis 30 (2000): 9–38; Chris-
tine Peltre, Les arts de l’Islam. Itinéraires d’une redécou-
verte (Paris: Gallimard, 2006); Pflugradt-Abdel Aziz,
Orientalism as an Economic Strategy, 80–2; Jens Kröger,
“Early Islamic Art History in Germany and Concepts of
Objects and Exhibitions,” in Islamic Art and the Muse-
um: Approaches to Art and Archaeology of the Muslim
World in the Twenty-First Century, ed. Benoît Junod,
Georges Khalil, Stefan Weber, and Gerhard Wolf (Lon-
don: Saqi, 2012), 173–82; Kive, “The Exhibitionary Con-
struction of the ‘Islamic Interior.’” It is noteworthy that
Edmond the Rothschild, who was one of the main rep-
resentatives of the abovementioned “Rothschild taste,”
also was a member of the organization committee of
the 1893 exhibition in Paris. It therefore is likely that he
also influenced its display strategy, see Labrusse, Purs
Décors, 320. Moser contributed to the same exhibition
as a private lender of loans, see Balsiger and Kläy, Bei
Schah, Emir und Khan, 178.
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104
Figure 7.7 Stuttgart, Palais Urach, Arab Rooms, pencil drawing indicating the intended display in rooms 1a–b, Karl von
Urach. HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316.
carpets and other textiles onto the walls and there-
by created a tent-like scenery that stood in stark
contrast to the architectural quality of the Arab
Rooms at Palais Urach. In front of this Orientaliz-
ing installation he placed artworks on pedestals
and surrounded them with small furniture pieces
(fig. 7.7).56
While we possess comprehensive visual re-
cords of Henri Moser’s exhibition rooms at Char-
lottenfels Castle that document their scenography,
­including the papier mâché horses and manne-
quins he had ordered at the workshop of Georges
56 The family’s estate at Stuttgart’s Hauptstaatsarchiv
holds various such sketches, with the lack of appropri-
ate dating impeding the reconstruction of the original
display, see HStAS GU 120 Bü. 316. As Karl’s Islamic art
collection is largely lost, the current state of research
does not allow any further clarification of this point.
Giese
Hallé Fils & Successeur on rue Boulard in Paris,57
this unfortunately is not the case for Karl’s Arab
Rooms. Most photographs of the Orientalizing
­interiors at Palais Urach show them without the
artworks on display. Nevertheless, due to the afore-
mentioned descriptive document of the Arab
Rooms we are at least well-informed as to what
objects were on display in the exhibition rooms
­after the art collector had died.58
57 bhm Ethno Inv. 1922.670.0260.76.
58 In the neo-Moorish style room (1), the following ob-
jects were on display: prayer rugs and dresses on
the walls, a small table with a coffee set and writing
­utensils, as well as a Quran stand (kursi). In the neo-
Mamlūk style rooms (2a–b), the following items were
on d­ isplay: built-in Mamlūk wood carvings, stained
glass windows, ceilings and inscriptions, as well as tap-
estries and floor carpets, see Merkblatt für den Frem-
denführer in den arabischen Räumen Neckarstrasse 68,
HStAS, GU 120 Bü. 20.
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International Fashion and Personal Taste
8 Transnational Display Strategies and the
Specific Signatures of Collectors
The integration of art collections into the domes-
tic spaces of art collectors and their display in his-
toricist style rooms are important features of the
private museums discussed in this contribution. It
has been shown that Karl von Urach and Henri
Moser generally followed international display
strategies established in the cultural centers of the
time. However, their eccentric personalities were
still tangible in their installations as they bore
their personal signatures. Likewise, the restricted
access to the exhibition rooms augmented their
exclusiveness.59 It was only at the end of Karl and
Henri’s lives that their collections were made ac-
cessible to a broader public. In Stuttgart, the Arab
Rooms, which after Karl’s death came under the
auspices of his brother Wilhelm, became a local
attraction.60 Opening their doors on June 1, 1926,
visitors were accompanied by a guide, who had to
obey strict instructions as to how to behave, what
itinerary to follow and what explanations to give.61
Henri Moser, on the other hand, was not that for-
tunate, for his collection could not remain in Char-
lottenfels Castle. After long negotiations with local
authorities, the Swiss collector donated his entire
collection and his style room to the Historical Mu-
seum in Bern,62 under the condition, that it would
be presented in a proper exhibition space created
especially for this purpose and executed between
59 According to Sven Kuhrau, the access to the private col-
lections in Berlin was restricted in an equal manner
during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
There were only a few exceptions, cf. Kuhrau, Der
Kunstsammler im Kaiserreich, 120–22.
60 Claus Mohr, “Arabische Kunst in Stuttgart,” Deutsches
Volksblatt, Stuttgart, no. 170, July 28, 1926, 6, HStAS, GU
120 Bü. 20; Walter Kast, “Ein Stück Orient in Stuttgart,”
Stuttgarter Illustrierte—Das bunte Blatt, no. 23, 1933,
155, HStAS, GU 128 Bü. 364.
61 Merkblatt für den Fremdenführer in den arabischen Räu-
men Neckarstrasse 68, HStAS, GU 120 Bü. 20.
62 For more detailed information, see the contribution by
Alban von Stockhausen in this volume.
105
1919 and 1921 by Stettler & Hunziker after plans by
Henri Saladin.63 Even though the Moser collection
lost its private “aura” through its relocation in a
public museum, it nonetheless was perceived as
the high achievement of this outstanding amateur,
Orient traveller and private collector that had
managed to bring the East to Switzerland.64
Acknowledgements
My thanks go to Alban von Stockhausen (­Bernisches
Historisches Museum), Eberhard Merk (Landesar-
chiv Baden-Württemberg, Abteilung Hauptstaat-
sarchiv Stuttgart), Barbara Six and Katharina
­Beiergrößlein (Stadtarchiv Stuttgart) for their pre-
cious help, as well as to Michael A. Conrad for
proof-reading.
Archival Abbreviations
bhm Bernisches Historisches Museum
HStAS Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, ­Abteilung
Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart
StAS Stadtarchiv Stuttgart
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 Part 3
Museums and International Exhibitions

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 Chapter 8
Carpets and Empire: The 1891 Exhibition at the Handelsmuseum in
Vienna
Barbara Karl
More often than not, exhibitions mirror not only
the state of research but also the socio-economic
and political landscape of their wider setting. This
is especially true for a series of exhibitions that
took place during the last quarter of the nine-
teenth century in imperial Vienna’s Handelsmuse-
um, originally founded in 1875 as the k. k. Orien-
talisches Museum and rebranded as the k. k.
Österreichisches Handelsmuseum in 1887 in order
to broaden its geographic field of action. These ex-
hibitions were instrumental for the emerging field
of art history, including the Islamic world, and ac-
companied by luxurious catalogs. The most nota-
ble of these series was an exhibition on carpets in
1891 that shaped the art-historical discourse of the
time. The Handelsmuseum was an early example
for the promotion of international economic de-
velopment; it not only included a department for
the arts and crafts (Sektion für Kunstgewerbe) but
also offices for commercial and toll information, as
well as the export club of the Habsburg Empire.1
The exhibitions at the Handelsmuseum were dedi-
cated to the most promising sectors of art and in-
dustry (Kunstindustrie) from the Orient; the pub-
lished catalogs mirrored the economic goals of the
Habsburg state and placed scholarly research in
the service of empire. This brief study is part of a
larger research project on the carpet exhibition of
1891, with a special focus on its organization.
* The author wishes to thank Martina Dax, Branislav Djord-
jevic, Francine Giese, Edith Oberhumer, Georg Vasold and
Angela Völker.
1 Franz S. Griesmayr, Das österr. Handelsmuseum in Wien
1874–1918 (unpubl. Diss., University of Vienna, 1968).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_011
The Museum für angewandte Kunst2 in Vienna
(hereafter referred to as the mak) today holds one
of the most splendid carpet collections worldwide;
ever since the Teppichausstellung (carpet exhibi-
tion) of 1891 it received much scholarly attention.3
At that time, however, the mak did not yet own a
significant carpet collection, a situation that
changed once the collection of the Handelsmuse-
um had become as much a matter of the past as
Austria’s dream of empire. By integrating the col-
lections of the Handelsmuseum and the imperial
house the MAK included their histories as well.
Whereas the carpets of the imperial household
had been used for opulent courtly ceremonials
and palatial furnishings for centuries, the carpet
collection of the Handelsmuseum primarily served
to open trade relations to the East, to give advice to
buyers and models for the Empires producers.4 Af-
ter their arrival at the mak, the carpets of both col-
lections were on display at many exhibitions, the
latest of which opened in 2014. The curatorial con-
cept focused on global interactions in the arts dur-
ing the early modern period and therefore showed
carpets from the Islamic World side by side with
French Savonnerie carpets.5
2 Founded in 1863/4, formerly the k. k. Museum für Kunst
und Industrie, today the Museum für angewandte Kunst/
Gegenwartskunst.
3 Angela Völker, Die orientalischen Knüpftteppiche im mak
(Vienna: Böhlau, 2001), who includes a detailed history
and bibliography of the collection.
4 Völker, Die orientalischen Knüpftteppiche; Griesmayer, Das
österr. Handelsmuseum.
5 Karl, Barbara, Angela Völker, and Michael Embacher, “A
Sanctuary for Carpets: The New Installation at the
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112
The 1891 exhibition included many carpets to-
day kept at the mak; it still is the largest carpet ex-
hibition ever set up at a museum: it showed more
than 450 items—in fact, nobody knows the exact
number, since the information of the small exhibi-
tion catalog has always been incomplete.6 Apart
from a few exhibits, the mak also engaged a cura-
tor capable of raising the study of carpets to a new
level—Alois Riegl (1858–1905), also one of the
founding fathers of the Vienna School of Art His-
tory, which has received a lot of scholarly attention
in the last decades.7 In this context, the carpet ex-
hibition has been addressed from various perspec-
tives as well, including its significance for and in-
fluence on the formation of art history as a field of
study, in particular, for the emergence of Islamic/
Islamicate art history.8 In light of this interest, this
MAK-Museum für angewandte Kunst/Vienna, 2014,” Inter-
national Journal of Islamic Architecture, vol. 7/2 (2018):
353–72.
6 Handelsmuseum, ed., Katalog der Ausstellung orientalisch-
er Teppiche (Wien : Verlag des k. k. österreichischen
Handelsmuseums, 1891).
7 Especially relevant are Georg Vasold, Alois Riegl und die
Kunstgeschichte als Kulturgeschichte : Überlegungen zum
Frühwerk des Wiener Gelehrten (Freiburg im Breisgau :
Rombach, 2004); Mathew Rampley, The Vienna School of
Art History: Empire and the Politics of Scholarship, 1847–1918
(University Park: Penn State Univ. Press, 2013); Diana Reyn-
olds Cordileone, Alois Riegl in Vienna 1875–1905: An Institu-
tional Biography (Farnham et al.: Ashgate, 2014).
8 Finbarr Barry Flood, “The Flaw in the Carpet: Disjunctive
Continuities and Riegl’s Arabesque,” Histories of Ornament
from Global to Local, ed. Gülru Necipoğlu and Alina Payne
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), 82–93; Ste-
phen Vernoit, “Islamic Art and Architecture: An overview
of Scholarship and Collecting 1850–1950,” in Discovering
Islamic Art: Scholars Collectors and Collections 1850–1950,
ed. Stephen Vernoit (London: I. B. Tauris, 2000), 1–61; Eva
Troelenberg, Eine Ausstellung wird besichtigt : Die Münch-
ner “Ausstellung von Meisterwerken muhammedanischer
Kunst” 1910 in kultur- und wissenschaftsgeschichtlicher Pers-
pektive (Frankfurt am Main et al.: Lang, 2011); Birgitt
Borkopp-Restle and Barbara Welzel, “Eines der wichtigsten
Monumente unserer Zeit überhaupt.” Das Krematorium von
Peter Behrens in Hagen (Essen : Klartext Verlag, 2014);
­Denise Marie Teece, “Through the Renaissance Frame:
Karl
article intends to fill a lacuna and discuss the car-
pet exhibition itself in relation to other means for
promoting the economy of the Habsburg Empire
during the late nineteenth century.
Studying the Handelsmuseum and its exhibi-
tions is a difficult endeavor, even though Franz S.
Griesmayr and Johannes Wieninger have written
important studies on the importance of this muse-
um.9 A general problem is the scarcity of original
documents that could shed more light on the insti-
tution’s history. The archive of the museum seems
to be lost, which is why the information sources
used in this study mostly rely on printed docu-
mentation. In addition, publications by the
Handelsmuseum, such as its exhibition catalogues
and periodicals, have turned out to be helpful
sources on the subject as well.
1 The Handelsmuseum and its Exhibition
Program
The Handelsmuseum was founded in the after-
math of the 1873 World Exhibition held in Vienna.
Carpets and the Beginnings of ‘Islamic Art’ in Nineteenth-
Century Vienna and Berlin.” The Textile Museum Journal
44 (2017): 47–69; Cailah Jackson, “Persian Carpets and
the South Kensington Museum: Design, Scholarship and
Collecting in Late Nineteenth Century Britain,” Journal of
Design History 30, no.3 (2017): 265–81; Moya Carey, Persian
Art: Collecting the Arts of Iran in the Nineteenth Century
(London: V&A Publishing, 2017); Celine ­Trautmann-Waller,
“Etudier les tapis orientaux à Vienne en 1891. Les débuts
d’Alois Riegl,” in Identités multiples. Mélanges offerts à Ger-
ald Stieg, ed. Kerstin Hausbei and Alain Lattard (Paris :
Presses de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, 2008), 211–19.
9 Griesmayr, Das österr. Handelsmuseum; Johannes Wien-
inger, “‘Er brachte viel Eigenartiges und Notwendiges mit.’
Arthur von Scala als Mittler zwischen Ost und West und
die Grundlegung der Asiensammlung des heutigen Muse-
ums für angewandte Kunst 1868–1909,” in Kunst und
Industrie—­ die Anfänge des Museums für angewandte
Kunst, ed. Peter Noever (Ostfildern : Hatje Cantz, 2000),
164–72; Johannes Wieninger, “Das Orientalische Museum,”
Vienne, porta Orientis. Austriaca. Cahiers universitaires
­
d’information sur l’Autriche 37 (2012): 113–60.
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Carpets and Empire
The Austrian diplomat and politician Josef von
Schwegel (1836–1914) was its main initiator and Ar-
thur von Scala (1845–1909) its first director. An
archduke was its patron, and its esteemed mem-
bers included some of the Empire’s most influen-
tial business people. The establishment of an arts
and crafts department was only one of the muse-
um’s many concerns; its greatest objective was to
promote international trade. In many ways, the
Handelsmuseum followed the model of the Victo-
ria and Albert Museum (hereafter referred to as
the V&A), at the time still the South Kensington
Museum. Equally expected to educate the public,
the Handelsmuseum aspired to put on display
what was considered good taste and models for lo-
cal industries, which is why it was occasionally
perceived as a rival of the mak.10
The periodical publications of this early institu-
tion for business development reflect different
goals: while one dealt with practical trade infor-
mation, the other provided scholarly articles on
cultural topics. Despite its clear-cut focus on prac-
tical economic matters, Das Handelsmuseum also
valued scholarly research into areas of culture and
its art collections as being essential for business
­development. The Österreichische Monatsschrift
für den Orient, edited by Scala, accordingly evolved
into a remarkable scholarly journal that signifi-
cantly contributed to the development of Vienna
as a center of historical research.
The series of exhibitions on Asian material cul-
ture was central to the Handelsmuseum’s agenda
and doubtlessly Schwegel’s and Scala’s brainchild.11
A series of four exhibitions on the Orient show-
cased ceramics and other objects from East Asia,
which at the time were considered an important
10 Griesmayr, Das österr. Handelsmuseum; Wieninger “‘Er
brachte viel Eigenartiges und Notwendiges mit,’” 164–
72; Wieninger, “Das Orientalische Museum,” 113–60.
11 Arthur von Scala, ed., Katalog der orientalisch kera-
mischen Ausstellung im Orientalischen Museum (Vien-
na : Verlag des Orientalischen Museums, 1884),
foreword.
113
s­ ubdivision of trade,12 followed by the 1891 carpet
exhibition, for which the Islamic world played the
major role. Carpets from Iran had become profit-
able export goods by the time, and luxurious piec-
es of interior decoration were much coveted in
Europe—a fashion promoted by the World Exhibi-
tions, most notably the one that had taken place
Vienna in 1873.13 Due to its long-standing trade
contacts, Vienna developed into a center for car-
pet trade. Two other exhibitions were planned but
never realized, leaving us only with the luxurious
catalogs on Islamic glass and metalwork prepared
for them.14 By integrating photographs, these pub-
lications set new standards for research and visual
representation.
By 1883 at the earliest, Scala had already start-
ed collecting carpets for the Handelsmuseum.15
During a trip to the Ottoman Empire in 1888, he
bought a series of carpets in Istanbul and Thes-
saloniki. Among them were one of the most
­renowned ­Ottoman court carpets from the six-
teenth century,16 along with a sixteenth-century
Safavid carpet ­fragment17 and five nineteenth-
century A
­ natolian niche rugs.18 The most famous
12 Arthur von Scala, Katalog der orientalisch keramischen
Ausstellung; Orientalisches Museum, ed., Sammlung
von Abbildungen keramischer Objekte aus dem nahen
und fernen Oriente, mit einleitenden Bemerkungen von
O. du Sartel, L. Gonse, J. Karabacek (Vienna : Verlag des
Orientalischen Museums, 1885).
13 Leonard M. Helfgott, Ties that Bind: A Social History of
the Iranian Carpet (Washington, DC: Smithsonian In-
stitution, 1984) Part three.
14 Arthur von Scala, ed., Sammlung von Abbildungen
türkischer, arabischer, persischer, centralasiatischer und
indischer Metallobjecte (Vienna : Gerold, 1895); Gustav
Schmoranz, Altorientalische Glas-Gefässe (Vienna : Ver-
lag von Artaria, 1898).
15 A carpet was purchased in 1883, see mak inv. nos. Or
301; cf. Völker, Die orientalischen Knüpftteppiche, 15–8,
176.
16 mak inv. no. Or 374.
17 mak inv. no. Or 312.
18 On the niche rugs, see mak inv. nos. Or 358, Or 362, Or
357, Or 345, Or 310; on the carpets purchased during the
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114
carpet of the Handelsmuseum collection, howev-
er, was the Mughal Indian court carpet featuring
bird couples; it had been ­created around 1600
and entered the collection in 1889 (fig. 8.1).19 In
1891, while already preparing the ­ exhibition,
more carpets were bought in Istanbul on behalf
of the Handelsmuseum.20 Well aware of their lim-
itations in scholarship, Scala and Schwegel invit-
ed acknowledged international specialists to
write articles for the catalogs. Alois Riegl, the cu-
rator for textiles at the mak from 1886 to 1897,
contributed to all publications of the carpet exhi-
bition, as were members of the Austrian interna-
tional diplomatic corps and international experts,
such as Wilhelm Bode (1845–1929), Vincent J.
Robinson (1829–1910), Sidney J.A. Churchill
(1862–1921), George Birdwood (1832–1917) and
Caspar Purdon Clarke (1846–1911). At the time,
Riegl, who had been giving talks on the subject
since 1889, was already an established expert on
carpets.21 His book on the subject matter, pub-
lished several weeks before the show, was ground-
breaking, as it, for the first time, analyzed carpets
in the scope of cultural history.22 Apparently, the
mak’s policy had come to fruition: from the very
start, it had been hiring scholars as curators,
some of which being students of the famous In-
stitut für österreichische Geschichtsforschung
­(Institute for Austrian Historical Studies).
1881 trip see mak inv. nos. Or 374, Or 358, Or 362, Or 357,
Or 345, Or 310, Or 312; also cf. Völker, Die orientalischen
Knüpftteppiche, 15–8, 58–61, 144, 136, 148, 150, 152, 234.
19 mak inv. no. Or 292, see: Völker, Die orientalischen
Knüpftteppiche, 316–19.
20 On the carpets purchased in 1891 see mak inv. nos. Or
311, Or 369, Or 347, Or 363, Or 368, Or Or 346, Or 320, Or,
294, see: Völker, Die orientalischen Knüpftteppiche, 15–8,
258, 274, 267, 330, 334, 336, 340.
21 The anouncement was published in Das Vaterland-
Zeitung für die österreichische Monarchie, no. 153, June
5, 1889, 5.
22 Alois Riegl, Altorientalische Teppiche (Leipzig : Weigel,
1891).
Karl
2 The Carpet Exhibition—Organization and
Objectives
The year 1891 does not mark the first time when
carpets from the East were on display or used in
Vienna—many inventories suggest that carpets
from the Mamlūk, Ottoman or Safavid Empires
had furnished representative buildings of Austria’s
upper classes at least from the fifteenth century
on.23 Eighteenth-century portraits prove that even
though the Austrian court had never stopped to
use oriental carpets, they were no longer regarded
high fashion because by then ­European manufac-
tures had already replaced expensive imports with
their own carpets, which they were now able to
produce for different tastes, thereby gradually wid-
ening their consumer base.24 However, during the
second half of the nineteenth century the East was
reactivated as the supplier of carpets, when these
textiles caught the attention of those interested in
the reformation of European design. The World
Exhibitions in Vienna (1873) and Paris (1878) fur-
ther raised the awareness of these traditional
products.25 Artistic objects from the East on dis-
play at these world exhibitions ranked among the
most sought-after goods of European buyers. Their
handcrafted patterns contrasted with the indus-
trial products, many of which were regarded as
ugly by tastemakers of the upper classes. Carpets
from regions dominated by Islamic rulers thus
contributed to an ongoing movement concerned
with reforming design, supported by museums of
art and industry, such as the V&A and the mak.
The Handelsmuseum was not the first ­Viennese
museum to exhibit carpets. In fact, the mak
that had been displaying some of the rarest and
23 Riegl, “Ältere orientalische Teppiche,” 326–31; Lhotsky,
Festschrift des Kunsthistorischen Museums, 2nd vol, 1st
half, 52.
24 Savonnerie carpets were among the most exclusive and
most imitated products, see Pierre Verlet, The Savon-
nerie: its History (London: National Trust, 1982).
25 Carey, Persian Art, 195–99.
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Carpets and Empire 115

Figure 8.1 Pictorial Carpet with Landscape and Pairs of Birds, Mughal Empire, Lahore, c. 1600; Measurements: 233 × 158
cm; warp/weft: Cotton, Knots: wool; Or 292, MAK-Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna
© Georg Mayer, MAK-Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

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116
most famous imperial carpets of Austria since
1864—a Safavid hunting ­carpet and a silk Mamlūk
carpet, both from the sixteenth century (fig. 8.2).26
Their Habsburg provenance stressed their signifi-
cance and augmented their overall appeal.
Increasing groups of buyers demanded more of
these goods than ever before, with the result that
to satisfy a booming European market, more and
more carpets had to be manufactured in the Ori-
ent, especially in Iran and Anatolia.27
The 1891 exhibition was a response to the grow-
ing orientalist fashions in Europe as related to the
historicist revivals during the second half of the
nineteenth century; although it of course did not
initiate the fashion, it definitely supported its pro-
motion. Considering that a large number of car-
pets from the so-called Orient, albeit with differ-
ing quality, had been imported since the 1870s, the
show seemed somewhat overdue. On October 13,
1890, the arts and crafts section of the Handels-
museum officially announced its plans to schedule
a carpet exhibition to open on April 1, 1891 and
close on June 15, 1891.28 These dates, however, were
slightly modified later, with the r­ esult that the or-
ganizers had less than six months for putting to-
gether this ambitious project.
Most carpets for the exhibition were interna-
tional loans. For this purpose, the Handelsmuseum
could draw its business contacts from the network
of the Austrian diplomatic corps, which enabled it
to receive relevant information on carpets from all
over the world. Lenders were asked to submit their
carpets at their own expense and risk between
March 10 and March 20, 1891. However, this was a
deadline that not everyone could meet: for in-
stance, several newspapers confirm that the Shah
of Persia had been forced to sell his carpets on the
26 Völker, Die orientalischen Knüpfteppiche, 18–21.
27 Helfgott, Ties that Bind, Part three; Carey, Persian Art,
190–92.
28 Wiener Zeitung No. 239 (October 16, 1890), 3; Neue Freie
Presse—Morgenblatt No. 9393 (Oktober 17, 1890), 4;
Österr. Monatsschrift für den Orient Nos. 9 and 10
(September–­October, 1890), 160.
Karl
market because they had arrived after the end of
the exhibition.29 Others made it at the very last
minute: Wilhelm von Bode, for example, decided
to send more carpets as late as in March, and it is
probably for this reason that none of these items
appears in the catalogue. The arrangement of ob-
jects on display at the show was thus in a constant
flux. Spaces had to be rearranged constantly to in-
tegrate new arrivals, even including a loom.30 Giv-
en the chaotic conditions, it is unlikely that we will
ever know exactly how many and what carpets
were on display during the 1891 exhibition. It is
quite certain, however, that it was both a dream
and a nightmare for the curators.
Advertisements for the show had been launched
before the exhibition, so that the names of the
most important lenders and stories related to the
famous carpets, especially the imperial Viennese
hunting carpet, would already circulate in the
press. On February 26, the Wiener Zeitung report-
ed the registrations of the V&A/India Museum,
the Shah of Persia and the Japanese embassy.31
The Austrian court enrolled at the beginning of
March, followed by German museums, the mak,
aristocratic lenders and dealers from London and
Vienna. Many of the carpets from more distant
places arrived in Vienna not before March 28.32
The exhibition catalog was published before the
opening, which explains why it does not list all
carpets on display. This did not limit its success,
which was so overwhelming that a second edition
had to be issued, which however still did not in-
clude all artworks either.
The inauguration ceremony took place on Sat-
urday April 4 and executed by Archduke Karl Lud-
wig (1833–96), who was attended by an exclusive
29 For example, Der Floh, xxii, vol. 45 (November 8, 1891);
Montags-Zeitung—Wiener Vorstadt Presse 641, vol.
xviii (December 7, 1891), 4.
30 Die Presse No. 93, vol. 44, (April 5, 1891), 14.
31 E.g., Wiener Zeitung No. 46 (February 26, 1891), 3.
32 E.g., Das Vaterland No. 86, vol. xxxii (March 28, 1891),
5.
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Carpets and Empire 117

Figure 8.2 Vienna Hunting Carpet, Central Iran, probably Kashan, first half of sixteenth
century; Measurements: 687 × 331 cm; warp/weft/knots: silk and silver; T 8336,
MAK-Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna
© Georg Mayer, MAK-Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

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118
group of local grandees, industrialists and interna-
tional experts. Among the international crowd, we
find Sir Robert Murdoch Smith, director of the Ed-
inburgh Museum of Science and Art, also an ar-
chaeologist and connoisseur of Iran, Caspar Pur-
don Clarke, Keeper of the India Museum at South
Kensington and an editor of the Prachtwerk, as
well as lenders from Iran and Japan.33
According to the organizers, a main objective of
the exhibition was to explain how the market
worked and to educate consumers so that the
trade of imported and locally produced carpets
could be improved and enlivened. Another objec-
tive was to establish standards for the quality of
produce and of pricing in order to avoid fraud. For
this purpose, a nomenclature was introduced that
should instruct consumers on how to distinguish
good products from bad imitations.34 The small
descriptive exhibition catalog mirrors these goals,
as it can be read like a manual for future buyers.35
Unsurprisingly, the largest part of the exhibition
was dedicated to contemporary carpets from as
many places between Vienna and Japan as possi-
ble. Many exhibitors in this section were deal-
ers themselves eager to sell their carpets dur-
ing the show, thereby combining education and
commerce.
Another intent had been to support the Austri-
an industry—Hungary had refused to participate
and was therefore not covered—especially by pro-
viding templates for designers to improve their ex-
port goods. This echoed the overall objective of
the exhibition series, namely, to create goods that
could be exported to the East. In his foreword to
the Katalog der orientalisch-keramischen Ausstel-
lung im Orientalischen Museum 1884, Scala stated
33 E.g., Das Vaterland No. 76, xxxii (March 18, 1891), 4; Die
Presse No. 93, vol. 44, (April 5, 1891), 14.
34 Österreichische Monatsschrift für den Orient (1), Jan
1891, 20; B. J., “Orientalische Teppiche,” Das Handels-
museum 6, no. 14 (April 2, 1891): 177–78.
35 Handelsmuseum, Katalog der Ausstellung orientalisch-
er Teppiche.
Karl
that the East was a “most natural sales market” for
the Habsburg monarchy.36 Similar to other indus-
trialized powers, foremost England, Austria-Hun-
gary sought after new export markets, albeit quite
belatedly. That is why Scala had been observing
the cultural and economic developments in the
British Empire. The Habsburg Empire had occu-
pied Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878, once an impor-
tant economic region of the Ottoman Empire and
an equally important producer of carpets, some of
which had been on display during the 1891 exhibi-
tion. The mak and its attached school of arts and
industry made considerable efforts to further de-
velop the Bosnian carpet-production and adapt it
to the market of the Empire. The e­ xhibition, espe-
cially the large catalog, could for instance intro-
duce some new carpet patterns for this purpose.37
Finally, there were research efforts largely relat-
ed to the antique carpets on display. Generally
speaking, the research on the carpets was expect-
ed to supplement all aforementioned goals, and
included lectures to the public.38 The collection
and research on international specimens of vari-
ous types were regarded an essential activity of the
Kunstgewerbereform (arts and crafts reform), with
the mak and its attached school being its center
within the Habsburg Empire.39
Whereas dealers mostly supplied the contem-
porary carpets displayed at the exhibition, antique
carpets were usually loaned from museums, mem-
bers of the aristocracy and bourgeoisie, or even
the emperor himself, whose engagement motivat-
ed others to lend objects as well.40 Not only did
the lenders’ nobility augment the splendor of
36 Scala, Katalog der orientalisch keramischen Ausstellung;
Orientalisches Museum, Sammlung von Abbildungen
keramischer Objekte.
37 Vasold, Alois Riegl; Riegl, Volkskunst Hausfleiss und
Hausindustrie.
38 There certainly was much more research activity going
on; however, this will be the subject of another study.
39 Rampley, “Design Reform in the Habsburg Empire,”
247–64.
40 E.g., Die Presse No. 70, vol. 44, (March 12, 1891), 10.
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Carpets and Empire
the event but also of the carpets and further-
more offered a role model for future buyers and
collectors.
Many of the famous pieces today kept at the
mak were originally on display in the section on
antique carpets, along with specimens from muse-
ums for the applied arts in Reichenberg/Liberec,
Berlin, Leipzig and Budapest, from the collections
of the Saxon court, of the aristocratic families
Schwarzenberg, Liechtenstein, Rothschild and
others. In contrast, the V&A only sent some con-
temporary Indian carpets. All these specimens
were displayed in the largest room and represent-
ed the core of the show. They were not only exhib-
ited and published but also used for marketing
purposes to bestow the exhibition with an aura of
exclusivity, thereby contributing to the creation of
legends revolving around these masterworks,
many of which became canonized in the after-
math of the show. Researchers from all over Eu-
rope were particularly interested in this part of the
exhibition, as it gave them the opportunity to dis-
cuss related matters with their colleagues in per-
son. The many publications that followed attest to
this interest, which is especially true for the
Prachtwerk, the large and luxurious exhibition cat-
alog, as well as the articles by Alois Riegl, Julius
Lessing (1843–1908), who had published a book on
carpets in 1877 for providing designers with tem-
plates, and Wilhelm von Bode, another pioneer in
the area of carpet history.41 The exhibition in-
creased the reputation of the Viennese collec-
tions—so much so that even today most studies
on carpets include at least one example from the
mak collection. Moreover, the fame of this collec-
tion helped promote Vienna as an important cen-
ter of carpet trade.
41 Early articles on carpets inspired by the 1891 exhibition
are found in Bode “Altorientalische Thierteppiche,”
61–72 (this article was published in the Prachtwerk)
and Bode “Altorientalische Thierteppiche,” 26–49,
108–37.
119
3 The Visitors
Apart from the archduke, the press commented on
many other aristocratic visitors. The first person to
mention is of course Emperor Franz Joseph i
(1830–1916), who arrived on April 18, welcomed by
a large committee; he stayed at the event for 30 to
45 minutes and was very pleased.42 A truly dedi-
cated visitor was Crown Princess Stephanie (1864–
1945); recently widowed, she visited the exhibition
on May 26 and stayed for two hours.43 Several oth-
er members of the imperial family turned up to
see the exhibition, but also other members of
the high aristocracy stopped at Vienna. The press
mentioned most of them, with their prominence
certainly adding to the popularity of the show.
Aside from the high aristocracy, scholars from Vi-
enna, such as Alois Riegl and Josef Karabacek
(1845–1918), attended the exhibition, as did schol-
ars from abroad, such as Wilhelm Bode and Julius
Lessing. We can be certain that there were many
others, although they are not mentioned in the
sources.44
Scholarships were awarded to a considerable
number of designers and artisans from different
regions of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire to en-
courage them to attend. Apparently, even English
designers visited the show.45 Moreover, members
of the association (Verein) affiliated with the
Handelsmuseum concluded their reunion with a
visit to the exposition.46 It is not known how many
people visited the exhibition altogether, but what
can be gathered from newspaper articles so far is
that it was a great success, which is also attested by
the publication of the Prachtwerk.
42 Die Presse No. 107, vol. 44 (April 19, 1891), supplement of
the Local Anzeiger der Presse, 1; Das Vaterland No. 107,
vol. 32 (1891), 4.
43 Die Presse No. 143, vol. 44, 3.
44 For example, Die Presse 98, vol. 44 (April 10, 1891), 10.
45 Wiener Zeitung 128, (June 7, 1891), 5.
46 Wiener Zeitung 109, (May 14, 1891), 8.
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120
4 The Exhibition Space
Given how successful the exhibition was, it raises
questions about the exact appearance of its visu-
als. The small catalog only informs us about how
the space was arranged at the Vienna stock ex-
change (Wiener Börse) on Ringstrasse, the building
that housed the museum and exhibition, but noth-
ing else. A foldable floor plan had been added to
its last page to guide visitors through the different
rooms (fig. 8.3), along with descriptions of the car-
pets, many of which written by Riegl. Some of the
offices of the stock exchange had to be cleared in
advance to make space for the carpets. The catalog
clearly shows that most rooms had been dedicated
to contemporary carpets. Most of them were of
Persian and Central Asian origin, which is little
surprising, given that the intellectual climate at
the time gave precedence to things regarded as
Aryan, reflecting the racial prejudices of the time.47
The carpets were not organized according to their
lenders, as had been the case for the ceramics
show some years before, but in correspondence
with geographic regions, which provided visitors
with a better overview over the whole exposition.
Numbers had been attached to the individual
specimens that matched the numbers in the cata-
log; this way visitors could easily identify the re-
spective descriptions, the names of the owners
and often even of the dealers. This labeling meth-
od was one of the few points of criticism, ­because
visitors found it too complicated—a common
complaint even today.48 Prices were added to the
contemporary carpets only for the second edition
of the catalog, thus confirming that these items
had actually been for sale. Moreover, a complete
interior in Neo-Islamic style was added, as were
the much-admired photographs of some of the
carpets that would later be used for the Prachtwerk.
47 See, for example, Vernoit, “Islamic Art and Architec-
ture,” 6.
48 Die Presse No. 93, vol. 44, (April 5, 1891), 14.
Karl
The floor plan also indicates that antique car-
pets were on display in the largest and most splen-
did room. Due to the lack of adequate image
sources, the visual appearance of its decoration is
unknown. The press reports are not very detailed
either. In his memoirs, Wilhelm Bode writes:
“The exhibition was rather mixed and tasteless in
its display. Modern items of little value hung
next to wonderful old pieces like in an ordinary
Turkish bazaar. However, the high number of
valuable carpets and the catalogue published
soon after the show encouraged the study of Is-
lamite art.”49
The ethnologist Michael Haberlandt (1860–1940),
notorious for his anti-Semitism, equally confirms
the confusing quantity of carpets.50 Apart from
the geographic distribution of different carpet
groups, however, there was some sort of scenogra-
phy, for which the historicist painter Hugo Char-
lemont (1850–1939) had been hired. Charlemont’s
paintings in the Viennese Makart style provide a
glimpse of his aesthetics.51 He reportedly present-
ed the carpets like a “Bilderschau” (artworks on a
wall), thereby establishing a precedent for later
expositions at other museums—such as Bode’s
presentations in Berlin.52 In this regard, he had
probably been inspired by how distinguished pri-
vate collectors had been presenting their valuable
antique carpets, which they often hung from the
walls of their apartments.53 However, this section
of the exhibition included more than 120 carpets.
As some of them were of a considerable size, it is
difficult to imagine how they could have all
49 Bode, Mein Leben, vol. 2, 93.
50 Haberlandt “Orientalische Teppiche ii,” 1.
51 Handelsmuseum, Katalog der Ausstellung orientalisch-
er Teppiche, 9.
52 Neue Freie Presse No. 9552 (March 31, 1891), 2; see also
Teece 2017.
53 Carey, Persian Art, 199–202.
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Carpets and Empire
­ ossibly fit onto the walls. Furthermore, there
p surprising:55 Dealers who economically profited
seemingly were piles of carpets in the room as
well, through which visitors could sift. According-
ly, the exhibition was called a “Schmaus für Auge
und Fingerspitzen”—a treat for the eyes and
fingertips—­suggesting that at least some of the
objects could be touched.54 Journalists also voiced
the ­notion of carpets as romanticized artworks
who referred to the patterns as the “souls” of the
carpets. The ethnologist Michael Haberlandt also
promoted this attitude, which, however, is hardly
54 Neue Freie Presse No. 9561 (April 9, 1891), 1.
121
Figure 8.3
Floor Plan of the 1891 Vienna Carpet
Exhibition, supplement to the small
exhibition catalog: Handelsmuseum, ed.
Katalog der Ausstellung orientalischer
Teppiche. Vienna: Verlag des k. k. öster-
reichischen Handelsmuseums, 1891
from the artistic aura of individual pieces—­
especially of ancient carpets, which had become
expensive collectibles—tended to promote the
idea.56 Taken all the hints together one gets a no-
tion of what the space might have looked like,
however it is not possible to reconstruct it as a
whole at least not at this stage, the accounts given
so far are little more than clues.
55 Haberlandt, “Orientalische Teppiche i,” 2.
56 Similar attitudes are described in Carey, Persian Art,
199–202, 204.
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122
5 Conclusion
This article argued that the carpet exhibition at
the Handelsmuseum was an integral part of a wid-
er imperial program intended to promote the
trade and industry of the Habsburg Empire. It
communicated newly set standards for the quality
and pricing of carpets, aesthetic standards for the
tastes of consumers and designers, as well as stan-
dards for future exhibitions; it did so on various
levels and in quite a paternalistic manner charac-
teristic for the time. The exhibition achieved its
objectives by stimulating buyers, dealers and de-
signers, as well as researchers. Scholarly debate
revolving around the exhibition was regarded an
integral part of the economic advancement of the
Empire and fostered serious research not only on
carpets, but also on the emerging disciplines of
European and Islamic art history.57 The signifi-
cance of the exhibition in this context can thus
hardly be overestimated.
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 Chapter 9
Henri Moser as Commissioner General of the Pavilion of Bosnia and
Herzegovina at the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris
Ágnes Sebestyén
Leaning on the so far unpublished dissertation
Displaying a “Peaceful” Colonization within Europe:
The Austro-Hungarian Representation of Bosnia
and Herzegovina at World Fairs and International
Expositions, submitted to the University of Bern in
2017, this article will shed light on the involvement
of the Swiss Henri Moser (1844–1923) in the
­implementation of the cultural policies of the
Austro-Hungarian government of Bosnia and Her-
zegovina during the regime of Benjamin von Kál-
lay (1839–1903). Von Kállay was the Joint Minister
of Finance of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
and in charge of the occupied territory between
1882 and 1903. The present article will focus on the
­accomplishments and circumstances that led to
Moser’s appointment as secretary of the Paris
­office of the Austrian Handelsmuseum (Trade Mu-
seum), his consequent contribution to the imple-
mentation of the cultural policies and to the
perpetuation of the ongoing self-representation of
the new administration.
1 The Communication Strategies of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy
Recognizing international exhibitions as effective
means for conveying ideas to large audiences, the
Austro-Hungarian administration presented Bos-
nia and Herzegovina at a series of regional, nation-
al and international exhibitions throughout Eu-
rope1 as a newly discovered Oriental colony. The
administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina hoped
1 1891: Vienna; 1891: Zagreb and Timisoara; 1896: Millennium
Exhibition in Budapest; 1897: World Exhibition, Brussels;
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_012
to reach investors, traders and travelers alike to
boost the industry, commerce and tourism of the
underdeveloped provinces by commercializing
their products and sights as Oriental at a time
when exotic travels and products were en vogue.
Besides such obvious economic reasons, these
­exhibitions served as important instruments for
the self-representation of the Austro-Hungarian
­Monarchy as a benevolent guardian that pursued a
civilizing mission by underlining the necessity of
undertaken efforts and the significance of the
achieved results.
By the time Moser was appointed Commission-
er General of the pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegov-
ina at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris
(fig. 9.1), a complex set of communication tools,
including the pavilion architecture and interior
design, along with the exhibited artifacts and ac-
companying publications, was elaborated and
tested on various national and international audi-
ences. Responsible for this process was the com-
missioner Konstantin Hörmann (1850–1921),2 in
1898: Jubilee Exposition, Vienna; 1900: Universal Exposi-
tion, Paris.
2 Konstantin (Kosta) Hörmann (1850–1921) held various po-
sitions in the Austro-Hungarian administration: he was
Regierungskommissar of Sarajevo (from 1884), Regier-
ungsrat (from 1885), member of the Landesregierung
(from 1886), eventually the first director of the Bosnisch-
herzegowinisches Landesmuseum in Sarajevo until 1904,
and its director (Museumsintendant) until his death. He
was the founder and editor of the Museum’s Herald and of
Nada magazine (until 1905). He also conducted research in
the fields of ethnography and folklore and especially inter-
ested in Bosnian epic songs (Oliver Bagarić, “Museum und
Please check the unpaired parenthesis in this sentence “Oliver Bagarić….”
„ 
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Henri Moser and the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris
Figure 9.1 Paris, The Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Exposition Universelle, 1900. Watercolor by
Alfons Mucha, featured in Le Figaro Illustré (March 1, 1900)
© Mucha Trust 2015
cooperation with Ćiro Truhelka (1865–1942),3
who were both supervised by Kállay himself. The
nationale Identitäten. Eine Geschichte des Landesmuse-
ums Sarajevo,” Südost-Forschungen 67 (2008): 144–67;
Maximilian Hartmuth, “The Habsburg Landesmuseum in
Sarajevo in its Ideological and Architectural Contexts: a
Reinterpretation,” Centropa 12, no. 2 (2012): 194–205.; Aida
Lipa, “Cultural Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Word and Image: The Cre-
ation of the Western Type of Art,” MA thesis, Central Euro-
pean University, Budapest, 2004.
3 Ćiro Truhelka (1865–1942) was an archeologist, the first
custodian of the Bosnisch-herzegowinisches Landesmuse-
um in Sarajevo and its director as of 1904. His excavations
and publications were widely recognized, and his investi-
gations into the past of Bosnia and Herzegovina also
­contributed to the consolidation of the idea of its separate
national identity. His key publication, Les Restes Ilyriens en
125
e­xhibition sections on Bosnia and Herzegovina
were adapted to the context of other exhibitions,
with their iconography evolving over time. For
example, the 1896 Millennium Exhibition in
­
­Budapest focused on the legitimacy of the state,4
Bosnie, Paris, 1900, was a supplement to the official catalog
of the section of B&H at the Exposition Universelle in Paris
(cf. Bagarić, “Museum und nationale Identitäten”; Hart-
muth, “The Habsburg Landesmuseum in Sarajevo”; Lipa,
“Cultural Politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina”).
4 Samuel D. Albert, “The Nation for Itself. The 1896 Hungar-
ian Millennium and the 1906 Romanian National General
Exhibition,” in Cultures of International Exhibitions 1840–
1940, ed. Marta Filipová (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), 113–36;
Katalin Sinkó, “A millenniumi kiállítás mint Gesamtkunst-
werk,” in A historizmus művészete Magyarországon, ed.
Anna Zádo (Budapest: mta, 1993), 132–47; Miklós Székely,
“The Resetting of the Main Historical Group from the
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126
whereas the 1897 Kaiser Jubilee Exhibition in
­Vienna was part of an ongoing and expanding mo-
narchical self-representation, whose purpose it
was to present Emperor Franz Joseph i (1830–1916)
as the binding force of the multiethnic state dur-
ing a time of various national and social conflicts.5
Whereas the exhibitions in Budapest and in Vien-
na counted approximately two and three million
visitors with origins in both nations, the 1900 Expo-
sition Universelle in Paris attracted fifty million or
more international visitors.
The exhibition sections on Bosnia and Herze-
govina were embodiments of the economic, cul-
tural and identity politics of the Kállay regime. By
the means of a carefully designed representational
system, they clearly articulated the complex pow-
er relations between the Austro-Hungarian Mon-
archy and Bosnia and Herzegovina in terms of
­relations of dependency.6 By using a reduced, eas-
ily understandable and—thanks to its picturesque
details—quite appealing imagery, the Bosnian
and Herzegovinian sections presented the occu-
pied provinces as the Double Monarchy’s c­ ultural
“Other,” and highlighted the moral impera-
tive of the civilizing mission undertaken by its
administration.7
In Budapest (1896) and Vienna (1897), the sec-
tions on Bosnia and Herzegovina (figs. 9.2 and 9.3)
addressed a primarily national audience already
sensitized and accustomed to the presence of
­ illennium Exhibition to the Paris Universal Exhibition of
M 1896); Kornél Szokolay, “Bosnyák diákok Budapesten,”
1900,” in Ephemeral Architecture in Central Eastern Europe
in the 19th and 20th centuries¸ ed. Miklós Székely (Buda-
pest: L’Harmattan, 2015), 33–50.
5 Daniel L. Unowsky, The Pomp and Politics of Patriotism
(West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2005).
6 Terminology based on Tony Bennet’s reading of Discipline
and Punish (Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish. The
Birth of the Prison (London: Allen Lane, Penguin, 1977)),
see Tony Bennett, The Birth of the Museum. History, Theory,
Politics (New York: Routledge, 1995).
7 This terminology derived from Timothy Mitchell, “The
World as Exhibition,” Comparative Studies in Society and
History 31, no. 2 (1989): 218–19.
Sebestyén
the  Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Bosnia and
­Herzegovina—a process intensified and promot-
ed by publications, press articles, lectures and ex-
hibitions. For these exhibitions, the organizers
could utilize space and resources more freely, al-
lowing for experiments and innovations. Thus, in
Budapest, a complex of five exhibition pavilions—
a ­so-called “Bosnian village”8—could be realized,
whereas in Vienna three pavilions9 were installed.
Their purpose was to secure that the invested re-
sources would pay off, to strengthen the public
trust in the government and promote the identifi-
cation with the national ideas of Austria-Hungary.
In many respects, the Parisian Bosnian pavilion
from 1900 (fig. 9.4) can be regarded as a more re-
fined and monumental version of the Bosnian
house displayed at the Millennium Exhibition in
Budapest (fig. 9.5).
Both possessed two stories, a wooden structure
with thatched and plastered walls, with balconies
and verandas interrupting the plain facades, in-
cluding small windows covered with latticework
and wooden panels. The pavilion architecture,
­interior design and chosen exhibition sections
­represented a more concise, mature and refined
version of the previously constructed imagery and
perfectly adapted to the given context. Altogether,
it was a true celebration of imperialism and the
unquestioned belief in progress.10 Lacking oversea
8 Bosnyákország és Herczegovina az 1896. évi Ezredéves
Országos Kiállításon (Budapest: Pesti Könyvnyomda Rt,
Vasárnapi Újság 43, no. 34 (1896): 563–64; Zoltán Bálint,
Az ezredéves kiállítás architektúrája, 1896 (Vienna:
Schroll, 1897).
9 Unowsky, The Pomp and Politics of Patriotism.
10 The first public displays of Islamic items in Europe
were an integral part of world exhibitions. Their signifi-
cance cannot be overestimated, since they attracted a
great number of visitors and promoted a new aware-
ness of the commercial and aesthetic qualities of non-
European artifacts. Claiming scientific authority, they
defined the Western perception of Oriental or “exotic”
architecture (cf. Mitchell, “The World as Exhibition,”
218–19).
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Henri Moser and the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris
Figure 9.2 Budapest, The industrial pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Millennium Exhibition, 1896. Fortepan and Budapest
City Archives, HU.BFL.xv.19.d.1.09.049
colonies, the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy seized
the opportunity to present itself as a colonial pow-
er, to acquire international prestige. Underlining
the exotic character of the showcased country,
several of the elements tested in Budapest
­ 2 Henri Moser in the Service of the Austro-
were ­reused in Paris, but in a more mature form.
There, the interior decoration had Orientalizing
accents: just as before, it consisted of a historic
­reconstruction of a Bosnian haremluk,11 following
Ćiro Truhelka’s designs, who directly supervised
their execution.12 Aspiring to exceed the success of
the Millennial exhibition, the pavilion of Bosnia
and Herzegovina also served as a “human show-
case,” where female workers affiliated with the
government studios weaved carpets, while other
11 The presentation of the harem, that is, the secluded
women’s quarter, was a frequent strategy for staging
the stereotype of a feminized Orient.
12 Neues Wiener Tagblatt, April 15, 1900, 454.
127
artisans crafted and sold products in recreated
dućani, traditional shops, in front of visitors.
Hungarian Monarchy
The celebration of imperialism was an omnipres-
ent undertone in all of Henri Moser’s contribu-
tions to the implementation and dissemination of
the Kállay regime’s cultural policies; but this was
not the only reason that qualified him for this
­appointment. Due to rising export demands, the
K. u. K. Österreichisches Handelsmuseum opened a
representation in Paris and left Moser in charge
of it as early as of 1893.13 Moser’s commercial ex-
perience as the head of his father’s Russian depen-
dencies, the overall success of his travel accounts,
the acknowledgement of his collection, the
13 Revue de commerce et de l’industrie, 1894, 118.
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128 Sebestyén

Figure 9.3 Vienna, Façade of the pavilion of the government of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 1898 Kaiser Jubilee Exhibition.
Stereo photograph by Karl Möhls, 1898. Austrian National Library, Picture Archives and Graphics Department,
135657-STE

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Henri Moser and the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris
Figure 9.4 Paris, Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 1900 Paris World Fair, photograph, 1900. Brown University
Archives, 3A87095
e­ xhibitions he organized, and his interest in boost-
ing commerce all qualified him for this position.
His family ties to the Austro-Hungarian aristocra-
cy were certainly helpful as well. His brother-in-
law and husband of his sister Sophie (1839–1921),
Benedek Mikes of Zabola in Transylvania (­1819–
78), introduced him to the higher society of
­Austria-Hungary, and thus to some of the leading
figures of its administration.14 Moser was an
­imperialist, and his connoisseurship of Central-
Asian art must have been especially attractive for
Kállay. Coinciding with attempts of the govern-
ment of Bosnia and Herzegovina to construct an
“Oriental” representation of the country leaning
on Central Asian traditions rather than on those of
14 Roger N. Balsiger and Ernst Johannes Kläy, Bei Schah,
Emir und Khan. Henri Moser Charlottenfels 1844–1923
(Schaffhausen : Meier, 1992).
129
the Ottoman Empire,15 Moser’s collection of arte-
facts from that region16 must have seemed particu-
larly valuable.
Working for the Austro-Hungarian administra-
tion of Bosnia and Herzegovina until Kállay’s
death in 1903, Henri Moser wrote travel guides and
15 Iván Szántó, “Persian Art for the Balkans in Austro-
Hungarian Cultural Policies,” in The Shaping of Persian
Art, ed. Yuka Kadoi and Iván Szántó (Newcastle upon
Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishers, 2013), 130–54.
16 Moser built his collection counting several hundred
pieces of artifacts (among others, oriental carpets, rugs
and garments, jewelry, illustrated manuscripts, paint-
ings, bronzes, gilded and enameled arms and armor,
silver trays, coins, ivory objects, painted and varnished
wooden objects), in the course of his four expeditions
to Central Asia (1868/69, 1870, 1883/84, 1888/89) and at
auctions in London and Paris.
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130
Figure 9.5 Budapest, The Bosnian house and coffee house, Millennium Exhibition, 1896. Fortepan and Budapest City Archive,
HU.BFL.xv.19.d.1.09.063
newspaper articles on its provinces.17 He gave pre-
sentations at various conferences, organized visits
and hunting expeditions for journalists and inves-
tors.18 In the introduction of a travel guide entitled
17 Henri Moser, L’Orient inédit : à travers la Bosnie et
l’Herzégovine (Paris : Compagnie internationale des
wagons-lits et des grand express européens), 1895; Hen-
ri Moser, An Oriental Holiday: Bosnia and Herzegovina.
A Handbook for the Tourist (London: Eustace Curzon,
1895); Henri Moser, “L’exposition du millénaire,” Jour-
nal de Genève, June 19, 1896, 2; Henri Moser, “L’exposition
du millénaire,” Journal de Genève, June 23, 1896, 2.
18 Henri Moser, La Bosnie-Herzégovine au seuil du xxe siè-
cle (London: Eustace Curzon, 1895) and Henri Moser,
Bosnie-Herzégovine : une ɶuvre de colonisation pacifique
dans les Balkans (Paris: V. Goupy and G. Maurin), 1896.
Sebestyén
An Oriental Holiday: Bosnia and Herzegovina,19
Moser justified the necessity of Austria-Hungary’s
civilizing mission, basing his arguments on the di-
chotomy between East and West, which he identi-
fied with advancement and decay, enlightenment
and backwardness, all of which were essential
­narrative elements of the Kállay regime’s self-
representation:
“On the banks of the Save meet two great currents
of civilization: the one setting in from the West,
the other flowing from the East. […] We find in
Bosnia and Herzegovina […] an example of what
an indefatigable and enlightened Administration,
19 Henri Moser, An Oriental Holiday.
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Henri Moser and the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris
keeping its aim always in view, can do with a back-
ward country whose inhabitants have been
plunged in apathy induced by centuries of oppres-
sion. […] The merit of this great work is undoubt-
edly due to Mr. Benjamin de Kállay, the Prime
­Minister. […] Under his direction and encourage-
ment, the advance of Western civilization […]
must soon impregnate that virginal country with
the international spirit. […] During the past six-
teen years the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina
have been leaving their fourteenth century to en-
ter ours.”20
More importantly, Moser had participated in the
Budapest Millennium Exhibition21 as a correspon-
dent for the Journal de Genève before his appoint-
ment as the Commissioner General for the p ­ avilion
of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Expositions Uni-
verselles in Brussels (1897)22 and Paris (1900). His
reports deserve a closer look, as they betray his as-
sessment of the role of the Austro-Hungarian gov-
ernment in Bosnia and Herzegovina; the accounts
clearly demonstrate that he knew the exhibition
section of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Budapest
(1896) very well, the concept of which was later
adapted to the Parisian context. His review of the
Millenium Exhibition reproduced the official nar-
rative, and a considerable percentage of his report
is dedicated to the pavilions of Bosnia and Herze-
govina; enthusiastically, he writes:
“The ‘clou,’ to tell the truth, was the pavilion of
Bosnia and Herzegovina with its annexes; it was a
revelation and, curiously enough, in the two parts
of the Monarchy one talks about annexing this re-
gion. In fact, this exhibition is not trivial; it has a
very special effect, because we see the antediluvi-
an Bosnia besides that of our days, that of the old
20 Henri Moser, An Oriental Holiday, 1–2.
21 Henri Moser, L´Orient inédit and Henri Moser, An Ori-
ental Holiday.
22 Moser’s Brussels pavilion was awarded several prizes,
including honorary diplomas and the cross of the Aus-
trian Imperial Leopold Order.
131
administration and the progress obtained by the
Austrian administration […]. And all this transfor-
mation goes on.”23
Apparently, Moser here values the didactic juxta-
position of products apostrophized as “primitive”
with modern ones attributed to the new adminis-
tration, and he furthermore lists the flagship proj-
ects of the Kállay administration in the areas of
mining, forestry and viticulture.24 The section of
the exhibition dedicated to arts and crafts (Kunst-
gewerbe) receives praise as well:25 “The domestic
industry (Hausindustrie) occupies one wing of the
pavilion, neighboring the educational exhibition,
which was a revelation […]. The woven and
stitched Bosnian textiles call for a great future;
they will have great success in Europe and become
a new source of richness for the country.”26 Fur-
thermore, in his review Moser attributes to Kállay
the responsibility of organizing the exhibition
and praises Commissioner General Hörmann for
23 “Le ‘clou,’ au dire de tous, a été le pavillon de Bosnie-
Herzégovine avec ses annexes ; ça a été une révélation
et, chose curieuse, dans les deux fractions de la monar-
chie on parle aujourd’hui de l’annexion de cette région.
De fait, cette exposition n’est pas banale ; elle porte un
cachet très spécial, car on y voit la Bosnie antédiluvi-
enne à côté de celle de nos jours, celle de l’ancien
­régime et les progrès obtenus par l’administration au-
trichienne. […] Et tout cette transformation se pour-
suit.” Henri Moser, “L´exposition du millénaire,” June
23, 1896, 2.
24 Henri Moser, “L´exposition du millénaire,” June 23,
1896, 2.
25 The reforms introduced in the fields of household in-
dustries (Hausindustrie) and arts and crafts (Kunst-
gewerbe) were cornerstones of the cultural policies of
the Kállay administration.
26 “L’industrie domestique […] [a] été une révélation […].
Le tapis tissé et le tapis noué en Bosnie est appelé à un
grand avenir; il aura grand succès en Europe et devien-
dra une nouvelle source de richesses pour le pays.”
Henri Moser, “L´exposition du millénaire,” June 23,
1896, 2.
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132
c­ommanding the two hundred operating Bos-
nians at the exhibition.27
3 Henri Moser as Commissioner General of
the Exhibition Section of Bosnia and
Herzegovina at the Exposition Universelle
in Paris
As was mentioned previously, a main reason for
why Kállay appointed Henri Moser the Commis-
sioner General of the exhibition section of Bosnia
and Herzegovina at the 1900 Exposition Universelle
in Paris was his unquestioned recognition of the
cultural policies of the Austro-Hungarian Monar-
chy, along with his connoisseurship of Central
Asian arts and crafts. The account further below
demonstrates that contemporary reviewers in-
deed perceived Moser as an expert of Central Asian
arts and crafts, a region to which the ­attention of
the administration turned for inspiration related
to Islamic traditions that would be help to renew
Bosnian arts and crafts while at the same time
­distancing them from Ottoman traditions. Mos-
er’s expertise increased the credibility of these
attempts:
“Henri Moser had made himself known through
his numerous expeditions in Central Asia, where
he studied closely the decorative arts of the ex-
treme Orient. However, traditions still in force in
Bosnia and Herzegovina lean on Oriental arts, and
this is where the present administration looked for
inspiration for the newly opened art schools.”28
27 Henri Moser, “L´exposition du millénaire,” June 23,
1896, 2.
28 “M. Henri Moser s’est fait connaître par de nombreuses
explorations dans l’Asie centrale, où il a étudié de près
les arts décoratifs de l’Extrême Orient. Or, les traditions
encore en vigueur en Bosnie-Herzégovine se rattachent
aux arts orientaux, et c’est dans cette direction que les
écoles d’art de la Bosnie, nouvellement ouvertes, ont
cherché leurs inspirations.” Moynet, Georges. “Au Quai
d’Orsay: La Pavillon de la Bosnie-Herzegovine,” Ency-
clopédie du siècle 66 (1900): n.p.
Sebestyén
Nevertheless, the sources attest that Kállay, Hör-
mann and Truhelka continued to play a decisive
role in the development and implementation of
the Bosnia and Herzegovina section at the Paris
World Exhibition: “Minister Kállay conceived the
plan, brought it to maturity and gave it to his
­colleagues to be executed. Just as in Budapest and
Vienna, Eduard Ritter von Horowitz, the section
head, and Court Counselor Kosta Hörmann con-
tributed their proven experience to the work.”29
Among other things, the pavilion architecture30
resembled the Bosnian house designed for the
Millennium Exhibition. The dominating themes,
the display strategies and techniques were similar
to those of the Vienna and Budapest exhibitions.
The sections were theme-oriented and exposed
the growth and wealth induced by the Austro-
Hungarian administration in as many details as
possible.31 The exhibition halls were filled with
several showcases and life-sized figures (fig. 9.6);
29 Neues Wiener Tagblatt 1900, 15: “[…] Minister Kállay […]
[hat] den Plan ausgedacht, zur Reife gebracht und
seinen Mitarbeitern zur Durchführung übergeben […].
Sectionsschef Eduard Ritter von Horowitz und Hofrath
C. Hörmann haben, wie in Budapest und Wien, ihre
bewährte Erfahrung dem Werke beigesteuert” (transla-
tion by author).
30 See also Ágnes Sebestyén, “Displaying a “Peaceful” Col-
onization within Europe: The Pavilion of Bosnia and
Herzegovina at the Exposition Universelle in Paris,” in
Ephemeral Architecture in Central Eastern Europe in the
19th and 20th centuries, ed. Miklós Székely, 123–42 (Bu-
dapest : L’Harmattan, 2015).
31 The exhibits were organized in seventeen groups: (1)
Education, (2) Fine arts and architecture, (3) Litera-
ture, (4) Science, (5) Liberal arts, (6) Public services
and transport, (7) Agriculture, (8) Horticulture, (9) For-
ests, hunting, fishing, (10) Alimentary products, (11)
Mining, metallurgy, (12) Interior decoration and furni-
ture of public and private buildings, (13) Textile indus-
try, (14) Chemical industry, (15) Diverse industries, (16)
Public services, (17) Colonization. The seventeen
groups were divided in altogether 113 classes. Each sec-
tion was represented by the means that seemed most
suitable in each case, see La Bosnie-Herzégovine a
l’Exposition de Paris 1900, 117–35.
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Henri Moser and the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris 133

Figure 9.6 Paris, The interior of the pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Exposition Universelle, 1900, colored
lanternslide, 3.25 × 4 in. Brooklyn Museum Archives, Goodyear Archival Collection, no. 13. ii.36

traditional and modern interiors had been recon-
structed, including a haremluk and a Bosnian
čaršija. Descriptions and photos prove that many
objects and set pieces were identical to those on
display in Budapest and Vienna.
Although the exhibition and the interior deco-
ration both clearly conveyed the overall narrative
of growth and wealth, further means of communi-
cation were employed to maintain the desired
­interpretation of history. The official catalog pro-
vided further details, such as a considerable
amount of statistics and case studies focusing
on subjects of primary interest for the Austro-­
Hungarian administration. There also were many
other attractions for visitors:32 they could, for ex-
ample, watch the work of the artisans while
traditional bands were playing; included were
­
dance performances, guided tours and product
tastings, and even a Bosnian restaurant. This—the
dissemination of the complex imagery manifested
through architecture, decoration and artifacts
32 For more details, see Sebestyén, “Displaying a ‘Peace-
ful’ Colonization within Europe.”

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134
showcased at the Bosnia and Herzegovina exhibi-
tion section—belonged to Moser’s main responsi-
bilities as detailed by the following newspaper
reports:
“The commissioner-general of Bosnia and Herze-
govina, Mr. Henri Moser, who is one of the most
competent organizers and most skillful curators,
apparently arranged the delights of his spectacles
for the amusement of our eyes and the refresh-
ment of our minds.33 / Mr. Henri Moser, the
­Bosnian-Herzegovinian exhibition commissioner,
[who], among other things, contributed to the
­organization in a most fruitful way by providing
life, motion, atmosphere and originality to the Pa-
risians, understanding well how to meet their
taste.”34
Moser’s efforts seemingly achieved the desired re-
sults; in fact, the press often copied his testimoni-
als and statements. The cited article from the
Neues Wiener Tagblatt from 1900 actually consists
of little more than a long quote by Moser, who
had contributed intensively to the impact of the
architectural statement conveyed by the pavilion,
its interior design, the exhibited artifacts and doc-
umentation, as well as the accompanying pub­
lications. Consequentially, many contemporary
reviews interpreted the exhibition section of
33 “Le commissaire général de la Bosnie-Herzégovine, M.
Henri Moser, qui est le plus compétent des organisateurs
et le plus habile des metteurs en scène, semble avoir
combiné à ravir ses spectacles, pour l’amusement de
nos yeux et la récréation de nos esprits.” Emil Berr,
“L’Exposition de 1900: Bosnie-Herzégovine,” Le Figaro,
January 26, 1900, 3.
34 “Herr Henri Moser, der bosnisch-hercegovinische Aus-
stellungscomissär [, der zu der] Organisierung unter
anderem auch dadurch höchst ersprießlich beigetra-
gen hat, daß er im Pavillon Leben, Bewegung, Colorit
und Originalität dem Pariser, dessen Geschmack
entsprechend zu bieten verstand.” Neues Wiener Tagb-
latt 1900, 15.
Sebestyén
­ osnia and Herzegovina as a manifestation of its
B
enlightened administration:
“Due to their intense engagement, the executive
bodies chosen by minister von Kállay had the
greatest and most decisive influence on the real-
ization and admirable arrangement of the Bosnian
exhibition. They henceforth deserve acknowledg-
ment for their clear and tasteful display of the
­cultural triumph of the Austrian occupation terri-
tories of Bosnia and Herzegovina in every area.
Summarizing the numerous achievements of the
Austro-Hungarian government in Bosnia and Her-
zegovina in every branch of social and economic
life, the thriving progress of the occupied territo-
ries can be called nothing else than a cultural
­triumph in the truest meaning of the word. […]
Bosnia and Herzegovina brilliantly passed the lit-
mus test of its first-time participation at a World
Fair. It doubtlessly moved to the front row of cul-
tural nations, for its people do not only possess a
proud, rich history, but also cultural works whose
success at the Paris World Fair allow the country to
look into the future with greatest confidence, as it
is destined to find the respect and acknowledg-
ment of the whole civilized world.”35
35 Fromm 1900, 455: “Auf das Zustandekommen und vor-
treffliche Arrangement der bosnisch-herzegovinischen
Ausstellung haben die vom Minister von Kallay
gewählten Organe durch ihre überaus rege Thätigkeit
den grössten und entscheidenden Einfluss genommen.
Ihnen gebührt daher die Anerkennung, in so übersich-
tlicher und geschmackvoller Weise den kulturellen
Triumph der österreichischen Occupationsgebiete
­
Bosnien und Herzegovina auf allen seinen Gebieten
zur Anschauung gebracht zu haben. Denn nicht anders
als einen Kulturtriumph im wahrsten Sinne des Wortes
kann man—wenn man die zahlreichen Erfolge der ös-
terreichisch-ungarischen Landesverwaltung in Bos-
nien und der Herzegovina auf allen Gebieten des sozi-
alen und wirtschaftlichen Lebens zusammenfasst—das
gedeihliche Fortschreiten der beiden Occupationsge-
biete nennen […]. Bosnien-Herzegovina hat die Feuer-
probe der erstmaligen Beteiligung an einer Wel-
tausstellung glänzend bestanden und ist ohne
Widerrede in die vorderste Reihe der Kulturländer
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Henri Moser and the Universal Exposition of 1900 in Paris
In his praise, Fromm36 explicitly appreciated the
efforts of the experts Kállay had commissioned
and the elegance of how the achievements of the
Austro-Hungarian administration had been put
on display, thereby promoting the triumphs of
Austria-Hungary and placing it on the map of the
leading European empires.
4 Conclusion
The Kállay regime invested many human and fi-
nancial resources for staging an elaborate apothe-
osis of a civilizing, imperialistic mission. The en-
gagement of Henri Moser was a part of this
political agenda, whose function was to help to
promote cultural achievements on both national
and international level in order to legitimize the
authority of the regime. In this context, an exten-
sive mediating apparatus was set in motion, which
became more and more refined from exhibition to
exhibition. In its further development it did not
only include specific display techniques related to
the pavilion architectures, interior designs, exhib-
its etc., but also to the applied communication and
dissemination tools, such as accompanying publi-
cations, visitor programs, guided tours, dance and
music shows, culinary offers, and special programs
for the press. By the time Moser became Commis-
sioner General, a complex image of Bosnia and
Herzegovina had been designed and refined under
the close supervision of Kállay himself. The multi-
ple quoted sources suggest that Moser’s primary
role was to contribute to the dissemination of this
g­ etreten, denn sein Volk besitzt nicht nur eine stolze,
bilderreiche Geschichte der Vergangenheit des Landes,
sondern es kann solcher kulturellen Arbeit und einem
solchen Erfolg wie auf der Pariser Weltausstellung get-
rost in die Zukunft blicken, in der es die Achtung und
Anerkennung der ganzen civilisierten Welt finden
wird” (translation by author).
36 Fromm, Carl J., “Bosnien und Herzegovina auf der
Pariser Weltausstellung,” in Die Pariser Weltausstellung
in Wort und Bild, ed. Georg Malkowsky (Berlin : Kirch-
hoff, 1900), 455.
135
complex image, to control its reception and en-
sure the desired interpretation.
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 Chapter 10
Samarcande au nord et à l’ouest
Appropriation(s) de l’architecture timouride à Saint-Pétersbourg et à Berne
Katrin Kaufmann
En Europe, de nombreux exemples d’architecture
orientalisante témoignent de la fascination ro-
mantique pour les arts orientaux, avant tout au
xixe siècle. Ces édifices ou ces intérieurs inter-
prètent, par exemple, l’architecture mauresque de
Grenade, l’architecture ottomane d’Istanbul ou
l’architecture mamelouke du Caire. La culture bâ-
tie de l’Asie centrale en revanche, dont l’architec-
ture des Timourides à Samarcande représente une
apogée, ne fut guère appropriée. L’architecture ti-
mouride se caractérise par sa monumentalité, ses
imposants portails et coupoles ainsi que son décor
somptueux, notamment les mosaïques de faïence
aux glaçures colorées, utilisées pour le revêtement
des édifices. Dans l’architecture occidentale, seuls
quelques édifices ou intérieurs isolés révèlent des
éléments inspirés directement de l’architecture
­timouride.1 Cet article porte sur les deux exemples
connus de ce type : l’un se trouve en Russie, l’autre
en Suisse. Les deux furent créés dans le premier
quart du xxe siècle, dans des contextes et pour
des objectifs différents. La mosquée de Saint-­
Pétersbourg présente les éléments les plus signifi-
catifs du style néo-timouride à l’extérieur de
­l’édifice. Elle fut construite entre 1909 et 1921 pour
la communauté musulmane et fut l’unique mos-
quée de la ville durant le xxe siècle. Au Musée
1 Plus répandues sont les façades qui font une vague allu-
sion à l’architecture persane (dont l’architecture timouride
est considérablement dérivée) : Le Palais Voroncov du
xixe siècle à Alupka (Crimée), le Château Kórnik près de
Poznań (Pologne), l’usine “Zacherl” à Vienne, ou un ancien
bain public du début du xxe siècle (Denisovskie bani) à
Moscou, par exemple.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_013
d’Histoire de Berne (bhm), des intérieurs évo-
quant ­l’architecture timouride—dont une salle
existe encore—furent réalisés entre 1919 et 1922.
Ils abritaient la “collection orientale” de l’explora-
teur Henri Moser (1844–1923). Après une brève
description des deux lieux et de leur histoire, cet
article aborde les différentes approches suivies
dans leur conception et leur r­ éalisation. En second
lieu, il tente d’expliquer pour quelles raisons le
style néo-timouride fut choisi.
1 La première mosquée pour les musulmans
de Saint-Pétersbourg
Depuis la fondation de la ville en 1703 et l’ouver-
ture du chantier de la forteresse Pierre-et-Paul, qui
employa des Tatars d’origines diverses, des musul-
mans vivaient à Saint-Pétersbourg.2 Vers la fin du
xixe siècle, la communauté musulmane ne dispo-
sait toujours pas de lieux de culte propres. ­Plusieurs
tentatives d’initier la construction d’une mosquée
ayant échoué, les musulmans louaient des locaux
pour les transformer en salles de prière.3 Ce n’est
qu’en 1906, et grâce à la démocratisation de la vie
2 Voir Daud Aminov, Sankt-Peterburgskaja sobornaja kafe-
dral’naja mečet : Istoričeskij očerk [Mosquée-cathédrale de
Saint-Pétersbourg : abrégé historique]. Saint-Pétersbourg :
Impaks, 1992, 3–4; Al’mira Tagirdžanova, Musul’mane v žiz-
ni i kul’ture Peterburga (xviii–xix vv.) [Les musulmans
dans la vie et la culture de Saint-Pétersbourg (xviii–xix
siècles)]. Saint-Pétersbourg : Poltorak, 2013, 3.
3 Voir Aminov, Mosquée-cathédrale, 6–8; Tagirdžanova, Les
musulmans, 15, 49–51; Al’mira Tagirdžanova, Mečeti Peter-
burga, proekty, voploščenie, istorija musul’manskoj obščiny
[Les mosquées de Saint-Pétersbourg, projets, réalisation,
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138
Figure 10.1 Saint-Pétersbourg, Mosquée, Nikolaj Vasil’ev, 1909–21
Photographie de katrin kaufmann, 2017
publique qui suivit les ­événements de la première
révolution russe, que le m­ inistère de l’Intérieur ap-
prouva la création du Comité pour la construction
de la mosquée-cathédrale.4 Le ­comité fut autorisé
h­istoire de la communauté musulmane]. Saint-Péters-
bourg : Poltorak, 2014, 14–7.
4 Il existe plusieurs publications sur l’histoire de la construc-
tion de la mosquée. Elles s’appuient sur des sources qui se
trouvent dans le cgia (Central’nyj gosudarstvennyj isto-
ričeskij archiv Sankt Peterburga), le rgia (Rossijskij gosu-
darstvennyj istoričeskij archiv) et le gmir (Gosudarstvennyj
muzej istorii religii), voir par exemple : Aminov, ­Mosquée-
cathédrale; Boris Kirikov, « Orientalistskie i nordičeskie
čerty v architekture sobornoj mečeti S.-Peterburga [Traits
orientalistes et nordiques dans l’architecture de la mos-
quée-cathédrale de Saint-Pétersbourg] », dans Peter-
burgskie čtenija 95, Saint-Pétersbourg, 1995, 181–84; B ­ oris
Kaufmann
Kirikov, Pamjatniki architektury i istorii Sankt-­Peterburga,
Petrogradskij rajon [Monuments architecturaux et histo-
riques de Saint-Pétersbourg, district de ­ Petrogradskij].
Saint-Pétersbourg : Kolo, 2004, 347–51; Tat’jana Steckevič,
« Peterburgskaja Sobornaja mečet’, kak pamjatnik ar-
chitektury [La mosquée-cathédrale de Saint-Pétersbourg
en tant que monument architectural] », dans Čužaja vešč v
kul’ture, materialy naučnoj konferencii [Eléments étrangers
à la culture, actes de la conférence], Oct.–Nov. 1995,
Saint-Pétersbourg : ­Gosudarstvennyj muzej istorii religii
und Rossijskij ėtnografičeskij muzej, 1995, 38–40; Vera
Vitjazeva, « Peterburgskaja mečet’. K istorii stroitel’stva [La
mosquée de Saint-Pétersbourg. Histoire de sa construc-
tion] », dans Pamjatniki stariny. Koncepcii. Otkrytija. Versii :
Pamjati V.S. Beleckogo, 1919–1997 [Les anciens monuments.
Concepts. Découvertes. Versions. À la ­mémoire de V.S. Belec-
kogo, 1919–1997], Saint-Pétersbourg P ­ skov : 1997, 147–62;
Tagirdžanova, Les mosquées.
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Samarcande au nord et à l’ouest
à recueillir des dons dans tout l’Empire russe. Un
promoteur majeur de la construction fut l’émir de
Boukhara, ʿAbd al-Aḥad Khān (1857/59–1910) qui,
en 1907, finança l’achat d’un terrain situé au centre
de la ville (Kronverkskij prospekt 7), à proximité
de la forteresse Pierre-et-Paul. Le projet de
construction de Nikolaj Vasil’ev (1875–1958)—in-
génieur et architecte-artiste russe—fut définitive-
ment approuvé par l’administration municipale et
le tsar Nicolas ii en 1909, et suivi des travaux la
même année.5 En 1913, le gros œuvre de la construc-
tion fut achevé et la mosquée inaugurée avec un
premier service religieux, en l’honneur du 300e an-
niversaire de la maison des Romanov. Les travaux
d’ameublement et de décoration se poursuivirent
jusqu’en 1921.6
Sur un plan rectangulaire, l’édifice se compose
d’un corps principal surmonté d’un grand dôme et
d’un avant-corps possédant trois portails et deux
minarets latéraux (fig. 10.1). D’une part, la mosquée
est considérée comme exemple de l’Art nouveau
du Nord [Severnij modern], étant donné que ses
murs sont revêtus de maçonnerie en granit gris
(style romantique, en partie médiéval), allégés de
quelques éléments tels que fenêtres à treillis mé-
talliques décoratifs et médaillons avec des cita-
tions du Coran. D’autre part, la mosquée évoque
l’architecture des Timourides, à travers ses por-
tails, son dôme et les bulbes de ses minarets riche-
ment décorés de mosaïques de faïence, créant des
motifs floraux et géométriques, dans lesquels do-
minent les tons bleus et turquoises (fig. 10.2).7
5 Issu d’une famille de Tatars polonais et membre de la com-
munauté musulmane, l’ingénieur Stepan Kričinskij (1874–
1923) était responsable de la partie constructive du projet
en tant que spécialiste en béton armé.
6 Voir Vitjazeva, Les anciens monuments, 156–62.
7 La mosquée fut restaurée plusieurs fois. Une intervention
majeure fut le remplacement de la faïence du dôme à par-
tir de 1985, voir Kirikov, Monuments architecturaux, 351.
L’intérieur de la mosquée est plus modeste et ne peut pas
être décrit ici.
139
2 Conception de la mosquée de Saint-
Pétersbourg—directives, modèles et
variantes
En 1907, dans le but de réaliser le projet de la
­mosquée, le Comité pour la construction de la
­mosquée-cathédrale chargea la Société impériale
des architectes de Saint-Pétersbourg d’organiser
un concours. Face à La Mecque et revêtue de
pierre, la mosquée devait être construite dans le
« style oriental », avec un ou deux minarets et un
dôme de préférence.8 En avril 1908, parmi 45 pro-
jets ­soumis, quatre furent primés (trois premiers
prix et un second).9 La préférence fut accordée au
projet, sous la devise Timur, de Nikolaj Vasil’ev, di-
plômé de l’Institut des ingénieurs civils, nommé
d’après le tsar Nicolas i (fig. 10.3). Vasil’ev, respon-
sable du développement artistique de la mos-
quée, modifia sa conception.10 Il adopta la forme
cubique de l’édifice de son projet Arabesques
­
(fig. 10.4), qui avait obtenu le second prix, tout en
­s’inspirant de l’architecture des Timourides, plus
précisément du mausolée de Tamerlan (fondateur
de la dynastie, d. 1405), le Gur-i Amir à Samar-
cande, construit au début du xve siècle. En exami-
nant la construction réalisée à Saint-Pétersbourg,
on constate que la cannelure nervurée et les orne-
ments du dôme sont analogues au modèle de
­Samarcande. Le tambour, d’autre part—contraire-
ment au projet initial—diffère complètement.
8 Voir Zodčij, 45, 1907, 467–68. Lors du concours, Gataul-
la Bajazitov (1846–1911)—chef du clergé musulman de
Saint-Pétersbourg et du Comité pour la construction de
la mosquée-cathédrale—, ajouta des recommanda-
tions pour la planification architecturale de la future
mosquée. Il ne précisa toutefois pas dans quel style la
mosquée devait être construite. Voir Zodčij, 51, 1907,
521–22.
9 Voir Zodčij, 11, 1908, 98–99; Zodčij, 15, 1908, 135–38 et
planches 6–13.
10 Sur Nikolaj Vasil’ev voir Vladimir Lisovskij et Valerij
Isačenko, Nikolaj Vasil’ev : Aleksej Bubyr’. Saint-Péters-
bourg : Beloe i černoe, 1999; Vladimir Lisovskij et Ričard
Gašo, Nikolaj Vasil’ev. Ot moderna k modernizmu.
Saint-Pétersbourg : Kolo, 2011.
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140 Kaufmann

Figure 10.2 Saint-Pétersbourg, Mosquée, Portail principal, Nikolaj Vasil’ev, 1909–21

Photographie de katrin kaufmann, 2017

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Samarcande au nord et à l’ouest
Non décoré, il est muni de fenêtres pour illuminer
l’intérieur. En sa forme et son décor, le portail qui
fait face à l’avenue (fig. 10.2) ressemble au pištaq,
avec niche voûtée de la madrasa qui intègre le
Gur-i Amir.11 Il est tout à fait possible que les
11 Le revêtement du dôme et des portails avec des mo-
saïques de faïence fut très exigeant et coûteux. Sous la
direction du célèbre céramiste Pjotr Vaulin, des maîtres
de la fabrication céramique artistique Gel’dvejn et Vau-
lin, dans le village Kikerino près de Gatčina, durent
d’abord développer cette technique inconnue en Rus-
sie. Voir V. Morozov, « Magometanskaja mečet’ v Peter-
burge [La mosquée mahométane à Saint-Péters-
bourg] », Zodčij, 14, 1914, 163–64.
141
Figure 10.3
La mosquée à Saint-Pétersbourg, Projets de
concours, 1er prix, devise Timur, façade
principale, architecte N. Vasil’ev, Zodčij, 15,
1908, pl. 10
planches détaillées et coloriées d’une publication
sur le Gur-i Amir, publiée en 1905 par la Commis-
sion Impériale Archéologique, furent utilisées
comme modèle pour une partie de la faïence à
Saint-Pétersbourg (fig. 10.8).12 En même temps, il
12 Voir Commission Impériale Archéologique, Les Mos-
quées de Samarcande : Fascicule i, Gour-Emir. Saint-­
Pétersbourg : Expédition pour la confection des p ­ apiers
d’état, 1905. L’intérêt pour les monuments de Samar-
cande augmenta après l’occupation de la ville par les
Russes en 1868. Les premières planches en couleur du
Gur-i Amir furent publiées par l’artiste Nikolaj Simakov
en 1883, (voir Nikolaj Simakov, Iskusstvo Srednej Azii :
Sbornik sredne-aziatskoj ornamentacii [L’art de l’Asie
centrale : Receuil de l’art décoratif de l’Asie centrale].
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142
est évident, que le modèle de Samarcande ne
fut  pas strictement copié. La forme des flèches
des  minarets, par exemple, s’inspire davantage
des  ­modèles persans,13 tandis que l’ornement
Saint-Pétersbourg : Imperatorskoe obščestvo pooščre-
nija chudožestv, 1883). L’exploration scientifique des
monuments de Samarcande s’intensifia un an plus
tard, lorsque l’archéologue et orientaliste Nikolaj Vese-
lovskij (1848–1918) fut envoyé en Asie centrale par
l’université de Saint-Pétersbourg et la Commission
­
­Impériale Archéologique. Il dirigea des fouilles à Sa-
marcande qui aboutirent à la publication Les Mosquées
de Samarcande : Fascicule i, Gour-Emir (voir Commis-
sion Impériale Archéologique 1905).
13 Voir Morozov, La mosquée, 162–63. Les minarets à
Saint-Pétersbourg ressemblent par exemple à ceux de
Kaufmann
Figure 10.4
La mosquée à Saint-Pétersbourg, Projets de
concours, 2ème prix, devise Arabesques,
architecte N. Vasil’ev, Zodčij, 15, 1908, pl. 12
sur  les  fûts évoque la sebka, un motif de lo-
sanges ­répétés, ­souvent utilisé dans l’architecture
ibéro-islamique.
3 Les espaces d’exposition pour la collection
Henri Moser au bhm à Berne
La « collection orientale » d’Henri Moser figure
parmi les plus grandes collections d’arts et
­d’artisanat islamiques au monde. Moser, fils d’un
la mosquée du Chah (Masjed-e Shāh) à Ispahan. Seule
la partie centrale a été conçue différemment en
­omettant le balcon ouvert, probablement en raison des
conditions climatiques locales.
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Samarcande au nord et à l’ouest
entrepreneur horloger suisse, a mené une vie sou-
vent aventureuse en tant qu’explorateur, chasseur
et diplomate, avant de se faire un nom comme col-
lectionneur et organisateur d’expositions.14 En
1907, il installa sa collection à « Charlottenfels », la
résidence familiale près de Schaffhouse, avant de
l’offrir en 1914 au Musée d’Histoire de Berne, à
condition qu’elle soit exposée de manière adé-
quate, dans des salles à déterminer.15 Dans le but
d’abriter cette collection, il fut nécessaire d’agran-
dir le musée. Suite au déclenchement de la Pre-
mière Guerre mondiale, ce n’est qu’en mai 1922
que l’exposition, répartie sur cinq salles, fut finale-
ment inaugurée dans une nouvelle annexe. La
grande Salle d’armes, sous verrière, représentait la
pièce maîtresse de l’exposition (fig. 10.5). Cette
14 Pour la biographie de Moser voir Roger Balsiger et
Ernst Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan : Henri Moser,
Charlottenfels, 1844–1923. Schaffhouse : Meier, 1992, 11–
63, 203–20. Pour sa collection et son travail en tant
qu’organisateur d’exposition voir Rudolf Zeller, Die
orientalische Sammlung von Henri Moser auf Char-
lottenfels : Beschreibender Katalog der ­Waffensammlung.
Bern : Wyss, 1915; Id., « Die orientalische Sammlung von
Henri Moser auf Charlottenfels im Historischen Mu-
seum in Bern », Das Werk, 9, 10, 1922 : 189–204; id.,
­Führer durch die Orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser-
Charlottenfels und die Völkerkundliche Abteilung des
Bernischen Historischen Museums. Bern : Grunau, 1923;
Robert Pfaff, « Henri Moser Charlottenfels und seine
Orientalische Sammlung », Schaffhauser Beiträge zur
Geschichte, 62, 1985, 117–56; Ernst Kläy, Orientalische
Sammlung Henri Moser Charlottenfels (Bern). [Bern] :
Bernisches Historisches Museum, 1991; Balsiger et Kläy,
Bei Schah; Ernst Kläy, « “Unser Ziel ist es, ein Werk zu
schaffen, das uns überlebt.” Zum wechselvollen Schick-
sal der Orientalischen Sammlung Henri Moser Char-
lottenfels », Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Hei-
matkunde, 56, 3, 1994, 335–58.
15 Voir l’acte de fondation Orientalische Sammlung Hen-
ri Moser Charlottenfels im bernischen historischen
­Museum du 26.1.1914 (bhm, Inv. 1915.670.0159). Selon
cet acte, Moser devait être consulté pour l’installation,
au cas où elle aurait lieu de son vivant. Moser lui-même
se contraignait à payer les frais pour la conception des
intérieurs qui accueilleraient la collection.
143
salle est la seule à exister aujourd’hui dans sa
conception architecturale originale.16
Les murs de la salle sont structurés par des arcs
ogivaux, qui encadrent des niches peu apparentes.
Les coins de la salle sont dissimulés par des pans
inclinés. En face de l’entrée, une grande niche
trapézoïdale est surmontée d’une voûte de brique
à nervures blanches. Dans la partie supérieure des
murs s’étend une frise ornée d’éléments prisma-
tiques. La conception architecturale est complétée
par un décor pittoresque non moins important.
Les écoinçons entre les arcs et leur délimitation
orthogonale sont décorés d’ornements végétaux.
Des rectangles ornés d’inscriptions coufiques et
un motif ovale, appliqué au-dessus de la frise,
complètent le décor.17 Ces éléments évoquent
­l’architecture médiévale de l’Asie centrale ou de la
Perse, soit la région explorée par Moser à l’occa-
sion de plusieurs voyages.18
4 Conception de la Salle d’armes à Berne—
directives, modèles et variantes
La correspondance, les procès-verbaux et les
plans déposés dans les archives Moser, au Musée
­d’Histoire de Berne, révèlent les responsables de
16 Aujourd’hui, la salle est principalement utilisée comme
lieu de réunion. Seule une petite partie de la collection
de Moser est exposée en vitrines, le long des murs. Le
sort de la collection et les salles d’exposition au bhm
ont été décrits en détail, voir Balsiger et Kläy, Bei Schah,
197–202; Kläy, « ‘Unser Ziel ist es, ein Werk zu schaffen,
das uns überlebt’ », 349–56.
17 Les inscriptions décoratives reproduisent des versets
du Coran et des bénédictions, voir Katrin Kaufmann,
« Samarkand in der Bundeshauptstadt—ein Ausstel-
lungssaal im neo-timuridischen Stil für die Sammlung
Henri Mosers im Bernischen Historischen Museum »,
dans Francine Giese, Leïla el-Wakil et Ariane Varela
Braga (éds.), Der Orient in der Schweiz : Neo-islamische
Architektur und Interieurs im 19. und 20. Jh. Berlin : De
Gruyter, 142–62.
18 Moser a voyagé quatre fois en Asie centrale entre 1868
et 1890. Son récit À travers l’Asie centrale est basé sur le
troisième voyage (1883–84).
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144
Figure 10.5 Berne, Vue de la Salle d’armes de la collection Moser au bhm, vers 1925, Musée d’Histoire de Berne
certaines décisions créatives ainsi que les modèles
destinés à concevoir les espaces.19 Moser influen-
ça considérablement l’architecture des salles qui
allaient héberger sa collection. En 1916, il annonça
son intention de présenter la collection dans
un « cadre oriental ».20 Plus tard, on comprend
que Moser se référa à un édifice spécifique
pour ­décorer la salle : lui aussi choisit le Gur-i Amir
19 Voir Balsiger et Kläy, Bei Schah, 190–97. Les recherches
récentes de l’auteur dans les archives du bhm ont per-
mis de compléter les informations sur la conception
des espaces de l’exposition. Pour la présentation détail-
lée des résultats, voir Kaufmann, « Samarkand in der
Bundeshauptstadt ».
20 « Ich beabsichtige, die Sammlungen in einen orienta-
lischen Rahmen zu bringen […] »; voir la lettre de Mo-
ser à Rudolf Wegeli, directeur du musée, 26.12.1916
(bhm, Inv. 1916.670.184).
Kaufmann
de Samarcande.21 Pour réaliser le projet et instal-
ler la collection, Moser fit appel à l’architecte
­français Henri Saladin (1851–1923).22 Saladin était
21 Voir la lettre de Moser à l’architecte Henri Saladin,
15.2.1918 (bhm). (Les documents désignés uniquement
par (bhm) ne sont pas inventoriés.)
22 Saladin avait déjà réalisé l’exposition et le Fumoir arabe
à Charlottenfels. Pour le Fumoir arabe voir Francine
Giese, « From Style Room to Period Room. Henri Mo-
ser’s Fumoir in Charlottenfels Castle », dans Sandra
Costa, Dominique Poulot et Mercedes Volait (éds.), The
Period Rooms : Allestimenti storici tra arte, gusto e colle-
zionismo. Bologne : Bononia University Press, 2016,
153–60; Francine Giese et Ariane Varela Braga,
« Translocating Metropolitan Display Strategies in Ni-
neteenth-Century Europe : Frederick Stibbert, Henri
Moser, and their Orientalist Style Rooms », Internatio-
nal Journal of Islamic Architecture, 8, 1, 2019, 115–40. On
ne sait pas grand-chose sur Saladin. Diplômé en études
d’architecture à l’École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, en 1881,
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Samarcande au nord et à l’ouest 145

c­ onsidéré comme spécialiste de l’architecture isla-

mique. Il avait publié plusieurs études à ce sujet, la
plus célèbre étant certainement le premier vo-
lume du Manuel d’art musulman (L’Architecture,
Paris, 1907). L’architecte n’avait jamais visité l’Asie
centrale. Dans son manuel, il décrivit l’architec-
ture timouride à l’aide de publications et de
­photographies. Pour la conception de la salle d’ex-
position, il reprit ce matériel, y compris les photo-
graphies de Moser (fig. 10.6).23
Structurée par des arcs ogivaux, la Salle d’armes
évoque manifestement la cour d’une madrasa, ins-
titution d’enseignement islamique pour la théolo-
gie et le droit.24 Saladin désigna la grande niche
voûtée comme mihrab, par analogie aux niches de
prière dans les mosquées.25 Conformément à l’ar-
chitecture de Samarcande, une voûte ornée de
muqarnas (éléments en forme de nids d’abeilles)
aurait été typique—cependant, pour des raisons
pécuniaires, Saladin opta pour une « voûte à ner-
vures persanes ».26 Pour la conception de la frise,
l’architecte se réfère à une photographie de Paul
Nadar (1856–1939). Elle montre la niche de muqar-
nas au-dessus du portail d’un mausolée timouride, Figure 10.6 Henri Moser, Tour et dôme du Gour Emir,
dans la nécropole Shah-i Zindeh à Samarcande.27 1889/90
Photographie, 170 × 120 mm, Musée
d’Histoire de Berne, Inv. PH1.240.06584.01
il commence à s’intéresser à l’art et à l’architecture isla-
mique, suite à une mission archéologique en Tunisie
(1882–83); voir Myriam Bacha, « Henri Saladin (1851– Le décor pittoresque imite le revêtement des fa-
1923) : Un architecte “Beaux-Arts” promoteur de çades en faïence, caractéristique de nombreux
l’art ­
islamique tunisien », dans Nabila Oulebsir et édifices à Samarcande, parmi eux le Gur-i Amir. Le
Mercedes Volait (eds.), L’Orientalisme architectural
motif aux ramages qui enlace la niche du miḥrāb
entre ­imaginaires et savoirs. Paris : Picard (Collection
bernois dans la partie supérieure, est emprunté à
D’une rive l’autre), 2009. <http://journals.openedition
.org/inha/4916> (2.2.2017). la porte d’entrée monumentale (pištaq) de la ma-
23 Voir lettre de Saladin à Moser, 16.7.1917 (bhm). La pho- drasa qui intègre le mausolée (fig. 10.5 et 10.7).28
tographie du Gur-i Amir de Moser fut publiée dans le
Manuel d’art musulman, voir Henri Saladin, Manuel
d’art musulman, [t. 1] : L’Architecture. Paris : Picard, Pour le voyage de Paul Nadar en Asie centrale voir An-
1907, 363. ne-Marie Bernard et Claude Malécot, L’Odyssée de Paul
24 Voir lettre de Saladin à Moser, 28.3.1918 et Description Nadar au Turkestan–1890. Paris : Éditions du patri-
du projet de Mr. Saladin, 5.5.1918, 2 (bhm). moine, 2007. La plupart des photographies de Nadar,
25 Voir Description du projet de Mr. Saladin, 5.5.1918, 2 prises en Asie centrale, sont en ligne sur le site de la
(bhm). map (Médiathèque de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine,
26 Voir lettre de Saladin à Moser, 19.1.1918 (bhm). France).
27 Voir lettre de Saladin à Moser, 28.3.1918 (bhm); Des- 28 Voir Description du projet de Mr. Saladin, 5.5.1918, 9
cription du projet de Mr. Saladin, 5.5.1918, 8 (bhm). (bhm).

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146 Kaufmann

Figure 10.7
Henri Saladin, Écoinçon de la grande
niche de la salle d’armes, Musée Moser,
29.4.1918, crayon et aquarelle. Musée
d’Histoire de Berne

Figure 10.8
Commission Impériale Archéologique, Détails de la porte
d’accès de la mosquée de Gour Emir, Les Mosquées de
Samarcande : Fascicule i, Gour-Emir, 1905, pl. iii, The
Cleveland Museum of Art

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Samarcande au nord et à l’ouest
À titre de modèle (fig. 10.8),29 Saladin utilisa une
planche de la publication mentionnée plus haut—
Les Mosquées de Samarcande : Gour-Emir
(Saint-Pétersbourg, 1905). En effet, le Gur-i Amir
ne servit de repère direct que pour le décor pitto-
resque de la salle à Berne.30 La conception archi-
tecturale, en revanche, se compose d’éléments
­stylisés de l’architecture timouride et persane.
5 Style néo-timouride à Berne et à Saint-
Pétersbourg—motifs et intentions
Plusieurs raisons, sans doute, incitèrent Henri Mo-
ser à choisir un monument timouride pour le
cadre architectural de son exposition à Berne. Pre-
mièrement, en évoquant l’architecture médiévale
de l’Asie centrale, le décor des salles soulignait le
thème et l’origine géographique de la collection, et
constituait en même temps une réminiscence des
quatre voyages de Moser qui avaient fortement in-
fluencé la vie du collectionneur. Deuxièmement,
le choix témoigne de l’enthousiasme de Moser
pour la ville de Samarcande et son patrimoine ar-
chitectural, qui se reflète à plusieurs reprises dans
son récit de voyage, par exemple lorsqu’il y décrit
son arrivée31 : « Bientôt, des hauteurs, nous
contemplons les splendides vestiges de l’antique
ville de Timour qui s’étale à nos pieds : édifices
­majestueux, rehaussés par la couleur vive de leurs
émaux multicolores, coupoles sans nombre aux
formes admirables, minarets élancés qui font
à cette ville une réputation confirmée par les
29 Moser lui avait prêté le livre, voir lettre de Saladin à
Moser, 28.2.1918 (bhm). Selon la déclaration d’Henri
Saladin de 1907, il s’agissait de « la publication la plus
remarquable qui ait été faite jusqu’ici sur Samarcande »
(Saladin, Manuel, 353, note 3).
30 Comme, à Berne, les mosaïques de faïence du Gur-i
Amir sont imitées par le biais de la peinture, l’effet vi-
suel est néanmoins très différent de l’original.
31 Voir Henri Moser, À travers l’Asie Centrale : La steppe
Kirghize, le Turkestan Russe, Boukhara, Khiva, le pays
des Turcomans et la Perse : Impressions de voyage. Paris :
Plon, 1886 [1e éd. 1885], 110, 112–19.
147
siècles.32 » Troisièmement, Moser souhaitait se
distancer du « style si vulgaire de l’Alhambra ».33
Dans l’Europe du xixe siècle, la réception architec-
turale des palais nasrides médiévaux de Grenade
était une mode répandue dans le design d’inté-
rieur, mais dépassée au moment du projet mené à
Berne.
Pour autant qu’on le sache, aucun projet soumis
au concours pour la mosquée de Saint-Pétersbourg
n’avait adopté le style des palais de l’Alhambra. Les
projets primés reflètent les modèles utilisés : outre
l’architecture timouride, il s’agissait de mosquées
ottomanes (projet A, arch. Marian Ljalevič, 1er
prix) et de mosquées et mausolées mamlouks
(projets Mamelouk, arch. Marian Peretjatkovič, 1er
prix et Arabesques, arch. Nikolaj Vasil’ev, 2ème prix
(fig. 10.4)).34 Jusqu’à ce jour, il n’existe aucune trace
écrite des discussions qui aboutirent au choix du
lauréat. Quel motif incita le jury à opter en faveur
du projet de Nikolaj Vasil’ev? Le fait qu’il soit le
seul architecte à avoir remporté deux prix? L’as-
pect esthétique? Le fait crucial que Vasil’ev soit un
représentant renommé de l’Art nouveau du Nord?35
Le fait que le modèle choisi se situe sur le territoire
de l’Empire russe et ait été étudié par des scienti-
fiques russes? Le choix représentait-il une conces-
sion à l’émir de Boukhara, qui entretenait des liens
étroits avec Saint-Pétersbourg et soutenait finan-
cièrement, entre autre, la construction de la mos-
quée? On peut aussi envisager des raisons
­politiques. En 1908, lorsque le projet de Vasil’ev fut
adopté, il était indispensable de construire une
mosquée dans la capitale. Suite à l’expansion russe
en Asie centrale, des millions de musulmans ap-
partenaient à l’empire et devaient être représentés
à Saint-Pétersbourg, notamment aussi par un lieu
32 Moser, À travers l’Asie Centrale, 110.
33 Moser à Saladin, 15.2.1918 (bhm).
34 Voir Zodčij, 15, 1908, 135–37.
35 Deux membres du jury avaient déjà construit des édi-
fices dans ce style, à proximité du site prévu pour la
mosquée : Alexander von Hohen (Villa von Mathilde
Kšesinska, Rue Kujbyševa 2–4) et Fredrik Lidvall (Haus
Lidvalja, Prospekt Kamennoostrovskij 1-3а). Indica-
tions d’Al’mira Tagirdžanova du 23.01.2018.
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148 Kaufmann

de culte. Dans ce sens, la construction d’une mos-
quée de style néo-timouride peut également être
interprétée comme un geste bienveillant à l’égard
des musulmans de l’empire.
En 1909, un comité d’experts de l’Académie des
arts critique le fait qu’il soit prévu d’édifier la mos-
quée à un endroit bien visible et à proximité des
plus anciens monuments de la ville, notamment la
forteresse Pierre-et-Paul et la première demeure
du tsar Pierre i.36 Malgré cette objection, la déci-
sion fut maintenue. Aujourd’hui, la mosquée avec
ses éléments de style néo-timouride est une desti-
nation touristique populaire (fig. 10.2) et fait partie
intégrante du paysage urbain.
6 Un style rarement utilisé
était en outre—en tant que mausolée de Tamer-
lan, fondateur de la dynastie—un représentant
idéal de l’acquis culturel des Timourides.
En 1922, les salles d’exposition de la collection
Moser furent inaugurées à Berne. La porte d’accès
aux salles était parée d’une devise du poète perse
Saadi (xiiie siècle) : « notre but est de produire
une œuvre qui nous survive ».39 Avec l’œuvre de
Moser, le Musée d’Histoire de Berne possédait dé-
sormais une extraordinaire collection d’objets
d’art islamique, mais aussi les uniques intérieurs,
en Suisse, présentant des éléments de style néo-­
timouride. De ces intérieurs, seule une salle est
préservée à ce jour. Avec la mosquée de Saint-­
Pétersbourg, elle témoigne d’un chapitre bref,
mais intéressant, de l’histoire de l’architecture en
Europe.

Au cours du xixe siècle le style néo-mauresque

s’était répandu dans toute l’Europe et au-delà, dû à Bibliographie
l’enthousiasme pour l’Alhambra et son riche décor.
En revanche, le style néo-timuride ne fut utilisé Aminov, Daud, Sankt-Peterburgskaja sobornaja kafe-
qu’au début du xxe siècle, et dans des cas et pour dral’naja mečet : Istoričeskij očerk [Mosquée-­
des fonctions apparemment très spécifiques.37 cathédrale de Saint-Pétersbourg : abrégé historique].
Si certains édifices ou intérieurs en style néo-­ Saint-Pétersbourg : Impaks, 1992.
mauresque se référaient moins directement à l’Al- Bacha, Myriam, « Henri Saladin (1851–1923) : Un archi-
hambra médiévale qu’à d’autres structures tecte “Beaux-Arts” promoteur de l’art islamique
néo-mauresques du xixe siècle, il n’y a aucun lien ­tunisien », dans Nabila Oulebsir et Mercedes Volait
entre les deux œuvres en style néo-timouride à (eds.), L’Orientalisme architectural entre imagi-
Berne et à Saint-Pétersbourg. Le fait que tous les naires et saviors. Paris : Picard (Collection d’une rive
deux citent le même monument timouride, le l’autre), 2009. <http://inha.revues.org/4916>
Gur-i Amir, peut s’expliquer pour deux raisons. (2.2.2017).
D’une part, l’architecture islamique de l’Asie cen- Balsiger, Roger et Kläy, Ernst, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan :
trale était encore peu connue à l’époque : ainsi, le Henri Moser, Charlottenfels, 1844–1923. Schaffhausen :
matériel pictural sur l’architecture timuride étant Meier, 1992.
limité, les reproductions en couleurs n’étaient dis-
ponibles que pour le Gur-i Amir.38 Le Gur-i Amir de l’Académie des Arts de Saint-Pétersbourg. Curieuse-
ment, Litvinov, un soldat et artiste russe qui vécut au
Turkestan de 1893 à 1914, fut invité à l’Académie en 1908,
36 Voir Tagirdžanova, Les Musulmans, 31. alors que la conception de la mosquée était en cours.
37 Les édifices temporaires, comme par exemple ceux des 39 Voir Die Berner Woche in Wort und Bild, 14, 1924, 116. Mo-
Expositions universelles, n’ont pas été pris en compte ser avait déjà placé cette devise en tête du catalogue il-
dans cette étude. lustré de sa collection d’armes orientales, voir Henri
38 Voir Commission Impériale Archéologique 1905. En Moser, Sammlung Henri Moser-Charlottenfels : Orienta-
outre, un album de Boris Litvinov (1872–1945 ?) avec lische Waffen und Rüstungen. Leipzig : Hiersemann,
des études détaillées du Gur-i Amir se trouve au Musée 1912.

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Bernard, Anne-Marie et Malécot, Claude, L’odyssée de
Paul Nadar au Turkestan–1890, Paris : Éditions du
­patrimoine, 2007.
Commission Impériale Archéologique, Les Mosquées
de Samarcande : Fascicule i, Gour-Emir. Saint-­
Pétersbourg : Expédition pour la confection des pa-
piers d’état, 1905.
Giese, Francine, « From Style Room to Period Room.
Henri Moser’s Fumoir in Charlottenfels Castle »,
dans Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot et Mercedes
Volait (éds.), The Period Rooms : Allestimenti storici
tra arte, gusto e collezionismo. Bologne : Bononia
University Press, 2016, 153–60.
Giese, Francine et Varela Braga, Ariane, « Translocating
Metropolitan Display Strategies in Nineteenth-­
Century Europe : Frederick Stibbert, Henri Moser,
and their Orientalist Style Rooms », International
Journal of Islamic Architecture, 8, 1, 2019, 115–40.
Kaufmann, Katrin, « Samarkand in der Bundeshaupt­
stadt—ein Ausstellungssaal im neo-timuridischen
Stil für die Sammlung Henri Mosers im Bernischen
Historischen Museum ». In Francine Giese, Leïla
el-Wakil et Ariane Varela Braga (éds.), Der Orient in
der Schweiz : Neo-islamische Architektur und Inte-
rieurs im 19. und 20. Jh. Berlin : De Gruyter, 2019,
142–62.
Kirikov, Boris, « Orientalistskie i nordičeskie čerty v ar-
chitekture sobornoj mečeti S.-Peterburga [Traits
orientalistes et nordiques dans l’architecture de la
mosquée-cathédrale de Saint-Pétersbourg] », dans
Peter­ burgskie čtenija 95, Saint-Pétersbourg : 1995,
181–84.
Kirikov, Boris, Pamjatniki architektury i istorii Sankt-­
Peterburga, Petrogradskij rajon [Monuments archi-
tecturaux et historiques de Saint-Pétersbourg,
­district de Petrogradskij]. Saint-Pétersbourg : Kolo,
2004.
Kläy, Ernst, Orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser Char-
lottenfels (Bern). [Berne] : Bernisches Historisches
Museum, 1991.
Kläy, Ernst, « ‘Unser Ziel ist es, ein Werk zu schaffen,
das uns überlebt.’ Zum wechselvollen Schicksal
der ­Ori­entalischen Sammlung Henri Moser Char-
lottenfels », Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Hei-
matkunde, 56, 3, 1994, 335–58.
149
Lisovskij, Vladimir et Isačenko, Valerij, Nikolaj Vasil’ev :
Aleksej Bubyr’. Saint-Pétersbourg : Beloe i černoe,
1999.
Lisovskij, Vladimir et Gašo, Ričard, Nikolaj Vasil’ev. Ot
­moderna k modernizmu. Saint-Pétersbourg : Kolo,
2011.
Morozov, V. « Magometanskaja mečet’ v Peterburge [La
mosquée mahométane à Saint-Pétersbourg] », Zo-
dčij, 14, 1914, 161–64.
Moser, Henri, À travers l’Asie Centrale : La steppe
Kirghize, le Turkestan Russe, Boukhara, Khiva, le pays
des Turcomans et la Perse : Impressions de voyage.
­Paris : Plon, 1886 [première édition 1885].
Moser, Henri, Sammlung Henri Moser-Charlottenfels :
Orientalische Waffen und Rüstungen. Leipzig : Hier-
semann, 1912.
Pfaff, Robert, « Henri Moser Charlottenfels und seine
Orientalische Sammlung », Schaffhauser Beiträge
zur Geschichte, 62, 1985, 117–56.
Saladin, Henri, Manuel d’art musulman, [t. 1] : L’architec-
ture. Paris : Picard, 1907.
Simakov, Nikolaj, Iskusstvo Srednej Azii : Sbornik
­sredne-aziatskoj ornamentacii [L’art de l’Asie cen-
trale : Receuil de l’art décoratif de l’Asie centrale],
Saint-Pétersbourg : Imperatorskoe obščestvo
pooščrenija chudožestv, 1883.
Steckevič, Tat’jana, « Peterburgskaja Sobornaja mečet’,
kak pamjatnik architektury [La mosquée-cathédrale
en tant que monument architectural] », dans Čužaja
vešč v kul’ture, materialy naučnoj konferencii [Elé-
ments étrangers à la culture, actes de la conférence],
Oct.–Nov. 1995, Saint-Pétersbourg : Gosudarstvennyj
muzej istorii religii und Rossijskij ėtnografičeskij
muzej, 1995, 38–40.
Tagirdžanova, Al’mira, Musul’mane v žizni i kul’ture Pe-
terburga (xviii–xix vv.) [Les musulmans dans la vie
et la culture de Saint-Pétersbourg (xviii–xix siècles)].
Saint-Pétersbourg : Poltorak, 2013.
Tagirdžanova, Al’mira, Mečeti Peterburga, proekty, vo-
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­ de la communauté musulmane]. Saint-
Pétersbourg : Poltorak, 2014.
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de sa construction] », dans Pamjatniki stariny.
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Zeller, Rudolf, Die orientalische Sammlung von Henri
Moser auf Charlottenfels : Beschreibender Katalog der
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Zeller, Rudolf, « Die orientalische Sammlung von Henri
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 Chapter 11
Tashkent in St. Petersburg
The Constructed Image of Central Asia in Russia’s Nineteenth-Century Ethnographic Exhibitions
Inessa Kouteinikova
“Whoever imitates a people becomes one of them.”
A saying ascribed to the Prophet.1
“There was no room for colonists in the Fergana
Valley or the other densely populated oases of
Central Asia,”2 as Domenic Lieven, a historian of
Russian and international history, once wrote.
During a stay in Central Asia Russians were able to
encounter “another face of Russian empire,” whose
strangeness was the reason why they mostly
­neglected the region.3 Such experience of the
“Other,” however, turned out to be much more am-
bivalent, since the strangeness of the “many faces,”
that is, the ethnic diversity of the peoples living
there was something that could be exploited. Con-
sequently, members of these ethnic groups were
put on public display as early as the 1860s, with the
effect of reproducing stereotypes based on extrap-
olations and exaggerations of the impressions
Russians had after some real encounters with
these peoples.
1 The Apex of Colonial Exhibitions in Russia
More than any other institution of the nineteenth
century with its belief in technological and c­ ultural
progress, the industry of World Exhibitions propa-
gated ideas of modernity, but also ­colonialism.
1 Bernard Lewis, The Muslim Discovery of Europe (New York
and London: W.W. Norton, 2001), 224.
2 Dominic Lieven, The Russian Empire and Its Rivals (New
Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000), 216.
3 Lieven, The Russian Empire and Its Rivals, 216.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_014
Due to their great popularity, these ­exhibitions
were able to reach out to wide audiences and
nourish notions of national identity, of the domi-
nance of European civilization against other—
“primitive” or “less developed”—cultures, facili-
tated by the use of media channels that triggered
the visitors’ sensitivities, their curiosity, their hun-
ger for experience and even voyeurism. For many,
these shows were the first and often only opportu-
nity to get into touch with the overwhelming im-
pact of colonialism by means of tangible, real en-
counters with those “uncivilized” people under
European control. In this regard, the World Exhibi-
tions were stages for displaying and fostering the
notion of Europe’s cultural, commercial and scien-
tific superiority.
The presentation of the “colonies” therefore al-
ways implied—more or less subtle—ideas of con-
quest and dominance, while at the same time
keeping the atrocities related to the reorganiza-
tion of the colonies and often brutal consequences
for the local population from sight. However, judg-
ing from today’s standpoint, and especially since
the establishment of postcolonial studies has
changed the mindset of many academic writers on
questions of empire, it is difficult to reconstruct
how contemporaries actually perceived such eth-
nographic exhibitions.
The intention of wanting to create something
spectacular was met by enormous organizational
efforts for creating the needed environments.
Many times, whole districts were reorganized
or even vacated, natural and other physical barri-
ers eliminated, and new, monumental structures
built on site. These at times brutal interventions
­followed the basic principle to bring the latest
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152
c­ ultural, artistic and technological achievements
to urban centers. The incisive nature of these
­changes cannot be underestimated. Hosting cities,
such as Paris, London, Manchester, Berlin, Brussels
or Antwerp, were completely reshaped in the
course of establishing the required fairgrounds:
broad avenues were built, subway and tram lines
constructed with the objective to guide the incom-
ing flux of visitors through the cities, with these
state-of-the-art structures nourishing national
pride. A large exhibition could employ well over
one thousand people for a period of two to four
months. In fact, the exhibition grounds often were
“gates to the city” not only in a metaphorical but in
a very literal sense: from the 1850s to the First
World War, most visitors would enter the cities
through said exhibition areas and thus experience
the urban space through the lens of the monu-
mentality and splendor of the exhibition architec-
ture. Hence, the World Exhibitions directly formed
the self-image of the involved metropoles, nations,
and even entire Empires.
Given the importance of World and Universal
Exhibitions for the history of nineteenth-century
Europe and their promoted image of the Orient, it
is rather astonishing to find that among the many
publications on the matter, only few discuss how
ruthless Russia treated its own colonies while at
the same time taking pride in their display at eth-
nographic exhibitions.4 Between 1867 and 1910,
several important expositions with ethnographic
and Orientalist themes took place at different lo-
cations across Russia and Central Asia, the Em-
pire’s largest colony, all guided by the intention of
presenting something unfamiliar and uncommon
to the audience. At the same time, they ­encouraged
visitors to engage with the cultures of the newly
4 Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, The Expanding World of Art 1874–
1902, vol. 1 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press),
1988; Andrea Lermer and Avinoam Shalem, ed., After One
Hundred Years. The 1910 Exhibition “Meisterwerke moham-
medanischer Kunst” reconstructed (Leiden and Boston:
Brill, 2010); Giles Waterfield, The People’s Galleries, Art Mu-
seums and Exhibitions in Britain, 1800–1914 (New Haven
and London: Yale University Press, 2015).
Kouteinikova
joined territories that, now under Russia’s wings,
would soon face a promising scientific, ­cultural,
social, and economic future. Russian journalists
were surprised by the size of the crowds that these
exhibitions drew, especially given that there had
been as good as no public advertisements and the
organizers had no experience. Between May 30
and September 1, 1872, several thousand people
had visited the Moscow Polytechnic Exposition at
the Manezh building in front of the Kremlin, with
altogether eighty-six temporary pavilions at the
Aleksandrov Gardens, the Kremlin embankment
and the Varvarka square.5 Journalists highlighted
the immense popularity of the Turkestan pavilion:
its guidebooks were sold out within a week, which
forced the organizers to directly answer questions
from the public “from morning to night.”6 A con-
temporary description of this memorable event
has survived from a report on the Turkestan and
Caucasian pavilions assembled in 1873 by V.E.
Iversen, a member of the St. Petersburg Society for
Scientific Experiments and of the imperial Free
Economic Society: “Of all the exhibition’s pavil-
ions, the two of the Caucasus and Turkestan are
the most impressive. Both demonstrate the uncan-
ny side effects of technology and knowledge, and
both regions are the most recent addition of the
Russian Empire, differing from others by their
originality, nature and youthful economy. Every-
one longs to learn more about them, and whether
they are worthy of Russia […].”7 Obviously, this
5 In the same year 1872, two Moscow museums (the Historic
and the Polytechnic Museum) were inaugurated. Initiated
and supported by wealthy patrons, their collections in-
cluded objects from the exhibition, thereby responding to
an ever-growing interest in the Orient.
6 Yuri Nikitin, Vystavochnaya Arkhitektura Rossii xix-­
nachala xx v. [Russia’s Exhibition Architecture,
nineteenth–­early twentieth century] (St. Petersburg: Kolo,
2014), 85.
7 V. Iversen, Otchet o poezdke na Moskovskuy Politekh-
nicheskuy Vystavku [Report on the trip to the Moscow
Polytechnic Exhibition], Kavkaz I Turkestan na Politekh-
nicheskoi Vystavke 1872 goda. Russkii Turkestan. Istoriya.
­Liudi. Nravy [The Caucasus and Turkestan on the 1872
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Tashkent in St. Petersburg
statement by the Russian authorities has patron-
izing undertone. From 1865 to 1917, many of Rus-
sia’s political measures implemented in Turkestan
added to the modernization of Central Asia in
general. The image of an essentially Muslim Khan-
ate promoted during the exhibition helped to
slowly reshape the image of Turkestan as an essen-
tially Russian part of Central Asia.
It was due to the exhibition’s technological fo-
cus that it featured altogether more than twelve
thousand exponents, including photos yet exclud-
ing paintings; photography was considered a
­mechanical medium that well represented the
modernity of the era. Neither the committees nor
the juries of these first exhibitions had been inter-
national until the 1867 Moscow ethnographic ex-
hibition set new standards (fig. 11.1): any territory
newly acquired by the Russian Empire and that
wished to attend was now required to first identify
the specifics of a “national style.” Prizes were
awarded to those regions whose presentations
were regarded the most convincing and that of-
fered a great number of attractions to highlight
their uniqueness and independence.
Russia’s colonies were encouraged to become
the first hosts of these exhibitions so that in 1890,
the capital of Turkestan saw the inauguration
of the First International Exhibition, which cele-
brated the crafts and ornaments, the culture and
architecture of Central Asia’s past and present,
while also paving the way for its cultural and po-
litical assimilation into the Russian motherland.
2 Viva Tashkent!8
The same year, the famous French photographer
Paul Tournachon, best known by his pseudonym
­ xhibition. Russian Turkestan. History. People. ­Attitudes],
E Crown from turning it into an anti-Russian territory re-
Trudy Imperatorskogo Vol’nogo Ekonomicheskogo Ob-
schestva [Works of the imperial Free Economic ­Society],
(St. Petersburg, 1873), vol. 1.
8 Alexander Morrison, Russian Bureaucracy and the State.
Officialdom from Alexander iii to Vladimir Putin (New
York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2009).
153
Paul Nadar (1856–1939), arrived in Tashkent at
what one could call “the court” of Baron Aleksandr
B. Vrevsky (1834–1910), the fourth Russian Gover-
nor of Turkestan (1889–98). With the exception of
General Konstantin von Kaufman (1818–82),
Vrevsky was a more refined version of his prede-
cessors, Mikhail Cherniayev (1882–84) and Nikolai
Rosenbach (1884–89). A skilled self-promoter, he
knew how to shape his public image by the means
of his works and was memorialized in literature
written before and even long after his death.9 He
followed a clear-cut political agenda, according to
which Turkestan should echo Russia’s greatness, to
the envy of its enemies.10 Vresky, on the other
hand, was inspired by von Kaufman’s ideas and
equally devoted to put Central Asia on Europe’s
political, economic and the cultural map.
The Russian colonial office loved celebrations,
especially anniversaries. With the celebrations of
the 25th anniversary of Turkestan came the decla-
ration of the “inclusion of Central Asia under Rus-
sian rule”11 in 1888 by General-Adjutant N.O.
Rosenbach, who recommended Tashkent as venue
for the occasion. The official decree for nominat-
ing the exhibition committee was issued Septem-
ber 15, 1889,12 as N. Maev, the editor-in-chief of the
Tursktanskie Vedomosti, informs us.
9 Konstantin P. von Kaufman, Proekt vsepoddaneishego
otcheta Gen.-Adiutanta K.P. fon Kaufmana po grazhdan-
skomu upravleniu I ustroistvu v oblastiakh Turkestansk-
ogo general-gubernatorstva, 7 noyabria 1867 po 25 marta
1881g. [Project of the Report on the Public Management
and Organization in the Regions of Turkestan Govern-
ment-General, from November 7 to March 25, 1881] (St.
Petersburg: Izd. Voenno-uchenogo komiteta Glav. Shta-
ba, 1885) is one of the many meticulous official docu-
mentations by the first Governor-General.
10 Vrevsky received many awards for his efforts to prevent
the British presence in the Pamir region and the British
ceived: on 17 March 1898, he became a general and ap-
pointed member of the prestigious War Committee.
11 N. Maev, Turkstanskaya Vuystavka 1890g. Putevoditel
[Turkestan Exhibition of 1890, a guide] (Tashkent,
1890).
12 Maev, Turkstanskaya Vuystavka 1890g.
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154
Figure 11.1 Map of the Khanates of Bukhara, Khiva and Kokand and part of Russian Turkestan for the year 1873
© Collection of the State Historical Museum, Cartographic Department, Moscow
Since taking office in October 1889, the era of Alek-
sandr Vrevsky had seen a remarkable increase of
economic and cultural activities in Turkestan. Es-
pecially Tashkent attracted flocks of talented engi-
neers, architects and scholars, who arrived to this
Central Asian hub from as far as Saint Petersburg,
London, Stockholm, or Paris. Among them, we
find the French geographer Edouard Blanc (1858–
1923), the Swedish explorer Sven Hedin (1865–
1952), and the Russian architect Aleksey Benois
(1838–1902). Vrevsky had also been able to per-
suade Paul Nadar to leave Istanbul and travel to
the city to document the enormous leap that Rus-
sia’s leading colony had performed in little more
than twenty-five years.
Traveling to a region as remote as Central Asia
during the nineteenth century did not come with-
out certain challenges or dangers, and Nadar’s pas-
sage to Turkestan was no exception. In his L’Odysee
du Turkestan he gives a vivid account of the trou-
bles he encountered on the way, a travelogue that
shares many traits of a picaresque novel: Nadar left
Paris on August 18, 1890, where he took the famous
Orient Express to Istanbul. From there, he crossed
the Caucasus through Tbilisi and Baku, eventually
Kouteinikova
reaching Turkestan, where he spent two months
and traveled across the country, both with the
Trans-Caspian Railway and in horse carriages. The
vast amount of negatives he brought back to Paris
allow us to reconstruct his itinerary, including the
visited monuments and landscapes. The photos
furthermore document the economic develop-
ment of those days, particularly with regard to the
cutting-edge technology that Russia had imposed
upon Central Asia for its general modernization.
Besides, Nadar portrayed local people and authori-
ties, who believed that his work would help pro-
mote the image of a modern Russian Empire that
was equal to other great European powers even in
its outermost regions. Nadar’s photography was
very present in Tashkent, and his arrival was
­announced in advertisement and on billboards,
since the organizers hoped that his fame would
help to turn the whole enterprise into a great
success.
Even though a casual work, Nadar’s ethno-
graphic photography became extremely popular
throughout Europe, especially due to its striking
realism. From his Central Asian journey, he
brought more than 1,200 negatives back to France,
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Tashkent in St. Petersburg 155

many of which are on display in museums even

today, especially in Russia, France and Uzbekistan
(fig. 11.2).13
Previous exhibitions, particularly those with a
reformist approach, had mainly focused on Cen-
tral Asia’s clash with and lack of “modernity,”14
while at the same time revealing a profound inter-
est and fascination for its cultural heritage, which
they promoted through means that targeted
broader audiences.15 By analyzing a few of these
examples, I would like to highlight the significance
of commercial aspects for the organization and
conception of these ethnological exhibitions,
which is exactly the place where orientalism en-
ters the stage, since said exhibitions used Oriental-
izing environments as frameworks for displaying
pottery, metalwork, textiles, jewelry and glass- Figure 11.2 Paul Nadar at the Tashkent Exhibition,
works. Even real people from Central Asia and the September 19, 1890
Caucasus were employed for live demonstrations
of their traditional crafts, including carpet weav-
ing, embroidery, the making of yurts. By such According to Myriam Boussahba-Bravard and Re-
means, visitors were invited to immerse into a becca Rogers, the “World fairs […] were sites of
comprehensive experience of Central Asia, for spectacular displays that highlighted the nation’s
which the exhibition committee often met years achievements in technology and its increase in ag-
in advance and applied statistical data for antici- ricultural and industrial productivity.”16 The Ger-
pating the possible reactions of visitors. man philosopher Walter Benjamin, a historical
materialist and critical voice of commercialism,
13 <https://orexca.com/rus/poul_nadar.shtml>, accessed was concerned about these developments and
on March 15, 2018. noted that the exhibitions “allowed visitors to dis-
14 Modernity is a highly problematic analytical category, cover exotic architectural and material displays,
which usually includes the implicit or explicit assump- which frequently featured indigenous people en-
tion that Islamic cultures and societies were somehow
gaged in artisanal or artistic work.”17 Following
“non-modern,” stagnant or unchanging, until western
modernizers appeared on the scene, bringing with
them enlightenment, progress and reform.
15 The Russian press praised the rich ethnic diversity that western paintings. Without being categorized as “Is-
corresponded with popularized notions of the Orient. lamic” or even “art,” objects from the Crimea, Caucasus
However, they often conveyed stereotypes whose ori- or Central Asia, including the Russian colonies, were
gins can be traced back to the late eighteenth and early collected by ethnographic and anthropological muse-
nineteenth century, often reducing Islamic culture to a ums. Departments devoted to “Islamic arts” alone were
superficial beauty devoid of any deeper meaning. As not founded before the twentieth century.
stated by many scholars, the notion of “Islamic culture” 16 Myriam Boussahba-Bravard and Rebecca Rogers, “In-
as the product of one homogenous Muslim civilization troduction.” In Positioning Women in the World’s Fairs,
is a modernist and Western construct. In Russia, Islam- 1876–1937, Women in International and Universal Exhibi-
ic objects had been collected unsystematically for cen- tions, 1876–1937, ed. Myriam Boussahba-Bravard and
turies. Objects from the East entered Imperial collec- Rebecca Rogers (New York: Routledge, 2018), 4.
tions in the late eighteenth century, together with 17 Boussahba and Robergs, “Introduction,” 1.

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156
French historian Hippolyte Taine (1828–93),18 he
famously described them as “pilgrimage sites of
the commodity fetish.”19
In a similar vein, Benjamin attacked them for
glorifying “the exchange value of commodities,
creating frameworks wherein their use value
­recede into the background, opening phantasma-
gorias that people enter in order to be distracted.”20
Many features of the Tashkent Exhibition in-
deed shared phantasmagoric qualities, yet for oth-
er reasons than those described by Benjamin and
mostly connected with Baron Vrevsky’s ideas. A
cultivated military officer with a good instinct for
new trends, Vrevsky had traveled across Europe
and visited universal exhibitions. Inspired by the
national pavilions, Vresky’s basic idea was to bring
together all ethnic and religious groups of the Rus-
sian Empire to celebrate its unity in diversity while
at the same time ignoring all cultural differences,
such as between Orthodox Christians and Mus-
lims, between Sunni and Shia.
Vrevsky delegated most of his responsibilities
for the exhibition to the architect Aleksey Leon-
tievich Benois (1852–1937). Benois had arrived in
Tashkent in 1879 after having been recommended
by the director of the Imperial Art Academy. De-
scribed as “an honest person and minor architect,”21
he soon entered the higher ranks of Turkestan’s
society. At that time, Tashkent was characterized
by military architecture whose hybridity could be
labeled “Russian Asian.”22 Moreover, the new colo-
ny had seen the emergence of a number of signifi-
cant military, artistic and literature protagonists,
including the renowned Russian architect ­Wilhelm
18 Hyppolyt Taine, Notes on England, translated by Wil-
liam Fraser Rae (London: Thames and Hudson, 1957),
11.
19 Boussahba and Robergs, “Introduction,” 1.
20 Walter Benjamin, Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Cen-
tury (Cambridge and London: Harvard University
Press, 1999), 7.
21 Benjamin, Paris, Capital of the Nineteenth Century, 2.
22 Jeff Sahadeo, Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865–
1923 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007).
Kouteinikova
S. Heizelman,23 as well as famous merchants and
patrons, such as Nikolai Ivanov (1836–1906), Ivan
Pervushin (1842–71) and Duke Nikolai Romanov
(fig. 11.3). It was also home to several scientific and
scholarly organizations, with Tashkent’s town
committee being very influential for Benois’s work,
apart from his contacts to St. Petersburg.
His fascination for Orientalism was formed by
the people of his social network, beginning with
his early enthusiasm for the style, which was main-
tained and further developed by engagements in
the many artistic, scholarly and scientific circles of
St. Petersburg and Moscow, where his family had
once lived. He came from a well-established family
of liberal artists and architects, through which he
was able to discover Russian and Western Europe-
an high culture from an early stage onward.24 He
graduated in architecture at the Imperial Art
Academy in St Petersburg, where he had launched
his first architectural projects, with exhibition ar-
chitecture being his major specialization, which
is why he is considered Russia’s first exhibition ar-
chitect, renowned for his experiments in display
techniques.
His works demonstrate that he was no pure
functionalist, but also cared for decorative aspects,
something to be gathered from his model for an
Islamic courtyard that explores the potentiality of
the ornament system. Benois was a skillful
draughtsman, and his legacy provides us with
many drafts for exhibition pavilions.25
The 1890 Tashkent Exhibition lasted from sum-
mer to autumn and took place in the renovated
23 Prince Romanov asked Heizelman and Benois to design
his Tashkent Residency, which also housed the city’s
first art museum with a magnificent collection of West-
ern European, Russian and Central Asian artworks.
24 Eduard Zhdanov, Turkestansky Benua [Benois of Turke-
stan] (Moscow: Nashe Naslediye, 2011).
25 Anthony Hamber explored the phenomenon of draw-
ing for exhibitions during the 19th century, stating that
this art “could mediate the unprecedented flow of in-
formation and knowledge,” Hamber, Photography and
the 1851 Great Exhibition, Introduction, xix.
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Tashkent in St. Petersburg
Figure 11.3 W. Heizelman and A. Benois, Prince Romanov’s Tashkent Residency, 1891
© The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Uzbeksitan
Konstantinovsky Park.26 In many ways, the event
was more than a simple exhibition; it was an
­experiment on how Utopian ideas, reality, politics
and economics could be crammed into one single
26 Although not the first exhibition in Turkestan, the
Tashkent fair was the first to receive national and inter-
national recognition. The first, much more modest in-
dustrial and agricultural exhibition had been set up in
Samarkand in September 1876 and supervised by V.V.
Samolevsky, a Russian agricultural engineer who had
gathered his professional experience in the cotton in-
dustry of America. The exhibition focused on the dis-
play of various cultures and agricultural products, with
prizes including honorary diplomas for local khanates,
see the Turkestan News (Turkestanskie Vedomosti, Sep-
tember 1876).
157
space. Samarkand, Khiva and Bukhara were his-
toric places on display in two pavilions, dedicated
to either Persian or Turkish culture (figs. 11.4–11.5).
The intention of this division was to highlight two
cultural roots of Central Asia whose hybridiza-
tions had resulted in the birth of its rich artistic
traditions.
On a much more practical note, the Tashkent
Exhibition followed economic objectives involv-
ing the engagement of public administrations on
local, regional and national levels, making the ex-
hibition the perfect platform for promoting Turke-
stan and Central Asia in general. Accordingly, the
exhibition catalog discussed and advertised tours
across Central Asia, as well as the different exotic
pavilions in order to pique the interest of business
people.
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158
Figure 11.4 Gate to the Khiva Pavilion
Tashkent Exhibition, 1890. Albumen print.
Private collection
However, not everyone was convinced. Especially
members of the foreign press corps expressed
their skepticism. Captain A.C. Yate, a ­representative
of the Royal Geographic Society, wrote that
“[t]he first Exhibition ever held in Asia (India ex-
cepted) has been held at Tashkent, the capital of
Russian Turkestan […]. Its first Exhibition is inter-
esting, as indicative of the progress Russia is mak-
ing in Central Asia, where attention is now being
paid mainly to the internal development of the
country. Internal development may be but a pre-
lude to external extension: but in the meantime, it
is obvious that every nation is bound to make its
annexation pay. Turkestan and Trans-Caspia have
long been, and still are, a burden on the finances
of Russia, a country which, from the civilised Eu-
ropean point of view, cannot even provide satis-
factorily for its own administrative wants, far less
afford to maintain a number of impecunious de-
pendencies. Central Asia must be made to pay, and
therefore serious efforts are being made to develop
its agricultural, manufacturing, pastoral, and min-
ing industries.”27
27 A.C. Yate, “The Tashkent Exhibition 1890.” In Proceed-
ings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly
Kouteinikova
Figure 11.5 View of the Bukhara Pavilion
Albumen print, 1890. Private collection
This was not just the arrogant opinion of someone
fueled by ideas of the superiority of western civili-
zation. There really were factors that weakened
the quality of the colonial exhibitions, and espe-
cially two are noteworthy here: First, there was a
lack of harmonization between national policies
and commerce as it had become a common stan-
dard for the World Fairs, which by the time had
developed into commercial platforms for promot-
ing national and regional goods for the world mar-
ket. Although Russian policy-makers aspired to
imitate the same concept, their implementations
were far less successful. Secondly, there were
not any sufficiently trained experts for Central
Asian art at the time; the subject still was the realm
of passionate dilatants and aficionados with
romanticizing tendencies. The result was that
­
­Russian orientalists copied the vocabulary of the
­international fairs, but not of contemporary orient
museums or private collections.
The growing commercial activities in Turkestan
secured the presence of merchants, art dealers
and traders, who henceforth became indispens-
able for the foundation of Russian museums,
­ ecord of Geography (London: Royal Geographical So-
R
ciety, 1891), 21.
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Tashkent in St. Petersburg
e­specially those including ethnographic and
­archeological collections. Their goal was to display
the development and change of Islamic culture in
parallel to the emergence of academic disciplines
dedicated to its study.
3 The Ideology Behind the Popularization of
Islamic Art and Culture in Russia
The history of collecting in nineteenth-century
Russia thus maintained close ties to the simulta-
neous emergence of Islamic art history as a schol-
arly discipline, paralleled by the formation of
­pan-Islamism and pan-Turkism as important na-
tionalist ideologies. Liberal tendencies among the
Muslim intelligentsia of the Russian Empire pro-
moted the merger of both movements during the
1880s, with the creation of a reformist program
known as Jadadism, whose ideas were further de-
veloped by a Crimean-Tartar thinker, Ismail Gas-
prinsky (1851–1914). Gasprinsky’s political concept
can be summed up by the four key words dilde,
fikirde, iste, birlik, propagating unity, language,
faith, and labor. His major work Russia’s Muslim
World. Thoughts, Notes and Memoirs of a Muslim
explores the possibilities of how to blend Russian
and Islamic culture. “In the future,” he writes, “Rus-
sia will become one of the most noticeable Mus-
lim nations.” This did not imply an exclusion of
Christianity. Instead, Gasprinsky propagated a
form of coexistence without “evil, jealousy or un-
kindness,” which he viewed as an essential precon-
dition for political stability in Tsarist Russia.28
Integrating Muslim history into Russian identi-
ty justified Gasprinsky’s proposal to include Islam-
ic artifacts, especially from Central Asia and the
Crimea, into the museums of Saint Petersburg and
to define Kazan, Crimean and Baku as cultures in-
dependent from the Ottoman Empire. A striking
28 Ismail Gasprinsky, The Russian Muslimdom (Simfero-
pol: Spiro Publishing House, 1881); also see <http://in-
telros.ru/index.php?newsid=200>, accessed on April
15, 2017.
159
aspect is that he openly admitted the unhistorical
character of his approach, writing that it had never
been his intention to provide readers with a his-
torically accurate chronology of Muslim culture all
along. Instead, his book was conceived as a politi-
cal manifesto to offer a highly idiosyncratic and
subjective perspective on Russian Orientalism.
Contemporary historians of the Muslim com-
munities in nineteenth-century Russia, such as
Mustafa Tuna, Paolo Sartori or Danielle Ross, solve
the conundrum of the Jadid ideology by ignoring
“earlier patterns and cycles of change” within the
Islamic world of Central Asia, and by focusing on
its “reformers” instead.29
In his Imperial Russia’s Muslims: Islam, Empire,
and European Modernity, 1788–1914 Mustafa Tuna
hence offers a much more theoretical reflection on
Jadidism, with one crucial question mostly absent
from his book being how Jadid ideas had actually
developed into a reformist program in the first
place. Devin DeWeese, on the other hand, argues
that modernity is a category that can be used to
cover both hidden and exposed structures of Mus-
lim communities, thereby avoiding the assump-
tion that they had been “stagnant, unchanging”
until they were eventually “awakened” by Russian
colonizers.30 It therefore seems that Gasprinsky
and, more currently, Mustafa Tuna entertained a
very positive attitude toward modernism, as both
stressed the advantages of Western enlightenment
and reformist programs for transforming Mus-
lim communities, thereby ignoring the sig­ nif­
i­
cance and persistence of Islamic traditions. Their
­political agendas were thus based on a modernis-
tic idea that DeWeese has labeled the “proto-­
fundamentalist” desire to establish homogenous
societies, stressing the “narrow adherence” of
29 Alexander Morrison, “Review: Muslims and Modernity
in Russian Empire,” The Slavonic and East European re-
view, 94, 4 (2016): 715–24, 716.
30 Devin DeWeese, “It was a Dark and Stagnant Night (‘til
the Jadids Brought the Light): Clichés, Biases, and False
Dichotomies in the Intellectual History of Central
Asia,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the
Orient, 59, 1–2 (2006): 37–92.
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160
Figure 11.6 View of the Central Asian Pavilion in Moorish style
aleksander n. pomerantzev, Nizhniy Novgorod Ethnographic Exhibition, 1896, Kunavino district. rgali,
fond 60, file 680, Moscow
r­eformers and “their disdain for centuries of Is-
lamic theological and juridical scholarship and
their hostility to Sufism and to the traditional
­social practices (feasting, singing, dancing) associ-
ated with life-cycle celebrations among Central-
Asian Muslims.”31
4 Conclusion
Scholarly research on Russia’s early colonial exhi-
bitions, the emergence of colonial museums and
the presence of Central Asia on said exhibitions32
31 Devin DeWeese, “It was a Dark and Stagnant Night.”
32 The most recent publications on international exhibi-
tions and natural history, colonial and ethnographic
museums in Europe omit Russia and its colonies, see
Anthony Hamber, Photography and the 1851 Great exhi-
bition, (Newcastle, Delaware and London, 2018);
Kouteinikova
is still in its infancy and has not yet sufficiently
dealt with the period when Islamic art from this
region reached St. Petersburg and its display. What
is clear so far, however, is that Russian collections
of ethnographic specimens and Islamic artworks
were important agents for the transmission of
knowledge, culture and history. More and more
expeditions into Central Asia provided more and
more objects that helped broaden the knowledge
and understanding of this cultural region altogeth-
er. Accordingly, the nature of these collections be-
came more complex with every new object and
involved scholar.
­Kathleen Davidson, Photography, Natural Science and
nineteenth century Museum (London: Routledge, 2017);
also the now classical study Anne Maxwell, Colonial
Photography and Exhibitions: representations of the
“Native” and the Making of European Identities (London
and New York: Leicester University Press, 2000).
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Tashkent in St. Petersburg
For a long time, the existence of Russian mu-
seums depended on the Russian Academy of Sci-
ence, whose members were important patrons of
orientalist collections. Apart from that, the Acad-
emy funded expeditions of people such as Niko-
lai Veselovsky and Vasilii Bartold, who brought
large collections of naturalia and cultural arte-
facts to Saint Petersburg, which would later
become the material foundation of several
­ so dniq smerti pokoritelia i ustroiteliq Turkestanskogo
important exhibitions, including the one at
­ kraya general-adiutanta K.P. fon Kaufmana i-go [The
Tavrichesky Palace.
The example of the Tashkent Exhibition un-
derscores how much the display of Islamic art
changed between the nineteenth and the twenti-
eth centuries, mostly because organizers wanted
to cater to the changing tastes of the visitors
(fig. 11.6). Whereas the late nineteenth century fo-
cused on antiquities and archeological findings,
these would soon after be banished from display
and moved to the archives. This, of course, also
had to do with the rise of the Soviet Union and its
anti-religious agenda. In many ways, this process
thus marked a backlash in the positive perception
and evaluation of Islamic art, which seems even
more regrettable after one realizes that with its
over fifty million Muslims the Russian Empire
had once been the world’s largest Muslim
empire.
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Sahadeo, Jeff. Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865–
1923. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007.
Taine, Hyppolyt. Notes on England, translated by
­William Fraser Rae. London: Thames and Hudson,
1957.
Von Dreier, Vladimir. Na Zzakate Imperii [At the Twi-
light of Empire]. Madrid: Izdanie Russkogo Zaru-
bezhya, 1965.
Von Kaufman, Konstantin P. Proekt vsepoddaneishego
otcheta Gen.-Adiutanta K.P. fon Kaufmana po
grazhdanskomu upravleniu I ustroistvu v oblastiakh
Turkestanskogo general-gubernatorstva, 7 noyabria
1867 po 25 marta 1881g. [Project of the Report on
the Public Management and Organization in the
Regions of Turkestan Government-General, from
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162
November 7 to March 25, 1881]. St. Petersburg :
Izd. Voenno-­ uchenogo komiteta Glav. Shtaba,
1885.
Waterfield, Giles. The People’s Galleries, Art Museums
and Exhibitions in Britain, 1800–1914. New Haven and
London: Yale University Press, 2015.
Yate, A.C. “The Tashkent Exhibition 1890.” In Proceed-
ings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly
Kouteinikova
record of Geography, 21–27. London: Royal Geo-
graphical Society, 1891.
Zhdanov, Eduard. Turkestansky Benua [Benois of Turke-
stan, towards the 170th anniversary]. Moscow : Nashe
Naslediye, 2011.
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 Part 4
Collectors and Networks

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 Chapter 12
“Troppo amanti degli oggetti orientali”?
Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, a Collector of Islamic Art in Nineteenth-Century Florence
Ariane Varela Braga
Once the cradle of the Renaissance, in the second
half of the nineteenth century Florence became
an important center for oriental studies, thanks to
scholars such as Michele Amari (1806–89) or An­
gelo De Gubernatis (1840–1913). The city’s rele­
vance in this area was confirmed when it hosted
the Fourth International Congress of Orientalists
in 1878. However, this interest in the Orient was
not limited to the sphere of scholars, it also be­
came tangible through exhibitions, popular festi­
vals, the arts and architecture, as well as private
collections.1 Provided that the presence of Islamic
artefacts in the city can be traced back to the times
of the Medici, during the second half of the nine­
teenth century Florence became the home of sev­
eral public and private collections,2 thus partaking
1 See Franco Cardini, “Toscana moresca. Ovvero il Turco in
Toscana e qualche altra curiosità orientalistica dell’­
Ottocento,” Museo Stibbert Firenze (Turcherie) (2001): 5–8.
Giovanna Damiani and Mario Scalini, ed., Islam specchio
d’Oriente, rarità e preziosi nelle collezioni statali fiorentine,
published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same
title, organized by and presented at Palazzo Pitti, Florence,
April 23–September 1, 2002 (Florence: Sillabe, 2002). Cris­
tiano Guarneri, “El Alhambra de Florencia : un ‘país de los
juguetes,’ burgués a caballo entro los siglos xix y xx,” in
Orientalismo, arte y arquitectura entre Granada y Venecia,
ed. Juan Calatrava and Guido Zucconi. Madrid: Abada,
2012, 303–25. Filipa Lowndes Vicente, Altri Orientalismi.
L’India a Firenze 1860–1900 (Florence: Florence University
Press, 2012). Maria Giovanna Stasolla, “The ‘Orient’ in Flor­
ence (19th century). From Oriental Studies to the Collec­
tion of Islamic Art, from a Reconstruction of the ‘Orient’ to
the Exotic Dream of the Rising Middle Class,” Oriente Mod-
erno, n.s., 1 (2013): 3–31.
2 Particularly noteworthy are Frederick Stibbert’s collec­
tion at the Stibbert Museum, as well as Costantino
­Ressman, Louis and Jean-Baptiste Carrand or Baron Giulio
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_015
in the internationally shared interest in the
Orient.
This article3 is devoted to a little remembered
and now dispersed collection of Islamic art: the
collection of Marquis Ferdinando Panciatichi
Ximenes d’Aragona (1813–97).4 Nowadays, his
name is mainly associated with his spectacular
Villa of Sammezzano (figs. 12.1–12.2).5 Among the
F­ ranchetti’s collections at the National Museum of Bargel­
lo. On the Islamic collections in Florence in particular, see
Giovanni Curatola, “Il collezionismo ottocentesco di arte
islamica a Firenze,” Studi e ricerche di collezionismo e museo-
grafia, Firenze 1820–1920 (Quaderni del Seminario di Storia
della critica d’arte della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) 2
(1985): 379–90; Daniela Cecutti, “Commercio di opera d’arte
islamica. Note sul mercato a Firenze tra Otto e Novecento,”
mdccc 1800, no. 2 (2013), <http: //doi.org/10.14277/2280-
8841/MDCCC-2-13-8>; Daniela Cecutti, Una miniera inesau-
ribile. Collezionisti e antiquari di arte islamica. L’Italia e il
contesto internazionale tra Ottocento e Novecento, (Flor­
ence : Maschietto Editore, 2013). Alessandro Diana, “Il col­
lezionismo d’arte islamica a Firenze fra Otto e Novecento,”
in Islam e Firenze. Arte e collezionismo dai Medici al Novecen-
to, ed. Giovanni Curatola (Florence : Giunti, 2018): 170–185.
3 The Italian quotation in the chapter title is based on a
statement made by Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes
d’Aragona in 1867, see Alessandro Foresi and Ferdinando
Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, La Galleria degli Uffizi e il
Museo nazionale del Palazzo del Potestà Controversia fra il
dottore Alessandro Foresi e il marchese Ferdinando Panci-
atichi (Florence : 1867), 9.
4 The only reference to Panciatichi’s collection I could find
was Cecutti, Una miniera inesauribile, 251–52.
5 See Maria Cristina Tonelli, “Alhambra Anastatica,” fmr 4
(1982): 31–60; Claudia Cerelli, “Il Marchese Ferdinando
Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona e la Villa neomoresca di
Sanmezzano,” Master thesis, University of Florence, 2000–
1; Emanuele Masiello and Ethel Santacroce, ed., Ferdinan-
do Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, Sammezzano e il Sogno
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166
Figure 12.1 Regello, Villa of Sammezzano, exterior view, Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, mid-1840s–early
1900s
© Bildarchiv Foto Marburg/Rabatti & Domingie Photography
richest aristocrats of his time, Panciatichi was a
very active protagonist of Florence’s political life
during the 1860s. A liberal, anticlerical, and true
amateur, his broad interests ranged from chemis­
try to botany, optics, esotericism, architecture, and
the arts. A typical gentleman of the nineteenth
century, his taste was eclectic. His private gallery
and museum at Palazzo Panciatichi-Ximenes in
Borgo Pinti6 displayed a large collection of Renais­
sance paintings and sculptures, several objects of
d’Oriente 1813–2013, proceedings of the conference of the
same title at Castello di Sammezzano, May 31–June 1, 2013
(Livorno : Sillabe, 2014); Ariane Varela Braga, “Building a
Dream: the Alhambra in the Villa of Sammezzano,” in The
Power of Symbols. The Alhambra in a Global Perspective, ed.
Francine Giese and Ariane Varela Braga (Bern: Peter Lang,
2018): 335–53.
6 After 1850, Panciatichi chose Palazzo Ximenes as his main
residence, to which he transferred the painting collection
he had inherited from his family, which had previously
been kept at Palazzo Panciatichi in Via Larga. See Cerelli,
Varela Braga
the decorative arts, including ceramics, textiles,
Chinese and Japanese porcelains and bronzes, as
well as European and Islamic weapons.
Based on original and unpublished archive ma­
terial, an first overview of Panciatichi’s collection
of Islamic art will be given in the following, with a
focus on his Islamic weapons. The article will offer
preliminary insights into his strategies of acquisi­
tion and network-building, while also briefly ad­
dressing nineteenth-century restoration practices.
1 The “Orient” at the Palazzo del Podestà in
1865
1865 was an important year for Florence. From the
capital of the former Grand Duchy of Tuscany it
“Il Marchese Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona,”
93.
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Troppo amanti degli oggetti orientali
Figure 12.2 Regello, Villa of Sammezzano, Sala delle Stelle (Hall of Stars), Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, early
1860s
© Bildarchiv Foto Marburg/Rabatti & Domingie Photography
had been promoted to the capital of the new-born
Kingdom of Italy. The city had hosted the first ma­
jor National Exhibition in September 1861 and now
was the protagonist of two important events orga­
nized in the renovated Palazzo del Podestà. These
events were part of celebrations for the sixth cen­
tenary of Dante’s birth: the Mostra Dantesca (Exhi­
bition on Dante) and the Mostra dei Tempi di Mez-
zo e del Risorgimento (Exhibition of the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance). Both carried strong
cultural and political messages that emphasized
the city’s glorious past and its promising future.7
7 On the 1865 exhibitions, see the groundbreaking work by
Paola Barocchi and Giovanna Gaeta Bertelà, “Ipotesi per
un museo nel Palazzo del Podestà tra il 1858 e il 1865,” Studi
e ricerche di collezionismo e museografia, Firenze 1820–1920
(Quaderni del Seminario di Storia della critica d’arte della
167
The Mostra dei Tempi di Mezzo was dedicated to
the decorative and applied arts and relied on pub­
lic and private loans. It opened on May 22, with the
presence of King Vittorio Emanuele ii (r. 1861–78),
who for this occasion had arrived from Turin. It is
reported that the King “for a long time examined
the collection of weapons” in the first room and
expressed his satisfaction when seeing the objects
that belonged to “Panciatichi, Stibbert, Toscanelli,
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa) 2 (1985): 211–378 and
Barbara Bertelli, “Un museo in divenire. Il Bargello, le sue
collezioni e il mercato antiquario fiorentino : protagonisti
e circolazioni delle opere d’arte,” in Il Medioevo in viaggio,
ed. Benedetta Chiesi, Illaria Ciseri and Beatrice Paolozzi
Strozzi, (Florence: Giunti, 2015): 41–63.
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168
Spence [and] La Roche Pouchin.”8 The display of
weapons had a long tradition among the nobility.
In 1833, the Royal Armory of Turin was assembled
after models in Madrid and Vienna. Benefiting
from the admiration of Romanticism for the
­Middle Ages, the interest for historical weapons
increased during the second half of the nineteenth
century, and private collections emerged all over
Europe, including Italy, which the examples of
Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan or Frederick
Stibbert in Florence clearly attest. The Englishman
had presented some of his weapons at the Mostra
dei Tempi di Mezzo together with Panciatichi. At
that time however, Stibbert’s collection of Islamic
weapons was still in its infancy,9 and he thus
loaned German, Italian, French and Spanish—but
apparently no oriental—pieces to the exhibition.10
In contrast, Panciatichi, known for his “beau­
tiful collection of oriental weapons, bronzes and
terracotta,”11 offered several oriental blades,
8 “[S]i trattiene lungamente ad esaminare la raccolta
delle armi”, in An. 1865, 2, this and all subsequent trans­
lations in this article are by the author.
9 Stibbert acquired his first Islamic weapons in 1860 and
1861. After that, it took him almost 10 years until he pur­
chased new objects of this type, as Becattini has shown
in her thorough analysis of the collection’s early stages.
See Martina Becattini, “La nascita della collezione isl­
amica di Frederick Stibbert,” in Islam, armi e armature
della collezione di Frederick Stibbert, ed. Francesco Ci­
vita (Florence: Centro Di, 2014): 20 and Martina Becat­
tini, “La collezione Stibbert,” in Cavalieri, Mamelucchi e
Samurai. Armature di guerrieri d’Oriente e d’Occidente
delle collezione del Museo Stibbert di Firenze, ed. Enrico
Colle (Livorno : Sillabe, 2014): 25.
10 Cf. the “Nota degli oggetti di proprietà del Signor
Federigo Stibbert che fanno parte della pubblica
mostra della Esposizione,” dated May 12 1865 (asmb,
Filza 6, Posizione 69). This exhibition had no catalog
nor any list of exhibited objects. The museum archive,
however, keeps a list of items intended for it.
11 “[B]ella collezione di armi orientali, di bei bronzi e di
terracotta,” from a letter of the “Presidenza della Com­
missione Conservatrice degli oggetti d’arte e monu­
menti storici al Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione,
­Proposta per una esposizione nel Palazzo del Podestà,”
Varela Braga
i­ncluding thirty-one Turkish, Persian, Moroccan,
Kurdish and Circassian knives and daggers, nine­
teen Turkish and Persian sabers as well as nine In­
dian swords.12
The exhibition represented a decisive step to­
wards the foundation of a national museum.13 This
idea had been discussed for several years and fol­
lowed role models in other countries, particularly
the Musée de Cluny in Paris and the South Kens­
ington Museum in London.14 During his visit, King
Vittorio Emanuele had publicly “manifested the
desire that [the exhibition] could become per­
manent.”15 Thus, loans from Panciatichi, Stibbert
and other collectors resulted in the initial and pro­
visional nucleus of the new Museo Nazionale del
Bargello (founded in June 1865). To supervise the
institution’s organization, a council of six mem­
bers, including Panciatichi,16 was established.
dated March 18, 1865 and mentioned in Barocchi and
Gaeta Bertelà, “Ipotesi per un museo,” 252; a transcrip­
tion is found in there as well (appendix lx, 356).
12 Cf. the “Nota di Armi Orientali che si consegnano alla
Deputazione per l’Esposizione di Oggetti del ­Medioevo,
Armi e curiosità nel Palazzo del Potestà, nel mese di
Maggio 1865” (asmb, Filza 6, Posizione 254).
13 Panciatichi was directly involved in the organization of
the exhibition. In June 1864, when the president of the
Società Promotrice di Belle Arti had asked to use the
rooms of the Palazzo di Podestà, he became part of its
organizing council, along with Frederick Stibbert and
six others. See Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, “Ipotesi per
un museo,” 250–52.
14 A precedent was the 1861 Mostra di Casa Guastalla, or­
ganized by the antiquarian Marco Guastalla. On the
first years of the Museum of Bargello: Barocchi and
Gaeta Bertelà, “Ipotesi per un museo.” On the impor­
tance of the transnational perspective, see Luca Giaco­
melli, “Il Medieoevo al Bargello. Il percorso di un’idea
tra storia, collezioni e allestimenti,” in Il Medioevo in
viaggio, ed. Benedetta Chiesi, Illaria Ciseri, and Bea­
trice Paolozzi Strozzi (Florence: Giunti 2015): 26–39.
15 “[M]anifestatò il desiderio che questa bella esposizione
potesse diventare permanente”, in An., “Mostra dei
Tempi di Mezzo”, La Nazione, May 14 1865, 2.
16 The council consisted of the Marquis Ferdinando di
Breme, Senator Sartirano, William Blundell Spence,
cav. (cavaliere) Giuseppe Toscanelli, cav. Aurelio Gotti
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Troppo amanti degli oggetti orientali
However, the initial phase of the museum was
somewhat chaotic, and there was no lack of disac­
cord. Alessandro Foresi (1814–88), a surgeon, well-
known local art amateur and occasional art dealer,
was a member of the museum’s committee and
therefore an important figure during its first years.
He was involved in the organization of the Mostra
and launched a fierce attack in the newspaper Il
Diritto of February 1867, asking “why [is there] so
much oriental trinkets, which with its quantity
and obese forms smothers the sublime parts of
Italian intelligence?”17 Foresi criticized the compe­
tence of the museum’s council and questioned its
ability to choose and select the proper objects to
be included to the national museum, in particular
since the “Marquis Panciatichi [was] too fond of
oriental objects.”18 A few days later, Panciatichi re­
sponded in a public letter to the editor-in-chief of
the newspaper, stressing the importance of the
Orient for Tuscan art and architecture. For this
purpose, he referred to the commercial trade that
had long united Florence and Pisa with the East,
adding that “[…] more specifically, if I sent oriental
objects to the museum this was because some
studies are unknown to us, and it seemed that in
some way I could raise the awareness of the public
by sending little known and less studied objects.”19
and Marquis Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes d’Ara­
gona. It was seconded by a committee; among its
­members were Passerini, Garriod, Foresi and others.
See Barocchi and Gaeta Bertelà, “Ipotesi per un museo,”
255.
17 “[P]erché tanta robuccia orientale, che schiaccia con la
sua quantità e con le sue forme obesi I parti sublimi
dell’ingegno italiano?”, Foresi and Panciatichi Ximenes
d’Aragona, La Galleria degli Uffizi e il Museo nazionale,
12.
18 “[M]archese Panciatichi troppo amante degli oggetti
orientali”, Foresi and Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona,
La Galleria degli Uffizi e il Museo nazionale, 9.
19 “[…] se più specialmente ho inviato oggetti orientali al
museo egli è perché certi studi sono affatto ignoti fra
noi, e mi sembrava che a qualche titolo potessi merita­
re la riconoscenza del pubblico inviando oggetti poco
conosciuti e meno studiati”, Foresi and Panciatichi
169
Nonetheless, the controversy was soon settled,
for Panciatichi had already announced the with­
drawal of his collections from the museum.20 It
would not be before 1888 that the museum would
again welcome Islamic objects with Louis Car­
rand’s (1827–88) donations. Foresi’s complaint
raised the question of Italy’s Islamic heritage and
whether to include or exclude it from the process
of nation-building. Even though this is a subject
certainly worth of further investigation, it however
exceeds the focus of this contribution by far.
2 Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes
d’Aragona, a Collector of Islamic Arms in
Florence in the 1860s
Whereas Panciatichi’s later life was marked by a
preference for solitude and objection to public life,
during the 1860s, when Florence was still Italy’s
capital, he became a vivid protagonist of the local
cultural scene.21 As mentioned above, he had met
Stibbert at the Palazzo del Podestà in 1865, al­
though it seems they had never been very close,22
Ximenes d’Aragona, La Galleria degli Uffizi e il Museo
nazionale, 19.
20 Foresi and Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, La Galleria
degli Uffizi e il Museo nazionale, 22. The reasons for his
withdrawal are unknown. On this subject, see the con­
troversy documented in Foresi and Panciatichi
Ximenes d’Aragona, La Galleria degli Uffizi e il Museo
nazionale. Foresi’s complaint raised the issue of Italy’s
Islamic heritage and whether to include or exclude it
from nation-building.
21 For a list of academies and societies he belonged to or
was associated with, see Ethel Santacroce, “Ferdinando
Panciatchi Ximenes d’Aragona e il suo archivio tra pub­
blico e private,” in Ferdinando Panciatichi Ximenes
d’Aragona, Sammezzano e il Sogno d’Oriente 1813–2013,
ed. Emanuele Masiello and Ethel Santacroce (Livorno :
Sillabe, 2014): 48.
22 Kirsten Aschengreen Piacenti, “Panciatichi e Stibbert :
due orientalisti a confronto,” in Ferdinando Panciatichi
Ximenes d’Aragona, Sammezzano e il Sogno d’Oriente
1813–2013, ed. Emanuele Masiello and Ethel Santacroce
(Livorno: Sillabe, 2014), 81.
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170
and also encountered the British painter and art
dealer William Blundell Spence (1814–1900), who
belonged to an international network of art collec­
tors. Spence worked as an agent for the South
Kensington Museum and provided it with Italian
paintings and sculptures, but also with majolica
and Hispano-Islamic wares.23 Panciatichi’s art
­collection was not unknown to the world of inter­
national collectors: In 1861, the South Kensington
Museum had apparently bought a Della Robbia
terracotta displayed in his gardens in Borgo Pinti,24
and Charles Lock Eastlake (1793–1865), the direc­
tor of the National Gallery in London, did not miss
to visit Palazzo Panciatichi while in Florence.25
But what about Panciatichi’s Islamic collection?
A note dating from July and August 1864 mentions
a short list of “objects purchased in Paris for the
Armory.”26 That summer, Panciatichi traveled to
Paris and London, where he visited the Tower and
the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.27 The only surviv­
ing receipt from his purchases in Paris indicates
that he bought “an Indian sword and an Indian
dagger” as well as “an axe”28 from the shop of the
23 John Fleming, “Art Dealing in the Risorgimento ii,” The
Burlington Magazine, 121, no. 918 (1979): 571. On Spence,
also see John Fleming, “Art Dealing in the Risorgimento
ii,” The Burlington Magazine 121, no. 917 (1979): 492–4,
497–500, 502–8 and Donata Levi, “William Blundel
Spence a Firenze.” Studi e ricerche di collezionismo e
museografia, Firenze 1820–1920 (Quaderni del Seminar­
io di Storia della critica d’arte della Scuola Normale Su­
periore di Pisa) 2 (1985): 85–149.
24 Il Giornale Universale, February 23, 1861, 127. It has not
been possible to identity the item in the V&A
collections.
25 See Susanna Avery-Quash, “The Travel Notebooks of Sir
Charles Eastlake.” The Volume of the Walpole Society,
n°73, 2 vols., 2011, 56–9 and 68. On Panciatichi and Ber­
nard Berenson, see Santacroce, “Ferdinando Panci­
atichi Ximenes d’Aragona”, 50–1.
26 “[O]ggetti acquistati a Parigi per l’Armeria dall’Illmo
Signore Mar. Ferdinando Panciatichi, nel mese di luglio
e agosto 1864” (asfi, pxa 160, n. 56).
27 asfi, pxa 160, n. 59.
28 “[U]n sabre indien et poignard indien” and “une hache”
(asfi, pxa 160, n. 56).
Varela Braga
armorer Salmon, 6 quai de la Mégisserie, who was
the same dealer for modern and antique armory
from whom Frederick Stibbert had purchased Is­
lamic weapons three years earlier.29 Contrary to
Stibbert, however, who was a constant traveler and
purchased great parts of his collection on the in­
ternational market, it is believed that Panciatichi
spent most of his life in Florence, where he bought
artworks from local merchants and antiquarians.
It is not clear when exactly his passion for Islamic
weaponry began, but it certainly developed in
close relation to the restoration of his Villa of
­Sammezzano, since there is a receipt from May 10,
1845, stating that he paid 53.68 lire for “a Turkish
saber with golden letters marked on its blade” at
Stefano Torri’s shop in Via Rondini.30 Fifteen years
later, he became more ambitious and sought after
larger pieces: On November 16, 1860, he purchased
a complete “Persian armor composed of a jacket
with iron mesh, helmet, lance, mace, axe and ham­
mer, and a scimitar with an inlaid silver handle”
from the Florentine art dealer Jean Freppa for alto­
gether 1,000 Lire.31 His interest in antique weapons
seems to have increased notably during the early
1860s, for as of 1864 we find annual reports on
“Money for Armory (Capitali d’Ameria),” which re­
veals that Panciatichi purchased oriental knives,
swords, and Persian armors on a regular basis.32
Whenever pieces were not available in Flor­
ence, he engaged agents. For July 15, 1866, a refund
“to Scarletti” is mentioned, concerning “8 pieces or
oriental weapons sold for L[ire] 1,400 by the French
29 Becattini, “La collezione Stibbert,” 25.
30 “[U]na sciabola Turca con lama marcata a lettere d’oro”
(asfi, pxa 230, n.n.). The works on Sammezzano start­
ed in the early 1840s.
31 “[A]rmature persiana composta di una giacchetta con
maglia di ferro, elmo, lancia, mazza d’arma, accetta e
martello, ed una scimitarra con manico intarsiato
d’argento” (asfi, pxa 156, n. 133). Jean Freppa is the
same person from whom Stibbert had purchased some
of his first Islamic weapons (see Becattini, “La collezi­
one Stibbert,”25).
32 See, for instance, the “Capitali d’Ameria” in asfi, pxa
160, n. 51 or pxa 161, n. 498.
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Troppo amanti degli oggetti orientali
Minister,” whereas on July 22 of the same year, Gi­
useppe Sartori received a reimbursement of 540
lire for “weapons bought from Signore Micchetti in
Venice.”33
An exchange of correspondence between
Count Stanislao Bentivoglio d’Aragona (1821–89)
and Panciatichi brings further light into his net­
work as well as his practice as an art collector. In a
letter from Smyrna from November 28, 1862, Count
Bentivoglio, who was General Consul of France
and had been an art collector for a long time,34
brought a Persian armor to the Marquis’s attention
that he believed would be of great interest for him:
“I thought of you, for I do not want to buy oriental
weapons anymore […]. I was brought a helmet, a
bracelet, two spears, and a chainmail. All very
splendid and in perfect condition, all pieces en­
crusted with gold. The helmet is of an extraordi­
nary beauty; I’ve seen nothing like it before. I
­immediately thought of you and asked for the
price. They want 10,000 Turkish piasters for every­
thing, which would be 2,000 francs, but I think that
you could [already] have everything for a thou­
sand five hundred francs. The individual who sells
all the armor is a Persian from a good family based
here; I asked him to leave me all for two months
and that I might buy everything at a reasonable
price later. […] [It would be] at the expense of the
enchantment of Paris, since for this item I would
estimate a price of at least 3,000 [.] You know that
I am a connoisseur of the art, and if he turned it
over for 1,500 francs, I would not hesitate for a mo­
ment to take it. I don’t want it for myself now; I
have spent a lot of money in Europe and do not
possess the [necessary] funds[.] And therefore, as
I said, I do not wish to take any more armory, for
33 “[A]llo Scarletti [per] 8 pezzi di armi orientali venduta
L 1400 dal Ministro di Francia”; “armi acquistate dal Sig.
re Micchetti di Venezia” (asfi, pxa 161, n. 498).
34 On Bentivoglio, see Bertolo Bertolaso, Il conte Stanislao
Bentivoglio d’Aragona : Firenze 1821–1889, console
generale francese nell’Imperio Ottomano (Florence : Leo
S. Olschki, 2004).
171
one acquisition brings forth another, and thus one
is [eventually] buried in mountains of expenses.
But you listen to me and take it; you certainly do
not have anything this beautiful in your armory.”35
Panciatichi replied on December 7, 1862, thanking
Bentivoglio for his kindness of remembering “my
desires and contributing to satisfy them,”36 but
also explaining that he could easily find something
similar elsewhere. Instead, he would be much
more interested in obtaining a complete armor:
“[…] You added that the helmet is beautiful, but in
truth I possess already three helmets; I would not
care for a fourth. […] I would have preferred if
there were a steel bow with golden inlays […]. I do
not want a simple-knitted coat of gold […], but
would instead like there to be a breastplate made
of one piece with golden inlays on the front and
back […]. In fact, the armor I saw in Paris that
­costed 2,000 francs was wrought with a similar
35 “Ho pensato a Lei io non volendo più comprare armi
orientali […] Mi è stato portato un’elmo, un bracciale,
due lance ed una cotta di maglia. Il tutto splendississi­
mo [sic] ed in perfetto stato, tutti i pezzi incrostati in
oro. L’Elmo [sic] poi è di una bellezza straordinaria,
non ne ho mai veduti cosi. Ho subito pensato a Lei e ne
ho dimandato [sic] il prezzo. Mi hanno chiesti di tutto
assieme 10,000 piastre turche, il che farebbe 2,000 fchi,
ma credo che con mille cinquecento franchi si potreb­
be portare via tutto. L’individuo che vende quest’­
armatura completa è un persiano di buona famiglia
stabilito qua; gli ho dimandato [sic] di lasciarmi tutto
per due mesi e che forse dopo avrei comperato tutto
assieme ad un prezzo ragionevole. […] Io stimo questa
roba ai prezzi degli incanti di Parigi per lo meno a 3,000
fchi sa se sono conoscitore in questo genere e se me la
dessero per 1,500 fchi non esiterei un momento a pren­
derla. Per me adesso non la voglio, ho speso molti de­
nari in Europa e non sono in fondi e poi come dicevo
non voglio più prendere armi, perché una compra
trascina l’altra e ci si sotterra in monte di denari. Ma mi
ascolti e la prenda Lei e certamente non ha nulla di cosi
bella nella sua armeria,” (asfi, pxa 160, n.n.).
36 “[M]iei desideri e prestando l’opera sua per soddisfarli,”
(asfi, pxa 160, n.n.)
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172
­ recision[…], that is to say, a beautiful golden
p numerous art collectors, amongst which we appar­
breastplate […], two bracelets as well, a helmet,
plus a very large and very beautiful shield; all this
had belonged to Soltikoff [sic] […and] was of great
beauty.”37
Not only does this quote prove how demanding
Panciatichi was as a collector—he had very clear
ideas about how he wanted to develop his collec­
tion—but, even more importantly, that for imple­
menting his ideas he had to rely on his contacts
abroad. Moreover, it indicates that he seemingly
spent more time abroad than commonly believed.
The name “Stoltikoff” [sic] refers to Russian art
collector Prince Alexei Soltykoff (1804–89), whose
­collection oriental armors had been sold by his
brother Prince Petr Soltykoff (1804–89) in March
1861.38 These auctions had taken place at the Hôtel
Drouot and been important events that attracted
37 The draft of the response has survived: “[…] Ella mi ag­
giunge che l’elmo è bellissimo ma per la verità degli
elmi ne ho già tre, per me poco mi importerebbe di
avere il quarto. […] avrei più gradito se ci fosse stato un
arco di acciaio in intarsiato in oro […] non voglio una
semplice cotta di maglia quanto dorata […] ma invece
vorrei che ci fosse un pettorale fatto di un pezzo intar­
siato in oro d’avanti come dietro […]. Infatti, l’armatura
che vidi a Parigi e che costava franchi 2000 era fatta
precisamente come questo […] vale a dire un pettorale
bellissimo di […] in oro, due bracciali idem e un elmo
più uno scudo assai grande e molto bello e tutto questo
era appartenuto al Soltikoff [sic] […ed] era di prima
bellezza.” (asfi, pxa 160, n.n.).
38 Collection Soltykoff, Catalogue des armes orientales […]
dont la vente aux enchères publiques aura lieu Hôtel des
ventes, rue Drouot, 5 […] les lundi 25, mardi 26, mercredi
27 et jeudi 28 mars 1861 (Paris : A. Pillet Fils Ainé, 1861).
See Alfred Darcel, “La collection Soltykoff”, Gazette des
beaux-arts : courrier européen de l’art et de la curiosité,
no. 10 (1861): 169–78 (first part); 212–26 (second part)
and Richard R. Walding et al., “The Russian Prince and
the Maharajah of Travancore,” Journal of Kerala Stud-
ies, no. 36 (2009): 10–87. I would like to thank Mercedes
Volait for the information on Alexei Soltykoff and these
two references.
Varela Braga
ently also find Panciatichi.
3 Between Old and New: Some Notes on
Panciatichi’s Restoration Practice
The dynamic art market of the second half of the
nineteenth century is known for having nourished
an abundance of practices for copying, restoring
and forging Islamic objects. To draw a line between
these different practices is often very difficult, and
any designation aspiring to accuracy much de­
pends on the inherent degree of intended decep­
tion.39 This subject was already delicate back then
and stirred the passions of amateurs, artists, and
collectors alike. In this regard, aforementioned
Alessandro Foresi, whose international network
included Adolphe de Rothschild (1823–1900) and
Charles Davillier (1823–83), was considered a true
nightmare for art dealers.40 In 1868, he published
his Tour de Babel ou objets d’art faux pris pour vrais
et vice-versa, in which he attacked the French art
market for its lack of standards. The previous year
he had already heavily criticized the authenticity
and dubious quality of objects displayed by Panci­
atichi, Stibbert, Spence and their colleagues at
Palazzo del Podestà : “[W]hen one buys an ancient
object for a museum it is necessary that it is [in the
state] as it was born, not mended nor patched up
with fragments of a hundred other objects.”41 Even
though this remark might not have been intended
to directly address Panciatichi’s collection of
39 See, for instance, Carol Helstosky, “Giovanni Bastianini,
Art Forgery, and the Market in Nineteenth-Century Ita­
ly,” The Journal of Modern History 81, no. 4 (2009): 818.
40 Jeremy Warren, “Foregery in Risorgimento Florence:
Bastianini’s ‘Giovanni delle Bande Nere’ in the Wallace
Collection,” The Burlington Magazine 147, no. 1232
(2005): 729–41.
41 “[Q]uando si compra un oggetto antico per un Museo è
mestieri che sia tal quale nacque, e non rabberciato o
messo su con frammenti di cento altri oggetti […],” in
Foresi and Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, La Galleria
degli Uffizi e il Museo nazionale, 10.
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Troppo amanti degli oggetti orientali
o­riental weapons, it nonetheless raises a more
general question relating to the quality of artwork
­restorations in the nineteenth century.
For the years 1865–67, the Capitali d’Armeria in­
dicate that Panciatichi used the services of a cer­
tain Enrico Leoni on a very regular basis, therein
identified as a cesellatore (chaser). Leoni was em­
ployed for various “works executed on the
weapons,”42 European and oriental ones alike. Sev­
eral original receipts of these “works” still exist,
some of which refer to unspecified restoration
works, whereas others relate to more substantial
interventions, including the integration or substi­
tution of whole elements. As the list is long, only a
few examples shall be given: on October 31, 1864,
one Leoni was paid 39.20 lire for crafting “a scab­
bard for an oriental sword of iron, silver and velvet
silk”;43 on October 17 1864, L 49.80 were spent for a
“scabbard of iron, gold and velvet silk for a Turkish
sword and [for] changing the handle”;44 on Janu­
ary 22 1866, 45 lire were devoted to a new “iron
scabbard for an oriental dagger, with silver-inlays,
covered with silk velvet, and with a handle com­
pletely carved from ivory.”45 Finally, 60 Lire were
invested for the restoration of “the bracelets of an
oriental armor” and for lining “all iron meshes […]
with leather and velvet.”46 These receipts testify
some of the common restoration practices in­
spired by Historicism, which is why they rarely
show any signs of a consciousness relating to the
problem of the possible falsification of artworks;
42 “[P]er lavori fatti alle armi […],” (asfi, pxa 161, n. 498).
43 “[F]atto un fodero per una spada orientale in ferro, ar­
gento e velluto di seta […],” (asfi, pxa 160, n. 107).
44 “[P]er avere fatto un fodero in ferro e oro e velluto in
seta ad una spada turca e avere cambiato l’impugnatura
[…],” (asfi, pxa 160, n. 100).
45 “[P]er aver fatto tutto di nuovo il fodero, in ferro intar­
siato in argento e coperto di velluto di seta, ad un pug­
nale orientale e intagliato tutto il manico in arvorio
[…],” (asfi, pxa 161, n. 273).
46 “[R]estaurato i bracciali di un’armatura orientale e ri­
fatto tutto di nuovo le maglie di ferro foderato di pelle e
velluto […],” (asfi, pxa 161, n.n.). The date is
unintelligible.
173
instead they were the result of an underlying de­
sire to recompose and reconstitute what was con­
sidered their lost historical integrity.47 This was
certainly characteristic for Stibbert, but also for
the Catalan painter and art collector Mariano
­Fortuny y Marsal (1838–74), another famous ‘cre­
ative’ restorer, although today his work is usually
described as belonging to the realm of “artistic
interventions.”48
The continuous changing of Panciatichi’s col­
lections and their assigned purpose as investment
objects complicate things even further, blurring
the lines between restoration and recreation, be­
tween intended and unintended forgery, which is
a subject worthy of further investigation.
4 Panciatichi’s Islamic Collection Dispersed
The history of Panciatichi’s Islamic collections
ends in 1901, that is, four years after Ferdinando’s
death, when his daughter Marianna Panciatichi
Paolucci (1835–1919) entrusted the sale of her fa­
ther’s collections to the Florentine auctioneers
Galardelli & Mazzoni and the antiquary Vincenzo
Ciampolini.49 The auction took place from April 3
to 16, 1902, and lasted not less than twelve days.
47 The artistic practices of historicist interiors corre­
sponds with these ideas. See, for instance, Mercedes
Volait, “Les intérieurs orientalistes du comte de Saint-
Maurice et d’Albert Goupil : des ‘Cluny arabe’ au Caire
et à Paris à la fin du xixe siècle,” in The Period Rooms.
Allestimenti storici tra arte, collezionismo e museologia,
ed. Sandra Costa, Dominique Poulot, and Mercedes
Volait (Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2016: 103–
14). Such practices were also used by Stibbert for his
reconstructions. Another famous ‘creative restorer’ was
Mariano Fortuny y Marsal; his interventions, however,
are nowadays normally described as “artistic interven­
tions,” Carlos G. Navarro, “La historia domesticada. For­
tuny y el coleccionismo de antigüedades,” in Fortuny
(1838–1874), ed. by Javier Baón (Madrid : Museo Nacio­
nal del Prado, 2017), 383.
48 Navarro 2017, 383.
49 asfi, pxa 68, n.n.
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174
The auction catalog provides a view of the collec­
tions’ scope: the armory was sold in 227 lots, with
161 of them characterized as “oriental”50 and con­
sisting of about 350 pieces. In comparison to Stib­
bert’s large collection, Panciatichi’s appears to
have been much more limited. To estimate its orig­
inal extent and composition, however, is not an
easy task, as they seem to have varied much over
time, since Panciatichi regularly sold and bought
new pieces throughout his life. A note from the po­
lice, authorizing him to keep weapons in his pri­
vate residence in terms of historical showpieces,
stresses that their number was “continuously vari­
able due to the sales and purchases that [he] fre­
quently makes of such ancient weapons in the
­interest of his own museum.”51 We know for in­
stance that the Paris-based collector William H.
Riggs (1837–1924) purchased many weapons from
him, some of which are today preserved at the
Metropolitan Museum in New York.52 Daniela Ce­
cutti, on the other hand, has been able to trace
some Islamic armors at the Museum of Saint Louis
back to the New York art collector and archaeo­
logist Daniel Z. Noorian (1865–1929), who had
50 Catalogue des tableaux anciens et objets d’art. Armes,
bronzes, porcelaines de Chine et du Japon, miniatures,
jades, cristaux de roche, marbres, meubles, etc. com-
posant la Galerie et Musée Panciatichi Ximenes
d’Aragona dans le palais Borgo Pinti, 68. Florence :
Galardelli & Mazzoni, 1902: 47–58 (asfi, pxa 70).
51 “[C]ontinuamente variabile per le cessioni e nuovi ac­
quisti che frequentemente fa di tali armi antiche
nell’interesse del proprio Museo,” English translation
by the author, in “Armi diverse esistenti nel Museo di
Famiglia. Constatazione fattane dalla Polizia” (asfi,
pxa 53, folio 7). At the time, the (European and Orien­
tal) armory consisted of six bronze cannon models, 58
rifles, 36 guns, 106 swords, 70 sabers, 179 daggers, 36
axes, eight javelins, nine spears, and one knife.
52 Bashford Dean, “Mr. Riggs as Collector of Armor,” The
Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 9, no. 3 (1914): 68.
Some of these items were shown at the 1878 Paris Inter­
national Exhibition; for example, see <https://www
.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/22379>,
­accessed on 12.12.2018.
Varela Braga
a­ cquired them during the Panciatichi auction of
1902.53
The given information so far only provides a
small glimpse into Panciatichi’s activity as a collec­
tor of Islamic art. The history of his—European
and oriental—art collections still await to be re­
constructed and studied more thoroughly and in
more detail. As this article tried to demonstrate,
Panciatichi was a key figure for raising the public
awareness for and the reception of Islamic art in
Italy—not only in terms of architecture, as his Vil­
la of Sammezzano attests, but also in terms of the
history of Islamic art collections in Europe in gen­
eral. His lifelong engagement was an important
contribution to the history of Florence as the
­vibrant center of the Italian market for Islamic art­
works during the second half of the nineteenth
century.
Archival Abbreviations
asfi, pxa Archivio di Stato di Firenze, Panciatichi
Ximenes d’Aragona
asmb Archivio Storico Museo del Bargello
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ings of the conference of the same title at Castello di
Sammezzano, May 31–June 1, 2013. Livorno: Sillabe,
2014.
Stasolla, Maria Giovanna. “The ‘Orient’ in Florence
(19th Century). From Oriental Studies to the Collec­
tion of Islamic Art, from a Reconstruction of the
‘Orient’ to the Exotic Dream of the Rising Middle
Class.” Oriente Moderno, n.s., 1 (2013): 3–31.
Tonelli, Maria Cristina. “Alhambra Anastatica.” FMR 4
(1982): 31–60.
Togneri Dowd, Carol and Jaynie Anderson, ed. The Trav-
el Diaries of Otto Mündler 1855–1858. The Volume of
the Walpole Society 51. London: Walpole Society,
1985.
Varela Braga, Ariane. “Building a Dream: the Alhambra
in the Villa of Sammezzano.” In The Power of Sym-
bols. The Alhambra in a Global Perspective, edited by
Francine Giese and Ariane Varela Braga, 335–53.
Bern: Peter Lang, 2018.
Volait, Mercedes. “Les intérieurs orientalistes du comte
de Saint-Maurice et d’Albert Goupil: des ‘Cluny
arabe’ au Caire et à Paris à la fin du xixe siècle.” In
The Period Rooms. Allestimenti storici tra arte, collezi-
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Walding, Richard R. et al. “The Russian Prince and the
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 Chapter 13
The Arab Room of Achille Vertunni
Islamic Art in the Streets of Rome
Valentina Colonna
Orientalism, Islamophilia, exotic revival, and new
artistic languages: throughout the nineteenth cen-
tury, each European country “appropriated” the
Orient in its own specific way creating stereotypes
and new genres, which then spread through simi-
lar channels, including travelogues engravings,
printed matters, collections of decorative arts, and
pavilions presented at the Universal Expositions.1
Italy cultivated a special version of the Orient
associated with the Mediterranean Islamic coun-
tries. This idea was rooted in Italy’s exposure to Is-
lamic culture since the Middle Ages; during this
period, certain cities, such as Venice, Florence or
Genoa, excelled in commercial and cultural ex-
change with the Islamic world. Thanks to the
­activity of noble families, such as the Medici in
Florence or the Gonzaga in Mantua, and of mis-
sionary orders, the import and collection of Islam-
ic objects continued during the modern era, that
is, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century.2
While at the Collegio Romano in Rome, the Jesuit
Athanasius Kircher (1602–80), would found the
first significant systematic collection of Islamic
material.3 In any case, it would however not be be-
fore the nineteenth century that Eastern fashions
1 Rémi Labrusse, Islamophilies. L’Europe moderne et les arts
de l’Islam, published in conjunction with an exhibition of
the same title, organized and presented at the Musée des
Beaux-Arts in Lyon, April–July, 2011 (Lyon: Somogy ed.,
2011).
2 Giovanni Curatola, Eredità dell’Islam. Arte islamica in Ital-
ia (Venice : Silvana Ed., 1993).
3 Maristella Casciato, Maria Grazia Iannello, and Maria Vi-
tale, Enciclopedismo in Roma Barocca, Athanasius Kircher e
il Museo del collegio Romano tra Wunderkammern e Museo
Scientifico (Venice : Marsilio, 1986).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2020 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_016
would receive a renewed significance in Italy in
connection with endeavors to reproduce exotic at-
mospheres. Oriental fashion began to enter the
scene and became mandatory for Europe’s elites,
as attested by the decorations at stylish banquets,
the collections of artefacts in decorative art muse-
ums, or lectures on the Moorish and Persian styles
at institutes for the applied arts.4
This article is based on the author’s PhD thesis.5
Despite the fact that there has always been a ten-
dency to associate Rome with classical arts and
culture, during the period between the second half
of the nineteenth century and the 1920 the general
awareness of the Islamic arts increased tangibily
and would, eventually even conquer Rome. R ­ oman
orientalism emerged as a phenomenon that would
soon permeate entire sectors of public and private
life, resulting in the creation of an image of the
Orient that was both exhilarating and short-lived.
Rome’s Orientalism can be characterized as ur-
ban, collective and popular, often including de-
contextualizing and deceptive aspects. It was a
special brand of orientalism that “domesticated”
the Orient for the purposes of everyday life.6 We
4 Nadine Beautheac and Françoise Xavier Bouchart,
L’Europe Exotique (Paris : Chêne, 1985). Stephen Vernoit,
Discovering Islamic Art: Scholars, Collectors and Collections
1850–1950 (London: I. B. Tauris, 2000), 13–5.
5 The author’s PhD thesis in Culture and Territory at the
University of Tor Vergata in Rome deals with the collection
of Islamic art in Rome between the eighteenth and nine-
teenth century, including private antique dealers and pub-
lic museums. A publication of the text is forthcoming.
6 Anna Maria Damigella, “Presenze, memorie, caratteri dell’­
orientalismo a Roma dalla metà dell’Ottocento ai primi del
Novecento,” in L’orientalismo nell’architettura italiana tra
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178
should briefly recall how this came about. The
movement goes back to the phantasmagorical
constructions once used for the fireworks during
secular or religious anniversaries, such as Saint Pe-
ter and Paul or the annual festival at Castel
Sant’Angelo. These pyrotechnic devices often imi-
tated buildings from faraway places or a distant
past and usually designed by professional archi-
tects, who copied existing monuments or created
montages of various buildings. Sometimes they
would even create their own imaginative versions
of Chinese pagodas, Moorish houses or oriental
nymphaea.7
In addition, amusement parks emerged all over
Rome, such as the neo-Moorish Teatro Alhambra
(1880) at Lungotevere dei Mellini, a structure that
D’Annunzio (1863–1938) once described as an ugly
wooden sideshow booth.8 The interior designs of
Roman villas is also worth mentioning here such
as the “Turkish” kiosk (1788) that Francesco Bettini
(1737–1815?) created for the Villetta Doria, a part of
Villa Borghese, or the neo-Moorish greenhouse of
Villa Torlonia (1842) by Giuseppe Jappelli (1783–
1852). The small neo-Moorish villa in Rome’s Pari-
oli area where the Spanish painter Josè Villegas y
Cordero (1844–1921) lived, is also noteworthy,9
wich was inspired by the Alhambra and executed
by Ernesto Basile (1857–1932) between 1887 and
1890. With its cupolas, intertwining arches, muqar-
nas, ceramic wall facings, this villino became the
perfect stage for oriental banquets, during wich
celebrities of the world of artists and intellectuals
Ottocento e Novecento, ed. Maria Adriana Giusti and Ezio
Godoli (Florence : Maschietto e Musolino, 1999), 108.
7 Nicola Lupu, “Le ricostruzioni di monumenti antichi nelle
girandole Vespignani,” Capitolium, (September 1935): 327–
42; Damigella, “Presenze, memorie, caratteri,” 109.
8 Gabriele D’Annunzio, Roma senza lupa. Cronache mon-
dane 1844–1888 (Milan : Baldini-Trompeo, 1948), 88–91;
Damigella, “Presenze, memorie, caratteri,” 110–13.
9 Paul Bourget, Cosmopolis, Paris : Lemerre, 1983, 179–81; Ro-
sario De Simone, “Il villino Villegas,” in L’orientalismo
nell’architettura italiana tra Ottocento e Novecento, ed. Ma-
ria Adriana Giusti and Ezio Godoli (Florence : Maschietto
e Musolino, 1999), 117–26.
Colonna
would gather, including no one less than Prince
Baldassarre Odescalchi (1844–1909).
Apart from isolated experiments, the appropri-
ation and materialization of the Orient took place
in a more elaborate manner within Rome’s artistic
milieu, especially within clubs and associations.
Antiquarians were the main protagonists here
who had various biographical backgrounds:
whereas some were Romans, many others were
foreigners who invigorated the city’s cultural life.10
An article by Caroline Juler examines exactly
these persons among Rome’s so-called “lost
orientalists,”11 that is, orientalist painters with ten-
dencies to experiment with exotic subjects. Among
them, we find Attilio Simonetti (1843–1925), Achille
Vertunni (1826–1897), Gustavo Simoni (1846–1926),
Giuseppe Signorini (1857–1932), Enrico Tarenghi
(1848–1938), Salvatore Valeri (1856–1946), Michele
Cammarano (1835–1920), Cesare Biseo (1843–1909),
and Ettore Ximenes (1855–1926), a famous illustra-
tor. The center of this circle was the Catalan artist
Mariano Fortuny Marsal (1838–1874), who lived in
Rome as of 1858.12 Thanks to him and the “colonies”13
of other Spanish painters in Rome, such as José
Gallegos (1859–1917) and Josè Villegas y Cordero
10 Maria Giovanna Stasolla, “Il collezionismo di arte isl-
amica tra Italia e Spagna nel xix secolo. Il caso di Mari-
ano Fortuny y Marsal,” in Arqueologìa, colleccionismo y
antigüedad. España e Italia en el siglo xix, ed. José Bel-
trán, Beatrice Cacciotti and Beatrice Palma Venetucci
(Sevilla : Universidad de Sevilla, 2006), 661–85.
11 Caroline Juler, “Gli orientalisti perduti di Roma,” Urbe
xlix, no. 1–2 (1986): 17–9.
12 Charles Daviller, Fortùny, sa vie, son ouvre, sa correspon-
dance, (Paris, 1875), 80–1; Andrea De Angelis, “La vita
romana di Mariano Fortùny nel primo centenario della
sua nascita,” Le vie d’Italia, xliv, (1938):719–22; Mercé
Donate, Cristina Mendoza, and Francesc Quìlez i
Corella, Fortuny (1838–1874), published in conjunction
with an exhibition of the same title, organized and
­presented at Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Bar-
celona, October, 2002–January, 2003 (Barcelona : Mu-
seuNacional d’Art de Catalunya, 2003), 419–32.
13 Walter Fol, “Fortuny,” Gazette des Beaux-Arts xi (1875):
352.
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The Arab Room of Achille Vertunni
(1844–1921), the city saw the rise of a notable com-
munity of artistic Orient admirers.14
There were many occasions for these artists to
meet, especially at oriental-themed banquets and
masquerades,15 for example, during the 1862 Car-
nival “alla turca” in Tor Cervara,16 or the 1881 Arab
Carnival at the Circolo Artistico Internazionale on
Via Margutta. Magazines of the time attest the ex-
istence of this phenomenon, such as the Illustra-
zione Italiana, which reported a ball at Villegas’s
villa in 1887,17 the same place where the neo-
Moorish patio would be set up later. In 1892, the
Tribuna Illustrata mentioned an Arab Café in the
Circolo Artistico.18
During this period, the studios of artists, which
had a high density within an area of Rome stretch-
ing from Piazza del Popolo to Piazza di Spagna,
were the preferred spaces for creating exotic atmo-
spheres. Via Margutta was known internationally
for its many workshops and studios, including a
real hub for the cultural activities of Rome’s orien-
talists and art collectors, the Studi Patrizi at num-
ber 53, where artists from all over Europe would
gather.19
14 Carlos González Lopez and Montessat Martì Ayxelà,
Pintores españoles en Roma (Barcelona : Tusquets,
1987), 76–81.
15 Teresa Sacchi Lodispoto, “Appunti su artisti, spazi es-
positivi e associazioni a Roma tra Cinquecento e
­Ottocento,” in Sandro Polci, Roma in mostra (Rome :
Leasing, 2002), 96–9.
16 Tiziana Grassi and Luciano Zangarini, La Festa degli
artisti di Tor Cervara (Rome : Palombi, 1989); Sabrina
Spinazzè, “Artisti-antiquari a Roma tra la fine
dell’Ottocento e l’inizio del Novecento : lo studio e la
galleria del pittore Attilio Simonetti,” Studiolo, no. 8
(2010): 103–22.
17 Rosario De Simone, “Il Villino Villegas” in L’orientalismo
nell’architettura italiana tra Ottocento e Novecento, ed.
Maria Adriana Giusti and Ezio Godoli (Florence : Mas-
chietto e Musolino, 1999), 117–26.
18 La Tribuna Illustrata, no. 19, 1892, 14–8.
19 Goffredo Hoogewerff, Via Margutta. Centro di vita artis-
tica (Rome : Ed. Studi Romani, 1953), 13; Francesca Di
Castro, Via Margutta. Cinquecento anni di storia e d’arte
(Rome : Kappa ed., 2006).
179
It provided very large apartments, designed like
theater sceneries and furnished with the artists’
paintings or the objects that served as their sources
of inspiration, comprised of artefacts and pieces of
furniture in various Islamic and Far Eastern styles,
especially precious fabrics, music ­ instruments,
­chinaware, weapons, clothes, sculptures, and draw-
ings. There are detailed descriptions of such interi-
ors in the Studi e modelli di via Margutta by the
antiquarian Augusto Jandolo. Many helpful infor-
mation is also found in the travelogues of intellec-
tuals and art dealers that had migrated to Rome.20
Another important source are the Ricordi Artistici
by Baldassarre Odescalchi, wherein he describes
his visits to the homes of different artists in 1875. It
became so fashionable for studio decorations to
blend the characteristics of parlors and a private
museums that it was regarded a contemporary so-
cial stereotype of artistic lifestyles. In fact, note-
worthy examples of this could be found all over
Europe, such as Eugène Delacroix’s atelier on rue
Notre Dame de Lorette in Paris, Ernest Meissonier’s
home in Poissy, or the studio of the Austrian Hans
Makart in Vienna.21
There are contemporary photographs of the
­Patrizi Studios, today kept at the archive of Jando-
lo and Tavazzi’s auction house, which has been
converted into a private museum.22 Among the
most famous tenants at Via Margutta one finds
Scipione Vannutelli (1834–94), Cesare Maccari
(1840–1919), Attilio Simonetti,23 Achille Vertunni
20 Francesca Foti, “Studi Patrizi. Atelier d’artista a via Mar-
gutta (1840–1900).” In Atelier a via Margutta. Cinque
secoli di cultura internazionale a Roma, edited by Valen-
tina Moncada (Turin: Allemandi, 2012), 36–8.
21 Geneviève Lacambre, Les ateliers d’artiste (Paris : Flam-
marion, 1991); Eduard Hüttinger, Case d’artista dal
Rinascimento a oggi. (Turin : Bollati Boringhieri, 1992).
22 Augusto Jandolo, Studi e modelli di via Margutta. (Mi-
lan: Ceschina, 1953), 46–51; Dimitri Affri and Paola Cal-
legari Paola, Studi d’artista : fotografie d’atelier tra ‘800 e
‘900 (Perugia : Effe ed., 2009).
23 Sacchi Lodispoto, Teresa and Sabrina Spinazzè. Attilio
Simonetti (1843–1925). Pittore alla moda e antiquario a
Roma. (Rome : Berardi Gallerie D’Arte, 2019). E ­ xhibition
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180
(1826–97), ­Giuseppe Signorini (1857–1932) and Er-
cole Rosa (1846–93), followed by a large number of
Spanish artists, including José Gallegos y Arnosa
(1859–1917), Salvador Sánchez Barbudo (1857–
1917), Juan Antonio Benlliure (1859–1930), Blas Gil
Benlliure (1852–1936), Villegas y Cordero (1844–
1921) and Antoni Maria Fabrési Costa (1854–1936).
They all had been attracted by Mariano Fortuny,
who, as biographical sources state,24 often fre-
quented Via Margutta but never lodged there,
since his splendid studio-museum was located at
Villa Martinori on Via Flaminia.
1 Vertunni and Rome
Achille Vertunni’s biography perfectly fits into the
discussed historic context of Rome’s contempo-
rary market for artworks and antiques. Originally
from Naples and the descendant of a noble Span-
ish family, Vertunni arrived in Rome in 1854, where
he lodged at a house in Albano, a town outside of
Rome.25 Preferring the atmosphere of the Roman
countryside, he started exhibiting his works there.
Shortly thereafter, however, he decided to move, so
that as of February 1859, one finds him among the
lodgers at Palazzo Patrizi on Via Margutta, where
he stayed until 1887.26
of the same title, organized and presented at the Gal-
leria Berardi, Rome, January 24–February 23, 2019.
24 Francesca Foti, “Studi Patrizi. Atelier d’artista a via Mar-
gutta (1840–1900).” In Atelier a via Margutta. Cinque
secoli di cultura internazionale a Roma, edited by Valen-
tina Moncada, 34–46 (Turin: Allemandi, 2012).
25 Fabio Dell’Erba, “Achille Vertunni.” In Sergio Sersale, I
Vertunni. Una famiglia ispano-napoletana, 35–38.
(Rome: Consorzio Nazionale di Emigrazione, 1938),
36–9; Agostino Mario Comanducci. Dizionario illustra-
to dei pittori, disegnatori e incisori italiani moderni e
contemporanei. 6 vols. (Milan : Patuzzi ed., 1970–75).
26 Erminia Querci, “Achille Vertuni e Mariano Fortuny :
Roma tra arte e mercato.” In Roma fuori di Roma.
L’esportazione dell’arte moderna da Pio vi all’Unità
(1775–1870), edited by Giovanna Capitelli, Stefano
Colonna
At the end of the 1850s, Vertunni met Mariano
Fortuny, with whom he would soon have after de-
velop a profitable collaboration as a painter and
antiquarian. Vertunni enjoyed creating orientalist
artworks, and some of them would later be shown
at several exhibitions (London, 1870; Vienna, 1873,
the 1876 Universal Exhibition in Philadelphia, the
Inter State Industrial Exhibition in Chicago the
same year, and the 1878 World Expo in Paris).27 In
1870, he traveled to Egypt, where he experimented
with new canvas materials. After his return to
Rome, he started painting his series of Ricordi
d’Oriente,28 which he would display in his studio.
2 Vertunni’s Arab Room at Via Margutta
There are three main sources that provide us with
valuable information on Vertunni’s studio at Via
Margutta: the Ricordi Artistici by Prince Baldas-
sarre Odescalchi, published in Rome in 1875; an
article from the New York newspaper The Evening
Post from 1876; the sales catalog of the Vertunni
collection, published in Rome in 1881. In 1875, Bal-
dassare Odescalchi wrote about his visit to Vertun-
ni’s home:
“Hence, Vertunni began his artistic career in Rome
many years ago. If you go and visit his studio on
Via Margutta, you will find a large series of halls
richly decorated with ancient fabrics, oriental car-
pets and wooden chests from the sixteenth centu-
ry; among these objects, his paintings are not the
least valuable […]. And then, there are the Ricordi
d’Oriente. Vertunni stayed in Egypt during winter
and worked a lot there. A result of this stay were
Grandes­so and Carlo Mazzarelli. Conference proceed-
ings (Rome 3–4 March 2009). (Rome: Campisano,
2012), 209–26.
27 Caroline Juler, Les orientalistes de l’ecole italienne. (Par-
is : acr édition, 1987), 297–98.
28 Vakerie Jervis, “Achille Vertunni.” In La pittura in Italia.
L’Ottocento, edited by Castelnuovo Enrico, vol. ii. (Mi-
lan: Electa, 1991), 1059.
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The Arab Room of Achille Vertunni
his numerous studies and paintings of oriental
subjects, which are now on display in his studio
and give an account of this ‘holy land’ of Egypt
[…]. [I]n the background one of these paintings
one sees the sun-drenched tombs of caliphs […]
and a procession of women with dark veils
(fig. 13.1).”29
Some years later, in May 1878, The Evening Post
published another article titled “Italy at Paris” that
dealt with the Italian painters partaking in the
1878 World Exhibition and also described Vertun-
ni’s studio:
“[…] [T]he walls and floors are covered with Turk-
ish carpets and ancient tapestries; rich brocades
and oriental fabrics embroidered with gold and
silver are thrown over chairs and tables; ancient
furniture exquisitely carved or set with mother of
29 “Così il Vertunni, parecchi anni or sono, esordiva a
Roma nella sua carriera artistica. Ora se andate a visi-
tare il suo studio in Via Margutta, troverete una lunga
sequela di sale riccamente addobbate con stoffe, mo-
bili antichi, tappeti orientali e cassoni del cinquecento,
e fra tutte queste anticaglie sparsi i non meno preziosi
suoi quadri…Vengono poi i Ricordi d’Oriente. Il Ver-
tunni ha passato un inverno in Egitto, lavorandovi
molto. Frutto di quel suo soggiorno sono stati molti
studi e molti quadri dal tema orientale che sono ora
esposti nel suo studio e forman ricordi della sacra terra
d’Egitto […]. in un primo quadro tu scorgi in distanza le
tombe dei califfi indorate dal sole, una mesta proces-
sione di donne velate a Bruno.” Baldassarre Odescalchi,
Gli studi di Roma. Ricordi Artistici (Rome: Capaccini ed.,
1875), 77–88.
181
Figure 13.1
A. Vertunni, Paesaggio orientale, 1870–75, oil painting on
canvas (100 × 215 cm), Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan.
pearl or ivory; Venetian vases and chandeliers
from Murano; Sèvres china, and those chests of
carved wood used by the brides of the 15th century
for their trousseaux, fill the rooms. So many ob-
jects of art and antiquity attract the eye, but the
most beautiful are the landscapes painted by the
artist and displayed in their elaborate frames.”30
It is indeed very probable that the artist had
brought a number of antiques from his 1870 jour-
ney to Egypt and put them on display in his studio
as a source of inspiration. Yet even more than this,
the objects became “instruments of art” that en-
abled him to establish an oriental atmosphere at
his studio. From the photographic documentation
in the sales catalog of his 1881 collection, we know
about the existence of an Arab Room at his ate-
lier.31 The catalog was edited by Raffaele Dura and
Jules Sambon and not only gives details about the
artefacts on sale, among which one finds Persian
(nos. 63–5) and Turkish carpets (nos. 130–36; 283–
92; 382–84), but also describes the succession of
rooms and the pieces of furniture. Sambon high-
lights the beauty of the sala orientale, claiming
that “[…] nothing so beautiful, so refined and of
such an authentic character has ever been
30 George Innes. “Italy at Paris.” The Evening Post, May
(1878): 1.
31 Catalogue de la collection Vertunni: objets d’art et de cu-
riosité, étoffes, tableaux etc. dont la vente aux enchères
publiques aura lieu dans les magnifiques salons de son
atelier à Rome, le lundit 7 mars 1881 (Rome: Sales com-
pany Raffaele Dura, 1881).
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182
achieved in this genre”.32 Curiously, the text seem-
ingly ignores the Arab Hall at Frederic Leighton’s
house in London, which had been installed be-
tween 1877 and 1881, with the latter being the year
of Vertunni’s sale.33 Odescalchi’s Ricordi Artistici
do not mention this room either, seemingly indi-
cating that it had not been completed at the time;
Odescalchi, however, does explicitly confirm the
presence of numerous Islamic artefacts at Vertun-
ni’s apartment.
The entrance to the Arab Hall consisted of two
beautiful wooden doors with bas-reliefs and inlays
of ivory and bone. One door had a height of 2.45
m, whereas the other measured 1.40 m. The latter
probably had been crafted in fifteenth-century
32 “[…] nulla di più bello, di più raffinato e di un carattere
più autentico è stato ancora realizzato nel suo genere,”
Catalogue de la collection Vertunni, 5.
33 Querci, “Achille Vertunni”, 220.
Colonna
Figure 13.2
Catalogue de la collection Vertunni: objets d’art et de
curiosité, étoffes, tableaux etc. dont la vente aux enchères
publiques aura lieu dans les magnifiques salons de son
atelier à Rome, le lundit 7 mars 1881 (Rome: Sales
company Raffaele Dura, 1881), Library of Art History
and ­Archaeology, Rome, Sala Crociera.
Mamlūk Egypt, and is identical with the very same
one Vertunni had purchased at Fortuny’s sale as
described in the 1875 catalog (fig. 13.2).34 The inte-
rior design of the Arab Hall was very refined; it
possessed small divans with brocade cushions,
carpets, pieces of wooden furniture with geomet-
ric inlays, hookahs, Turkish pipes, mosque lamps,
and Hispano-Islamic ceramics; moreover, armors
were arranged on the walls alongside textile frag-
ments. Still unsatisfied with the result, Vertunni
had two large neo-Moorish horseshoe arches
sculpted onto the walls, which were embedded
into geometric cornices for achieving a more “real-
istic” impression. Furthermore, drawings of ob-
jects by Gustavo Simoni, Pio Joris, Cesare Biseo
and Vertunni’s children were hung onto the walls.
The sales catalog confirms that the room was in-
tended to be sold as a single unit which is why it
34 Catalogue de la collection Vertunni, 5–6.
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The Arab Room of Achille Vertunni
appears under a single inventory number: “under
this number all that constitutes this superb hall
will be sold as a single unit, with the advantage
that it can be assembled and dismantled despite
its size, as we already said in the preface.”35
This very detailed description of the room rec-
ollects both the interior decorations and a list of
all its furniture and the other objects therein. The
following text is a complete and faithful quotation
of the original catalog description (no. 482, Arab
Room):
“The room is 7.80 m long, 4.76 m wide and 4.38 m
high; the walls are entirely coated with painted
golden woodwork, elegantly wrought in the most
beautiful Arab style. The first wall on the right of
the entrance is made up of three arches, with the
one in the middle being taller than the other two
and including the shape of trefoil arch, while those
on the sides are horseshoe-shaped (fig. 13.3). The
arch in the middle is decorated with drapery that
forms a curtain and constists of an ancient bro-
cade with a leaf pattern on a blue-sky silk back-
ground. It is trimmed with a silky fringe around
the center of the arch and upholstered with a mag-
nificently carved golden velvet made in Venice for
the East in the 15th century. Some parts of the vel-
vet bands show elodea flowers and others rose
window patterns. There is a small eastern-style
shelf hanging from the middle of each of the two
horseshoe arches, on it a composition of musical
instruments, tools, objects and precious fabrics.
The second wall, in front of the entrance, contains
a door and horseshoe-shaped arch, similar to the
afore mentioned ones (fig. 13.4). The door is an-
cient and probably comes from a mosque; it was
made from small wood pieces, of irregular hexa-
gon shapes, interlaced and assembled onto ivory
inserts, and arranged symmetrically to form the
35 “[…] Sous ce numéro sera mis en vente, en bloc tout ce
qui compose cette superbe salle, qui a l’avantage, ainsi
que nous l’avons dit dans la préface, de pouvoir se
monter et démonter malgré sa dimension,” Catalogue
de la collection Vertunni, 75.
183
wonderful shapes of rose windows (fig. 13.5). The
panel above the door consists of enameled tiles
with very beautiful designs and bright colors.”
In the middle of the arch, oriental weapons are
mixed with rich fabrics, skins of leopards, so as to
represent a kind of trophy... The third wall on the
left includes a large mirror with a beautiful frame
in oriental style with carved Arabic inscriptions
(fig. 13.6). It is placed between the apertures of the
two windows and on each side separated by a pil-
lar, upholstered with ancient velvet chiseled in an
eastern-style pattern of several colors again a
fawn-colored background. The mirror is placed on
a console entirely covered with a rich fabric of old
golden brocade with various designs. The fourth
wall consists of the entrance door and a horse-
shoe arch similar to those of the other walls. The
ceiling is divided into three eastern-style painted
­compartments. The console is completely covered
with Turkish carpets.36
36 “La salle à une longueur de 7 mètres 80 sur 4 mètres 76
de largeur et 4.38 de hauteur ; les murailles sont en-
tièrement recouvertes de boiserie peinte, dorée et élé-
gamment travaillée dans le plus beau style arabe. La 1er
paroi à droit de l’entrée est formée de trois arcs dont
celui de centre plus large que les deux autres, est de
forme trilobée, tandis ceux placés latéralement sont en
fer à cheval. L’arc du milieu est orné d’une riche drape-
rie formant rideau, en ancien brocart à dessin de ram-
ages tissés en or sur fond de soie bleu-ciel. Bordé d’une
frange en soie correspondante le centre de l’arc est
tapissé d’une superbe étoffe en velours ciselé à fond
d’or fabriqué à Venise, pour l’Orient au xvème siècle.
Parties de ces bandes de velours sont au type de la fleur
élobée les autres à dessin de rosaces. Les deux autres
arcs en fer à cheval ont chacun au centre une petite
étagère suspendue et de forme orientale sur laquelle
sont disposés dans un gout artistique exquis plusieurs
instruments de musique, ustensiles et objets divers
mêlés à des étoffes précieuses. La 2eme paroi en face de
l’entrée, de même style, est formée de la porte et d’un
arc pareilaux deux précédents également en fer à che-
val. La porte est ancienne et provient probablement
d’un Mosquée, elle se compose de différents petits
morceaux de bois en forme d’hexagones irréguliers,
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184 Colonna

Figure 13.3 Salle arabe, first wall, from the 1881 sales catalog

Figure 13.4 Salle arabe, second wall, from the 1881 sales catalog

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The Arab Room of Achille Vertunni 185

The description of the room directly follows the

list of objects that used to furnish the room, in-
cluding: cushions, sofas, mosque lamps and small
carpets. The single sale lot no.482 provide a simple
list of the objects and furniture pieces, along with
their dimensions and minimum descriptions, yet
without single inventory numbers.37
It is a peculiarity of the picturesque Roman
Arab that contemporaries considered it a purchas-
able extravaganza “à l’orientale.” To subsume the
entirety of its numerous elements under one sin-
gle inventory number was particulary strange. It
had been designed not only for creating a sugges-
tive atmosphere, but also for mundane uses, for
example, as an elegant backdrop for thematic balls
or dinners organized by Vertunni. Once more, the
article of The Evening Post provides us with a vivid
account of these events:
“The soirées given by Mrs Vertunni, a fascinat-
ing Roman lady, in her husband’s studio, have be-
come famous. The best society in Rome is to be
found here: famous artists, scholars, travellers, dip-
lomats, military officers, members of the Roman
­aristocracy. One of these soirées was given last
Figure 13.5 Door of a mosque, Egypt (?), fourteenth
century, from the 1881 sales catalog
e­ ntrelacés et emboités les uns dans les autres avec des
incrustations d’ivoire et disposés fort symétriquement S­ aturday in honour of General Grant. Most of the
formant des jolis dessins de rosaces, etc. Au dessus de American colony and many English people were
la porte, le panneau est en carreaux émaillés de très there. I saw Mrs Cairoli, the wife of the Prime Min-
beau dessin et de couleurs brillantes. Au centre de l’arc ister; Seismit Doda, Minister of Finance, Gregoro-
sont disposées en trophées des armes orientales mêlées vius, the historian of medieval Rome, Mr and Mrs
à de riches étoffes, peaux de léopards etc… La 3ème pa-
Trollope, and many other important people.”38
roi à gauche, contient au centre une large glace dans un
joli cadre de dessin oriental avec inscriptions arabes
sculptées. Elle est placée entre les ouvertures des deux
fenêtres et en est séparée de chaque côté par un pilas- 3 Conclusion
tre tapissé en velours ancien ciselé de dessin oriental à
couleurs variées sur fond chamois. La glace est posée Apart from his artistic talents as expressed through
sur une espèce de console entièrement recouverte the creation of the Arab Room, Achille Vertunni
d’une riche étoffe en brocart ancien tissé en or et de was also a renowned art collector. Thanks to his
dessins variés. La 4ème paroi est formée de la porte noble origins and his considerable financial
d’entrée et d’un arc en fer à cheval pareil à ceux des au-
means, he managed to purchase artworks from dif-
tres parois. Le plafond est divisé en trois comparti-
ments peints dans le style Oriental. Le plancher est
ferent periods and of the highest quality. His deep
entièrement recouvert de tapis de Turquie. Catalogue friendship with Fortuny will certainly have been
de la collection Vertunni, 75–80.
37 Catalogue de la collection Vertunni, 77–79. 38 Innes, “Italy at Paris,” 1878, 1.

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186
Figure 13.6 Salle arabe, third wall, from the 1881 sales catalog
helpful for choosing the most valuable objects.39
The eight rooms of his apartment were later con-
sidered more as “an art gallery than a studio, wor-
thy of a visit by all, the modest tourist or the noble
sovereign”.40 The artist furthermore liked to show
off his connoisseurship by the elegance of his
wardrobe and some photographic portraits even
show him wearing Orientalizing attire.41 The Is-
lamic objects he brought with him from his jour-
ney to Egypt and those he later bought at different
antique markets made his collection very remark-
able. Accordingly, Jandolo writes that:
“Vertunni the ‘Hero of the Day,’ the fashionable
painter, sold well and at top prices. He received
39 Querci, “Achille Vertunni,” 221.
40 Augusto Jandolo. Studi e modelli di via Margutta. (Mi-
lan : Ceschina, 1953), 46–51.
41 Valentina Moncada. Atelier a via Margutta. Cinque sec-
oli di cultura internazionale a Roma. (Turin : Allemandi,
2012), 1/b.
Colonna
diplomats and important contemporaries. Among
those who gathered in his studio were Marco
­Minghetti, Quintino Sella, the painter Fortuny,
Leighton, Lembach, Costa, Morelli, Celentano, the
­musicians Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. […]
Twice a month he sent many invitations to a cho-
sen group of his clients from Rome’s aristocracy
[…]. Whenever there was a reception at Vertunni’s,
even passing through Rome’s calmest street be-
came a real problem […].”42
42 “Vertunni, l’uomo del giorno, il pittore alla moda,
vendeva caro e spessissimo. Settimanalmente riceveva
i diplomativi e le più importanti personalità del suo
tempo. Convennero nel suo studio Marco Minghetti,
Quintino Sella, i pittori Fortuny, Leighton, Lembach,
Costa, Morelli, Celentano e i musicisti Franz Liszt, Ric-
cardo Wagner. […] Due volte al mese diramava numer-
osi inviti alla eletta sua clientela, scelta fra l’aristocrazia
romana. […] [Q]uando c’era un ricevimento in casa
Vertunni circolare per la più tranquilla strada di Roma
diventava un vero problema […],” Jandolo, Studi e mod-
elli, 46–51.
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The Arab Room of Achille Vertunni
Based on the discussed information we are able to
confirm the active involvement of orientalist
painters in the trade of Islamic artworks in Rome.
The methods of acquisition, conservation and ex-
change of these objects is well documented in the
sales catalogs of their collections. Beyond the re-
construction of the Arab Room, these catalogs,
even though not very detailed in their descriptions
of single artifacts, turned out to be invaluable
sources for analyzing the specific interests of col-
lectors, for instance, a preference for certain arti-
facts, such as ceramics, metalwork, weaponry,
­carpets, goldsmith works or precious fabrics. By
collecting Islamic antiquities and creating own
orientalist artworks, Rome’s artistic art dealers of
the nineteenth century, such as Achille Vertunni,
Fortuny and Simonetti, played a crucial role in
spreading the orientalist taste throughout Italy.
Something they had in common were internation-
al networks of interconnected relationships that
would develop into an important basis for estab-
lishing, maintaining and extending the orientalist
movement. The activities of these artist-collectors
were very heterogeneous and on many levels dem-
onstrate the diverse forms the perception of Islam-
ic art, from the Middle Ages to their own age, could
have in the nineteenth century.
This contribution therefore aspired to open up
a new perspective for future studies on the collec-
tion of Islamic art in Italy and to close a gap, since
there have been only few thorough examinations
of how Orientalism developed in Rome during the
nineteenth century.
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 Chapter 14
“Our aim is to perform something that remains after we are gone”
The Oriental Collection Henri Moser Charlottenfels at Bernisches Historisches Museum
Alban von Stockhausen
Henri Moser’s life motto “Our aim is to perform
something that remains after we are gone,” a quo-
tation from the famous thirteenth-century work
Gulistan by Persian poet Saadi (1210–91/92),1 sums
up what he must have had in mind when donating
his oriental collection to the Historical Museum of
Bern. Through his 1914 donation, Moser ensured
the continuity of one of the most important pri-
vate collections of Oriental and Islamic art and set
the direction for the museum’s future collect-
ing and research efforts. Not only did three-­
dimensional objects thus find their way to Bern,
but with them also came a large number of photo-
graphs, documentation materials, parts of Moser’s
library, and many of his personal notebooks, so-
called “Souvenir Albums,” and letters. The goal of
this article is to give a brief overview of these ma-
terials and to outline the changeful history of the
collection in the years before and after its arrival to
Bern.
1 Formation, Scope and Early History of the
Moser Collection
The formation of Henri Moser’s oriental collection
can be best outlined in relation to his four great
journeys to Central Asia, each of which is charac-
terized by different goals and outcomes. In terms
of collecting objects, the third journey of 1883–4
turned out to be the most successful. The fact that
1 This translation corresponds with the English edition of
the catalog: Henri Moser, Collection Henri Moser Charlot-
tenfels. Oriental Arms and Armour, Leipzig: Karl W. Hierse-
mann, 1912.
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_017
Moser was part of an official Russian delegation
proved not only invaluable in terms of object
­acquisitions but also for the collection and gather-
ing of data for his later publications. On this
­journey, Moser documented his findings more sys-
tematically than during previous ones: he brought
with him photography and taxidermy equipment,
and meticulously noted down all his experiences.
Moser continuously published entries of his travel
diary in the Journal de Genève; they found a wide
audience as the tensions between Russia and Brit-
ain reached a climax during these years.2 It is these
travel accounts that his popular travelogue A trav-
ers l’Asie centrale is based upon, published after his
return in 1886.3 This book with rich illustrations
and the touring exhibition of his collection
through several Swiss and German cities (Schaff-
hausen, Geneva, Bern, St. Gallen, Neuchâtel, Zu-
rich, Basel, and Stuttgart) laid the foundation for
his reputation as a well-known travel writer and
scholar of Central Asia cultures. The 1886 exhibi-
tion catalog lists 561 objects and was adapted to
the different locations of the exhibit.4 However, it
remains unclear whether Moser ever put his en-
tire collection on display or if this number only
2 Robert Pfaff, “Henri Moser-Charlottenfels und seine Ori-
entalische Sammlung,” Schaffhauser Beiträge zur Ge-
schichte, 62 (1985): 126.
3 Henri Moser. A travers l’Asie centrale (Paris : Plon, 1885).
4 The object numbers accord to those in the catalog of the
1886 Geneva exhibition, Henri Moser, Catalogue des Col-
lections Ethnologiques rapportées de L’Asie Centrale par
Henri Moser. Exposées à l’occasion de l’Assemblées des
­Sociétés suisses de Géographie et de la Société helvétique des
Sciences naturelles, Aout 1886 (Geneva: Imprimerie L.-E.
Privat, 1886).
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190 von Stockhausen

Figure 14.1 The 1886 exhibition of the Moser collection at the Botanical Garden in Geneva. Black and white photography
© Bernisches Historisches Museum, bhm E/PH1.240.07571/01

r­ epresents a fraction of it. In any case, Moser never
considered all of his objects suitable for exhibition
purposes; in fact, he regarded some parts of his
collection as having a merely “decorative” function
when on display at exhibitions.5 Therefore, it can-
not be fully confirmed anymore that all the objects
listed in the exhibition catalog were later donated
to Bernisches Historisches Museum (fig. 14.1).
5 Moser Archive, Bernisches Historisches Museum, Acces-
sion Number E/1915.670.0166/Doc166.
After several failed attempts to build up a suc-
cessful business, it was not before 1907 that Moser
would become economically independent after he
had successfully speculated in stocks of a Siberian
copper mine consortium/syndicate. As a result, he
bought back the castle of Charlottenfels he had
sold in 1889 and started extending and inventory-
ing his collection systematically. It was his Persian
friend and assistant Mirza Yuhanna Dawud who
between 1907 and 1912 not only translated inscrip-
tions for him, but also inventoried and thoroughly

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Our Aim is to Perform Something that Remains after We are Gone 191

described large parts of his collection. Subse- Table 14.1  Overview of the historical change of the
quently, its geographic focus widened, and Moser, different inventory systems
with Dawud’s help, started acquiring objects from
areas and cultural contexts he believed were Object Object Shelf marksb Object
linked to the economic and cultural traditions of categorya quantitya quantity
Muslim communities in Central Asia. New objects in 1969c
entered the collection that now came from Bud-
dhist regions in Tibet and Mongolia, along with Arms and 1,302 MW (600) 1,550
weapons from southern India, Ceylon, Malay- Armors
sia, Indonesia, China and Japan. With the sup- Arts and 847 MK (610) 1,720
port of Dawud, Moser closely observed auctions Crafts
and the art markets in London and Paris, even Textiles 343 MT (630) 1,000
though he also purchased objects in Berlin, Cairo Manuscripts 143 MM & MB 220
or Tehran. and Books (various nos.)
In 1912, a portfolio catalog on Oriental Arms and Ceramics 88 MKer (640) 269
Armour was published in a limited edition of 300
copies.6 Moser’s intention was to provide a first Coins 1,030 integrated into the
overview on his arms collection, and he further- numismatic collection
more planned a second volume on the arts and 2 Furnishings, 20 Unnumbered
crafts section, along with a more detailed, descrip- including
tive catalog of his collection. However, the work accessories
on the latter would not begin before Moser’s dona-
a Zeller, Die orientalische Sammlung, 15.
tion in 1914. The person in charge was Rudolf
b The inventory numbers were later replaced with a
Zeller, the curator of the ethnographic collection, standardized numbering system in the format of
who in 1915 published a first descriptive account of “1914.X.Y,” where X represents a number code (in
the collection that described the different object brackets) and Y is the original serial number.
categories and listed all existing inventory num- c The given numbers are only approximations, due to
bers at the time of donation.7 As soon as they ar- different numbering practices between 1914 and 1969.
rived in Bern, the objects were inventoried by
means of shelf marks that consisted of a combina-
tion of a specific code for each object category from Central Asia, a specialized library of about
­followed by a serial number. Table 14.1 gives an 650 volumes, as well as 34 albums and folders con-
­overview of the historical change of the different taining a large number of photographs. Overall,
inventory systems: the objects named in the report amount to about
In addition to altogether 3,773 objects at the 5,000 items.8 The striking difference in numbers to
time of donation, Zeller’s 1915 account also men- the 561 objects mentioned in Moser’s 1886 exhibi-
tions 46 framed paintings, and hunting trophies tion catalog9 indicates that he had acquired a
much larger part of the collection after his jour-
neys, that is, on auctions and the European art
6 Moser, Oriental Arms and Armour; 125 copies were pub-
market. However, not all objects listed by Zeller
lished in German language, 100 in French, and 75 in Eng-
can be identified in today’s collection anymore.
lish. The publication inside a portfolio folder consists of a
foreword and reference section in the specific language, Table 14.2 below gives an overview of the most
followed by image plates in color and black-and-white.
7 Rudolf Zeller, Die orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser 8 Cf. Zeller, Die orientalische Sammlung, 15.
Charlottenfels (Bern : Buchdruckerei K. J. Wyss, 1915). 9 Henri Moser, Catalogue des Collections Ethnologiques, 35.

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192 von Stockhausen

Table 14.2  The most common regional origins assigned to different object categories in the Moser collection at the time of
donation

Greater Region Region Ceramics Books & Arts & Textiles Arms & Photographs
given in Manuscripts Crafts Armor
Documentation

Persia Persia 88 72 520 166 271 79

Persia/ 42 6 26 7
Turkestan
Persia/Ottoman 13 1 3 42 8
Empire
Ottoman 5 6 33 66 142 48
Empire
Caucasus & Caucasus 4 34 33
Russia Russia 69
Central Asia Uzbekistan 6 76 90 29 435
Turkestan 21 11 63 105
Central Asia 2 8 8 8 460
Indo-Iranian Indo-Iranian 5 4 40 35
Region Region
Afghanistan 1 21
India 2 34 2 221
Near & Middle Near East 2 19
East Syria 11 1 1 3
Egypt 1 9 3 13
Arabia / Oman 6 43
East Asia Japan 1 4 67
China 3 51 2 73
Other Regions Indonesia 41
Ceylon 17 60
Spain 27 2
France 259
Bosnia-­ 561
Herzegovina
Switzerland 44
Belgium 16
Mexico 81

common regional origins assigned to different ob- The deed of donation, signed in 1914, states that
ject categories in the Moser collection at the time the museum was obliged to include the collection
of donation. Numbers given are object counts, re- as a separate entity under the name of “Orien-
ferring to single objects or object groups: talische Sammlung Henri Moser C ­ harlottenfels im

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Our Aim is to Perform Something that Remains after We are Gone
Bernischen Historischen Museum.”10 Accordingly,
an annex solely dedicated to the collection was
built, and on May 21, 1922, the Musée Moser even-
tually opened its doors to the public, that is, one
year before Moser’s death on July 15, 1923.
2 The Objects and Documents at the Moser
Collection
Even though the arms section was—and in fact
still is—one of the most important private collec-
tions of oriental arms,11 it is still as good as un-
known to the wider public. Except for the objects
that Moser had collected “in the field” during his
travels, he extended his collection in line with the
strategic goal of creating a systematic representa-
tion of the Islamic world and its connected re-
gions.12 One of his most spectacular acquisitions
was a collection of arms that belonged to the Brit-
ish colonial officer General Sir Hudson Lowe
(1769–1844), who had acquired them in the north-
ern territory of India that had once been under the
Islamic rule of the Mughals later. Other assets in-
cluded arms from smaller ethnic groups of central
and southern India, which had belonged to anoth-
er British officer, Colonel Cooper King, as well as
objects from French private collectors, such as Per-
sian and Arab weapons from the famous Main-
dron collection. In 1911, he purchased unique and
very valuable sets of rare Eastern Asian cutlery,
consisting of elaborately decorated cases for chop-
sticks, small knives and other instruments. At first
glance, this addition to the arms collection might
seem somewhat odd; yet these objects were out-
standingly suitable for comparing the different
metalworking techniques in the Near East and
Eastern Asia (figs. 14.2–14.3).
10 Zeller, Die orientalische Sammlung, 4.
11 Roger N. Balsiger and Ernst J. Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und
Khan. Henri Moser Charlottenfels 1844–1923, (Schaffhau-
sen : Meier Verlag, 1992), 78.
12 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 71–4.
193
In 1919, Moser corresponded with the director
of the Bern Historical Museum, Rudolf Wegeli
(1877–1956) to discuss the different options of how
to widen the geographical focus of “his” collection
to allow the display of arms and armor that was
exhibited as part of the museum’s ethnographic
collection. He mainly focused on two collections,
with one composed of Japanese blades and the
other of Chinese arms. His suggestion to buy them
from the museum’s own ethnographic depart-
ment demonstrates how much he regarded “his”
­collection as a section separate from the rest of
the museum. The initial skepticism of museum
­officials aside, it were mainly financial problems
­during the post-war years that eventually led to
the internal “sale” of some of these objects to the
­Moser collection, which had actually never been
­displayed together with Moser’s possessions. A
guidebook from 1923 attests that they had been
shown in another exhibition room that did not be-
long to the annex dedicated to Moser’s collection.13
The years following the donation saw the publica-
tion of more than two dozen articles on different
objects or sections of Moser’s collection in the mu-
seum’s yearbooks14—most notably, a successively
published catalog on the arms and armor collec-
tion, republished as a single volume in 1955.15
The work on inventory books and catalogs by
Henri Moser and Yuhanna Dawud was discontin-
ued after the collection’s move to Bern. However,
Moser’s demand to keep the Oriental Collection as
a separate entity within the museum was respect-
ed: from 1914 to 1965, most new acquisitions from
Islamic regions were allocated to it—with their
specific “Moser” inventory numbers. This way the
13 Rudolf Zeller, Führer durch die Orientalische Sammlung
H. Moser-Charlottenfels und die Völkerkundliche Ab-
teilung (Bern : Bernisches Historisches Museum, 1923),
28–9.
14 Jahresbericht des Historischen Museums Bern. Bern :
Buchdruckerei K. J. Wyss.
15 Rudolf Zeller and Ernst F. Rohrer, Orientalische Sam-
mlung Henri Moser-Charlottenfels. Beschreibender
­Katalog der Waffensammlung (Bern: Bernisches Histo-
risches Museum, 1955).
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194 von Stockhausen

Figure 14.2 Plate xxiv, “Indian Maharaja Daggers.” From the Oriental Arms and Armour catalog
Note: Moser, Oriental Arms and Armour, plate xxiv.

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Our Aim is to Perform Something that Remains after We are Gone 195

Figure 14.3 Plate xxv, various metal objects from Persia. From an unpublished volume on the arts and crafts section of
the Moser collection, ca. 1914
© Bernisches Historisches Museum 2018, bhm E/ph1.240.15718/25

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196
Figure 14.4 The original setup of the arms collection in the “Great Moser,” ca. 1925. Black and white photography
© Bernisches Historisches Museum
collection grew to more than 5,000 objects. Among
the most important acquisitions of this period
surely ranks the Fraschina/Gregorian collection;
added in 1936, it consists of a large number of Per-
sian lacquer artworks, manuscripts and textiles.
The arts and crafts section of the Moser collec-
tion includes important metalwork, jewelry, ar-
chaeological objects and an excellent selection of
Persian lacquer artworks that has attracted a lot of
scholarly attention ever since.16 A rather under-
represented category in today’s collection are
­ceramic tiles. Of the displayed originals, only a few
have been preserved, which are mainly found in
16 For an overview of some masterpieces of this part of
the collection, see B.W. Robinson, “Persian Lacquer in
the Bern Historical Museum,” Iran. Journal of the British
Institute of Persian Studies 8, no. 1 (1970): 47–50.
von Stockhausen
the “Fumoir,” a period room that had been trans-
ferred from Charlottenfels Castle to Bern at the
time of donation. Most other tiles had been sold to
the British Museum before, after the 1891 exhibi-
tion Les Russes en Asie, which had been organized
by Moser and the Russian war painter Franz Rou-
baud (1856–1928) at the Parisian Théâtre Marigny
and which had turned out to be a financial disas-
ter. The available documents do not allow us to
fully clarify what specific objects had been part of
this extensive assembly, but a remark in Moser’s
Arms and Armour catalog suggests that it included
“faience objects and tiles” of Timurid origin (fig.
14.4).17
A small but precious section of illuminated
manuscripts and books used to be part of the
17 Moser, Oriental Arms and Armour, iv.
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Our Aim is to Perform Something that Remains after We are Gone
c­ ollection as well, which was downsized after two
thirds of the manuscripts listed in Yuhanna
Dawud’s catalog18 had been withdrawn from the
museum in 1921.19 The reason was a dispute be-
tween Moser and the museum administration
about a pension he wanted the institution to pay
his widow after his demise. Moser had actually
asked for a much higher amount than both parties
had originally agreed upon in the deed of dona-
tion, but he offered to withdraw under the con­
dition that parts of the collection would be sold
in favor of his wife. Since director Wegeli was not
able to secure any satisfying offer by another mu-
seum institution, Mrs. Moser asked Yuhanna
Dawud for help. Dawud had become a well-known
trader for oriental arts in London, and due to his
intervention, the manuscripts eventually found
buyers on the art market. Unfortunately, the iden-
tity of these buyers is still unknown. Only in 1964
had it been possible to return fourteen of the origi-
nal lots from a private collection in Geneva.20
Even though the collection includes a great
number of textiles, ranging from Central Asian
honorary robes, opulent Qajar wall hangings to
Kashmir shawls, many textiles, especially the car-
pets seen on photographs of Moser’s traveling ex-
hibition, had never been included to the collection
but rather used as decorative objects.
In terms of historical research, another group
of objects is of great interest—the so-called “Sou-
venir Albums.” In the years before his death, Moser
meticulously organized his personal notes, publi-
cation materials, paper souvenirs, photographs,
collection notes and correspondences, compiling
the most important items in several albums, with a
strong focus on his four great journeys of 1886–90
and his work on the Bosnian and Herzegovinian
pavilion for the 1900 universal exhibition in Paris.
Other albums include newspaper clippings from
all over the world alongside texts Moser himself
18 The unpublished catalog is kept at the Moser archive.
19 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 139.
20 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 75–6.
197
had published in the Journal de Genève during 1883
and 1884.21 Other materials not included to the
“Souvenir Albums” were collected in folders. A
comprehensive study of most of these materials
has not been accomplished; in fact, many folders
are entirely undocumented still (fig. 14.5).
More research has been conducted on the col-
lection’s vast photographic archive. In an ongoing
project, more than 2,700 database entries are
digitized and inventoried systematically.22 In
­
many cases it remains unclear which photographs
can be directly ascribed to Moser and which ones
come from other sources. Moser’s library, once an
essential part of the exhibition, has in the mean-
time been incorporated into the museum’s ethno-
graphic library.
3 The Display of Moser’s Collection after 1914
Still under the influence of the end of the First
World War, the collection’s 1922 opening ceremony
was a rather modest event. It had been a challenge
for the curators to arrange the arms in a way that
corresponded with the common scientific stan-
dards of the time and did not focus on their mar-
tial qualities too much, as had been the case when
they had been on display at Charlottenfels Castle.23
This issue became even more pressing after the
Second World War, when the criticism of their
seemingly war-glorifying nature increasingly
blended with the criticism of their exoticism.24
Rudolf Zeller, the aforementioned curator for the
21 For a detailed list of the “Souvenir Albums” see Balsiger
and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 227.
22 This number is only an estimation, since some entries
refer to different versions of the same images.
23 Rudolf Zeller, “Die ethnografische Abteilung,” Jahrbuch
des Bernischen Historischen Museums in Bern, ii. Jahr-
gang (1922): 142–48; Rudolf Zeller, “Die orientalische
Sammlung von Henri Moser auf Charlottenfels im His-
tor. Museum in Bern,” Das Werk ix, Nr. 10 (Okt 1922):
189–204.
24 Balsiger and Kläy, Bei Schah, Emir und Khan, 196.
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198
Figure 14.5 The “Souvenir Books” of the Moser archive. Photography: Christine Moor
© Bernisches Historisches Museum, 2018
collection in the decades that followed its arrival
to Bern, was keen on further extending its scope
and wanted to give Moser’s objects a new contex-
tualization by enabling direct comparisons with
objects from other world regions. Adding many
new objects, however, resulted in the exhibition of
the annex building becoming more and more
overloaded.
With the appointment of Michael Stettler
(1913–2003) as the museum’s new director in 1948,
plans for a substantial redesign of the exhibition
spaces were revealed in an attempt to unburden
the display visually and conceptually. During the
1950s, large parts of the building were therefore re-
furbished, many older exhibitions taken off dis-
play, and objects moved into the newly created
storage areas. When compared to these redesigned
von Stockhausen
spaces, the display of the Moser collection must
have seemed very antiquated.25 When the new
ethnographic department of the University of
Bern opened in 1965, new approaches and debates
in the anthropological discourse resulted in fur-
ther challenges for established forms of display.
The empirical, ethnographic focus of curator
­Walter Dostal, who became head of the new de-
partment, collided with the seemingly unscientific
display of the Moser collection and its ­Eurocentric,
25 Ernst J. Kläy, “‘Unser Ziel ist es, ein Werk zu schaffen,
das uns überlebt.’ Zum wechselvollen Schicksal der
Orientalischen Sammlung Henri Moser Charlotten-
fels,” Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimatkunde
3 (1994): 349.
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Our Aim is to Perform Something that Remains after We are Gone
orientalist layout. As a result, the Moser collection
was closed in 1969, and its objects put into storage.
Furthermore, the so-called “Small Moser,” that is,
the anteroom of the annex building was “neutral-
ized” by removing its stucco works and faience
paintings and converting the hall into an exhibi-
tion room for the famous Flemish tapestries. The
main hall, designed in neo-Timurid style, was
sealed off by a wooden wall and henceforth used
as a storage for the vast ethnographic collection. In
the early 1970s, plans were made to refurbish the
so-called “Great Moser” hall as well by stripping it
from its decorative elements near the large roof
light and by additionally installing an intermedi-
ate floor to gain more space. Fortunately, the oil
crisis put an end to these plans and at least this
largest room of the annex was preserved as origi-
nally designed by French architect Henri Saladin
(1851–1923). After Walter Dostal and Pierre
Centlivres, the two anthropologists responsible for
these interventions, were appointed to university
departments, the ethnographic section fell into
oblivion, as did all plans for showing the Moser
collection.
It was not before 1989 that the collection would
be re-opened by curator Ernst J. Kläy. The neo-
Timurid architecture of the “Great Moser” was
now perceived as a remnant of late historicism
worthy of protection.26 In 1985/86 the “Great
­Moser” and the “Fumoir” were refurbished and
large parts of the collection again presented to the
public. Some other rooms that had once housed
parts of the Moser exhibition, however, were not
included: the textile cabinet, which had become a
coffee shop and the library, for example, now
served as an office. The new display contextual-
ized the objects of the Moser collection with oth-
ers from rural communities of Central Asia, such
as household objects and agricultural tools. The
original plans—which were never put into ef-
fect—had also included the idea to provide an
even broader contextualization by offering small-
er changing exhibitions in the lower rooms of the
26 Kläy, “Unser Ziel ist es,” 352.
199
annex building dedicated to other aspects of ev-
eryday life in the Islamic world. A small guidebook
for the exhibition was published in 1991.27 Togeth-
er with Roger Nicholas Balsiger, Henri Moser’s
grandnephew, Ernst J. Kläy furthermore issued a
comprehensive volume on Moser’s life and collec-
tion in 1992. A project for a comprehensive catalog
of the arms and armor section was launched as
well that never reached completion.
In 2007, the collection’s display entered its lat-
est phase. Once more, the shortage of space led to
the rearrangement and removal of large parts of
the collection. As the museum lacked a larger hall
suitable for public talks or gatherings, it was de-
cided to limit the display of the Moser collection
to the largely unchanged “Fumoir,” and to install
showcases to the outer walls of the “Great Moser.”
The latter now shows objects of the Moser collec-
tion alongside later additions to the ethnographic
collection. However, today’s concept is far away
from the dimensions of earlier exhibitions. Except
for a descriptive text and a plate visible in the
“­Fumoir,” only the name of the hall reminds visi-
tors of the existence of the Oriental Collection Hen-
ri Moser Charlottenfels.
Returning to Henri Moser’s introductory life
motto, we are now well prepared to answer the
question, “What has remained of the Oriental Col-
lection Henri Moser Charlottenfels?” Looking
back at its changing history, it is due time for the
Moser collection to reappear in public. So far, a
great number of projects on different sections
have been launched, with many of the articles in
this volume outlining the scope of this research.
The objective of one such project at Bernisches
Historisches Museum is to systematically re-­
inventory the objects of the museum’s entire col-
lections, which will certainly set new standards for
understanding the Moser collection—and for new
concepts for displaying its objects.
27 Ernst J. Kläy, Orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser
Charlottenfels (Bern : Bernisches Historisches Museum,
1991).
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200
Bibliography
Balsiger, Roger N. and Ernst J. Kläy. Bei Schah, Emir und
Khan. Henri Moser Charlottenfels 1844–1923. Schaff-
hausen : Meier Verlag, 1992.
Kläy, Ernst J. Orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser Char-
lottenfels. Bern : Bernisches Historisches Museum,
1991.
Kläy, Ernst J. “‘Unser Ziel ist es, ein Werk zu schaffen,
das uns überlebt.’ Zum wechselvollen Schicksal der
Orientalischen Sammlung Henri Moser Charlotten-
fels.” Berner Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Heimat-
kunde 56, no. 3 (1994): 335–58.
Moser, Henri. À travers l’Asie centrale. Paris : Plon, 1885.
Moser, Henri. Catalogue des Collections Ethnologiques
rapportées de l’Asie Centrale par Henri Moser. Expo-
sées à l’occasion de l’Assemblées des Sociétés suisses de
Géographie et de la Société helvétique des Sciences na-
turelles, Aout 1886. Geneva : Imprimerie L.-E. Privat,
1886.
Moser, Henri. Collection Henri Moser Charlottenfels. Ori-
ental Arms and Armour. Leipzig : Karl W. Hierse-
mann, 1912.
von Stockhausen
Pfaff, Robert. “Henri Moser-Charlottenfels und seine
Orientalische Sammlung.” Schaffhauser Beiträge zur
Geschichte 62 (1985): 117–56.
Robinson, B.W. “Persian Lacquer in the Bern Historical
Museum.” Iran. Journal of the British Institute of Per-
sian Studies 8, no. 1 (1970): 47–50.
Zeller, Rudolf. “Die orientalische Sammlung von Henri
Moser auf Charlottenfels im Histor. Museum in
Bern.” Das Werk ix, Nr. 10 (Okt 1922): 189–204.
Zeller, Rudolf. “Die ethnografische Abteilung.” Jahrbuch
des Bernischen Historischen Museums in Bern, ii. Jah-
rgang (1922): 142–57.
Zeller, Rudolf. Die orientalische Sammlung Henri Moser
Charlottenfels. Bern : Buchdruckerei K. J. Wyss, 1915.
Zeller, Rudolf. Führer durch die Orientalische Sammlung
H. Moser-Charlottenfels und die Völkerkundliche Ab-
teilung. Bern : Bernisches Historisches Museum,
1923.
Zeller, Rudolf and Ernst F. Rohrer. Orientalische Sam-
mlung Henri Moser-Charlottenfels. Beschreibender
Katalog der Waffensammlung. Bern : Bernisches His-
torisches Museum, 1955.
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 Chapter 15
Yakov Smirnov’s Photo Collection
The Orient in Nineteenth-Century Photography
Maria Medvedeva
The second half of the nineteenth century saw the
emergence of the Russian school of Byzantine
studies.1 The vivid interest of Russian scholars in
Byzantine history and archaeology did not only
stem from geopolitical concerns but also from
shared religious traditions, since the Byzantine
Empire was considered the original source of Or-
thodox Christianity and therefore perceived as an
important historic role model for the identity of
modern Russia. During the nineteenth century,
many of the country’s archaeologists, historians,
art historians and ethnographers directed their ef-
forts to the study of the Orient. Russian Byzan-
tinists played a crucial role in this context, for it
was especially they, who, in connection to their
research on the Byzantine Empire, traveled to ori-
ental locations. All researchers involved in this
process were particularly interested in ancient
monuments located in the territory of the Otto-
man Empire. In 1882, the Imperial Orthodox Pales-
tinian Society was founded in St. Petersburg,2 with
the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constanti-
nople following suit in 1895.3 Both institutions
supported research and expeditions related to the
Middle East. With their backing, Russian scholars
were able to travel to Syria, Lebanon, Palestine,
1 Medvedev, Peterburgskoe vizantinovedenie. Stranicy istorii
[St. Petersburg Byzantine Studies. Pages of History] (St.
Petersburg: Aleteya, 2006).
2 Dmitrievskij, Imperatorskoe Pravoslavnoe Palestinskoe ob-
shhestvo i ego deyatelnost’ za istekshuyu chetvert’ veka [The
Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society and its Activities
for a Quarter of a Century] (1882–1907) (St. Petersburg: V.F.
Kirschbaum, 1907).
3 Ekaterina Basargina, Russkij Arheologicheskij institut v
Konstantinopole [The Russian Archaeological Institute in
Constantinople] (St. Petersburg: Dmitrij Bulanin, 1999).
© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��20 | doi 10.1163/9789004412644_018
Greece or other countries that had once been part
of the Byzantine Empire. They visited ancient
­archaeological and architectural monuments, re-
corded their state of preservation, examined mu-
seum collections, described and photographed
manuscripts and artifacts, thereby building up a
significant archive.4 They primarily directed their
research toward Byzantine antiquities, but also
studied oriental monuments of other cultural ori-
gins and from other periods.
One of the most outstanding figures in this con-
text was Yakov Smirnov (1869–1918). In textbooks
of Russian history, he is traditionally described as
one of the most important historian of early Chris-
tian and Byzantine art, but his contributions to the
scientific community were even more impressive.
Throughout his career, he collected a considerable
amount of documents on Christian, ancient Greek,
Roman, and Islamic monuments. Although the
year 2018 saw the hundredth anniversary of his
death, even in Russia Smirnov’s heritage is little
known still, which is why it is the major goal of this
article to provide a brief introduction and analysis
of Smirnov’s materials. Today kept at the Ar-
chives of the Institute for the History of Material
Culture at the Russian Academy of Sciences in
4 Igor’ Medvedev, ed., Arhivy russkih vizantinistov v Sankt-
Peterburge [The Archives of Russian Byzantinists in St. Pe-
tersburg] (St. Petersburg: Dmitrij Bulanin, 1995); Igor’
Medvedev, ed., Rukopisnoe nasledie russkih vizantinistov v
arhivah Sankt-Peterburga [The Manuscript Legacy of Rus-
sian Byzantinists in the Archives of St. Petersburg] (St. Pe-
tersburg: Dmitrij Bulanin, 1999); Igor’ Medvedev, ed., Mir
russkoj vizantinistiki : Materialy arhivov Sankt-Peterburga
[The World of Russian Byzantine Studies: Materials from
the Archives of St. Petersburg] (St. Petersburg: Dmitrij Bu-
lanin, 2004).
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202
St. ­Petersburg (ihmc ras), a short examination of
these materials may help to better understand the
­contribution of Russian scholars to nineteenth-
century Oriental studies and maybe even motivate
new approaches in the research on the monu-
ments depicted in the photo collection.
1 On Yakov Smirnov’s Biography
Yakov Smirnov was born in Irkutsk in 1869,5 but his
family later moved to St. Petersburg. In 1891, he
5 Aleksandr Belenickij and Evgenij Zejmal’, “Rukopisnoe
nasledie Ya. I. Smirnova” [“The Documented Legacy of
Ya[kov] I. Smirnov”], in Hudozhestvennye pamyatniki i
problemy kultury Vostoka [Artistic Monuments and Prob-
lems of Culture in the Orient], ed. Vladimir Lukonin (Len-
ingrad : Iskusstvo, 1985), 9–14; Andrej Grabar, “Neskol’ko
slov vospominanij o Yakove Ivanoviche Smirnove” [“A few
Commemorating Words on Ya[kov] I. Smirnov”], in Hu-
dozhestvennye pamyatniki i problemy kultury Vostoka [Ar-
tistic Monuments and Problems of Oriental Culture], ed.
Vladimir Lukonin (Leningrad : Iskusstvo, 1985), 7–8; Lev
Klimanov, “Ya. I. Smirnov : iz rukopisnogo naslediya”
[“Ya[kov] I. Smirnov : His Manuscript Legacy”], in Rukopis-
noe nasledie russkih vizantinistov v arhivah Sankt-Peterbur-
ga [The Manuscript Heritage of Russian Byzantinists in the
Archives of St. Petersburg], ed. Lev Klimanov and Igor’
Medvedev (St. Petersburg : Dmitrij Bulanin, 1999), 444–48;
Elena Korol’kova, “Faktopoklonnik Yakov Ivanovich
Smirnov : antikoved, vizantinist, arheolog” [“‘Worshipper
of Facts’ : Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov, a Classicist, Byzan-
tinist, Archaeologist”], in Trudy Gosudarstvennogo Ermi-
tazha, lxxx: Belgradskij sbornik [Transactions of the State
Hermitage Museum, lxxx: Belgrade Studies], ed. Vera Za-
lesskaya and Yurij Pyatnizhkij (St. Petersburg: State Her-
mitage Museum, 2016), 292–310; Nikodim Kondakov,
“­Zapiska ob uchenyh trudah Ya. I. Smirnova” [“On Ya[kov]
Smirnov’s Research Documents”], in Trudy Gosudarstven-
nogo Ermitazha, lxix. Vizantiya v kontekste mirovoj
kul’tury [Transactions of the State Hermitage Museum
lxix: ­Byzantium in the Context of World Culture], ed.
Vera Zalesskaya (St. Petersburg: State Hermitage Museum,
2013), 490–97; Tihonov, Igor’, “Ya. I. Smirnov v Peterburgs-
kom universitete : student, magistrant, privat-docent”
[“Ya[kov] I. Smirnov: Student, Master and Lecturer at St.
Petersburg University”], Mnemon : Issledovaniya i publika-
cii po istorii antichnogo mira [Mnemon: Investigations and
Medvedeva
graduated at St. Petersburg University, where he
developed an interest in archaeology and classical
art under the supervision of Nikodim Kondakov
(1844–1925), the famous Russian historian of
­Byzantine and Old Russian art. According to his
contemporaries, Smirnov was Kondakov’s most
talented students.6 From 1898 up to his death, he
worked as a curator of the Hermitage. He also
taught at St. Petersburg University and collaborat-
ed with Russia’s leading archaeological societies
and organizations.7 Smirnov was a very versatile
scholar, but his greatest contributions were in the
areas of Christian antiquities and Sasanian art. In
1907, he became a member of the Russian Acade-
my of Science, and, in 1917, an ordinary academi-
cian.8 Unfortunately, like many other Russian
­intellectuals of his generation, Smirnov met a trag-
ic fate and died of malnutrition and exhaustion in
Petrograd in 1918;9 he had only reached the age of
forty-nine.
2 Smirnov’s Collections in the Archives of
the ihmc ras
Smirnov’s widow donated her husband’s manu-
scripts, reports, and photographs to the Academy
­ ublications on the History of Ancient World] 8 (2009):
P
449–70; Sergej Zhebelev, “Iz vospominanij o Ya. I. Smirnove;
iz ­vospominanij o starom druge; S.F. Oldenburg” [“Recol-
lections on Y[akov] I. Smirnov; Recollections of an Old
Friend, S.F. Oldenburg”], Journal of Ancient History 206, no.
3 (1993): 191–201.
6 Korol’kova, “Faktopoklonnik Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov,”
293.
7 He was member of the Imperial Russian Archaeological
Society (1846–1924), the Imperial Archaeological Society
in Moscow (1864–1923), and the Russian Archaeological
Institute in Constantinople (1894–1914). He was also in-
volved in projects of the Imperial Archaeological Commis-
sion (1859–1917).
8 An “ordinary academician” was a member of the highest
rank of the Academy in pre-revolutionary Russia.
9 Korol’kova, “Faktopoklonnik Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov,”
307–09; Belenickij and Zejmal’, “Rukopisnoe nasledie Ya. I.
Smirnova,” 10.
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Yakov Smirnov’s Photo Collection
for the History of Material Culture, the predeces-
sor of today’s Institute for the History of Material
Culture at the Russian Academy of Sciences, in the
early 1930s. Thereafter, further documents, diaries,
and letters were added.10 The photos and nega-
tives donated by Smirnov’s widow had belonged to
Smirnov’s personal photo collection,11 whereas
those already kept at the Imperial Archaeological
Commission12 and the Academy for the History of
Material Culture13 had been the result of his many
scientific activities, his expeditions and publica-
tions. The inventory of all objects amounts to more
than two thousand items.
The collection of the Imperial Archaeological
Commission includes several hundreds of glass
negatives taken by Smirnov or his staff while pre-
paring his main work Oriental Silver. An Atlas of the
Ancient Silver and Gold ware of Oriental Origin
Mainly Found in the Russian Empire.14 For this
book, he collected and photographed more than
300 objects of Oriental art kept at museums and
private collections, either in Russia or abroad.
Some negatives were used as models for the en-
gravings that would later illustrate his monograph.
Regrettably enough, Smirnov’s detailed descrip-
tions of these objects and many images have not
been published so far. The drafts and sketches for
the Atlas add up to more than 1,500 pages, today
10 SA ihmc ras, Manuscript Department, f. 11, in. 1, no.
1–379.
11 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, f. 32, no. 59956–
59991, coll. 223/1–117, 339/1–1010.
12 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, f. 1, alb. Q 661–666,
668–669, 476–477.
13 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, f. 46, coll. 155/1295–
1863, 1887–1986.
14 Yakov Smirnov, Vostochnoe serebro : Atlas drevnej sere-
bryanoj i zolotoj posudy vostochnogo-proishozhdeniya,
najdennoj preimushhestvenno v predelah Rossijskoj Im-
perii [Oriental Silver: The Atlas of the Ancient Silver
and Gold Ware Mainly Found in the Russian Empire]
(St. Petersburg: Imperatorskaya Arheologicheskaya Ko-
missiya, 1909).
203
kept at the Archives of the ihmc ras,15 together
with materials related to Smirnov’s archaeological
expeditions to the Caucasus and photographs tak-
en during other journeys.16
His personal photo collection, on the other
hand, consists of 1,270 imprints and 122 glass nega-
tives from the second half of the nineteenth to the
beginning of the twentieth centuries, with all of
them related to his many expeditions as well. Ever
since his early years of study, he had been examin-
ing museum collections and archaeological sites
in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Greece, Turkey, Ser-
bia, Austria, Romania, Egypt, Cyprus, Spain, Italy,
Switzerland, Germany, England, France, and oth-
ers (fig. 15.1). A significant share of the photographs
was collected between 1894 and 1897, the time
when Smirnov had received a four-year travel
grant from the Russian Ministry of National Edu-
cation at the request of St. Petersburg University,
which allowed him to explore monuments in Asia
Minor, Egypt, Central and Southern Europe, espe-
cially in Greece.17 From this time, very insightful
travelling diaries, descriptions of archaeological
museums, and antiquities of Europe and Asia Mi-
nor have survived, along with lecture notes by Ger-
man archaeologist Wilhelm Derpfeld (1853–1940).
During his travels, Smirnov usually took photo-
graphs himself, but also bought photographs from
artists.18 It should be noted that Smirnov was one
of the first Russian scholars to appreciate photog-
raphy as a scientific method for recording finds,
exhibits and excavations.19 He began taking
15 Belenickij and Zejmal’, “Rukopisnoe nasledie Ya. I.
Smirnova,” 10–3.
16 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, f. 46, coll. 155/1295–
1863, 1887–1986.
17 Tihonov, “Ya. I. Smirnov v Peterburgskom universitete,”
453–56, 460–70.
18 Most of these artists will be described in more detail
further below; a complete list, however, would include
Pascal Sebah, Polycarpe Joaillier, Felix Bonfis, the
Abdullah Frères, Luigi Fiorillo, Tancrède Dumas, Zan-
gaki Brothers, and Hippolyte Arnoux.
19 Maria Medvedeva, “Svetopis’ bosporskoj arheologii v
xix–nachale xx v. (k istorii formirovaniya fotokollekcij
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204
Figure 15.1 Vladimir Beklemishev, Sergej Zhebelev, Yakov
Smirnov in Tivoli, Italy, 1896. SA ihmc ras,
Photo Department, neg. ii 42959
­ hotographs and using them systematically as of
p 3 The Orient in Smirnov’s Photo Collection
1889. In a letter to the director of the Chersonesos
Museum in Sevastopol he mentions images he had
shot while visiting an excavation site the year be-
fore, “I must apologize that not all the imprints
­attached are of the same quality. I have been en-
gaged in photography for less than a year now, and
I have not become fully proficient in the compli-
cated operation of managing tints of prints, which
po izucheniyu antichnoj zhivopisi na yuge Rossii v so-
branii nauchnogo arhiva iimk ran)” [“Photography of
Archaeology in the Bosporus Region from the 19th to
the Early 20th Century. The History of the Photo Col-
lections on Studies of Ancient Painting in South Russia
at the Scientific Archives of the Institute for the History
of Material Culture at the Russian Academy of Scienc-
es”], in Antichnaya dekorativnaya zhivopis’ Bospora
Kimmerijskogo : ot graficheskoj fiksacii k fotografii [An-
cient Decorative Painting of the Cimmerian Bosporus:
From Drawing to Photography], ed. Yurij Vinogradov
and Maria Medvedeva (St. Petersburg: ihmc ras and
Lema, 2017), 59–60.
Medvedeva
is why they appeared to be greenish […].”20
­However, during his later trips in the 1890s, he had
managed to master the technology and produced
photos of a much higher quality.
Yet the most remarkable part of his photo col-
lection are not his own photos but those he had
purchased during his travels. Smirnov attentively
followed news on the appearance of collections by
famous photographers. Among his legacy, for ex-
ample, we find a printed catalog of photographs of
Constantinople and Athens by Pascal Sebah (1823–
86) and Polycarpe Joaillier (1848–1904), including
their sizes and prices. Smirnov’s photo collection
includes large-size prints on albumen paper by
different masters, depicting different archaeologi-
cal sites, museums and antiquities of Europe, for
example, specimens of the Archaeological Muse-
um in Athens or general views of Mycenae. Other
than that, the collection also contains a large num-
ber of late-nineteenth-century images of the Mid-
dle East.
In Smirnov’s photographic collection, images of
the Middle East vary in relation to geography,
genre, depicted objects and authors. Most photo-
graphs were taken between 1860 and 1895 and de-
pict archaeological sites, architectures, landscapes,
special events, or everyday life. In the following, a
brief overview of these images is given, clustering
the photographs in terms of locations and
photographers.
A Constantinople
First, there is a series by Swedish photographer
Guillaume Berggren (1835–1920), who had learned
the art in Berlin and worked in Turkey from 1866
20 “Archaeologists and Photographers at the Excavations
of the Tauric Chersonesos in the late 19th-early 20th
cc.,” <http://www.archaeo-photo.chersonesos.org/en/
history/>, accessed on April 30, 2018.
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Yakov Smirnov’s Photo Collection
Figure 15.2 Constantinople, Selamlık, the departure of the Sultan to the mosque on Friday
Photography by G. Berggren, 1870–80s. SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, imp. О.1020/13
onwards.21 He combined studio work with taking
pictures of Constantinople’s street life and archi-
tecture, including mosques, ruins and surrounding
landscapes. Berggren’s photos reveal a high artistic
quality, which can be especially gathered from the
following examples, taken between the 1870s and
the 1880s. These photos show:
– A panorama of the city with the Hagia Sophia
– The “Selamlık,” the Sultan’s journey to the
mosque on Friday, in front of the Indiz Kiosk
(fig. 15.2)
– The walls of Rumeli-Hisarı Fortress and the
American school
– Ortakyoi Mosque as seen from the water
– Muslim women in front of women’s graves
– The Turkish Cemetery on the Asian side of the
Bosporus.22
21 John Hannavy, ed., Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century
Photography (New York: Routledge and Taylor & Fran-
cis, 2008), 149.
22 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. O.1020/7–18.
205
Smirnov’s collection also contains photographs by
the Armenian brothers Abdullah, who in 1858
opened the Abdullah Frères studio in Constanti-
nople. The Abdullahs became so renowned for
their artistic and technological skills that the
­Ottoman Sultan appointed them Royal Photogra-
phers only five years later.23 The studio lasted until
the end of the nineteenth century. Among others,
the images of Constantinople by the Abdullah
Frères at the Smirnov Collection depict a Muslim
cemetery, the Hagia Sophia, the entrance of Yedi-
kule, the Castle of the Seven Towers, fortress walls,
and panoramic views.24
B Egypt
At the personal request of the Khedive of Egypt,
Muḥammad Tawfīq Pasha (1852–92), the Abdullah
23 Engin Ozendes, Abdullah frères, Ottoman Court Photog-
raphers (Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 1998).
24 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 547/2, 4,
8–13.
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206
Figure 15.3 Egypt. Annual Flooding of the Nile
Photography by Abdullah Brothers, 1887. SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, imp. Q 544/27
Brothers opened a branch in Cairo in 1886, which
would endure until the end of the next decade.
Smirnov purchased an album of photographs from
there that show the Mosque of Amr, the Mamlūk
tombs, the doors of the al-Azhar Mosque, the
Mosque of Sultan Bibars, the Mosque of Ahmad
Ibn Tulun, the Pyramids of Giza,25 and a journey
on the River Nile (fig. 15.3).26 In the same album,
we also find images by other masters of photo­
graphy of the second half of the nineteenth cen-
tury, including Felix Bonfis (1831–85), the Zangaki
Brothers (fl. 1870s–90s), and Hippolyte Arnoux
25 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 547/1, 7–10,
12–14.
26 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 544/7–17, 26,
27, 29, 31.
Medvedeva
(fl. 1860s–90s).27 Again, there are photos of the
Pyramids, of Cairo and its mosques, but also of the
Museum of Islamic Art and the Mausoleum of
Qaitbay.
In this context, it is fitting to also mention the
Materials on the Archaeology of Christian Egypt,
published by Vladimir Bock (1851–99) in Russian
and French in 1901.28 Bock was a pioneer of Coptic
art studies in Russia and founder of the Coptic art
collection at the Hermitage. Yakov Smirnov had
worked with Bock at this museum, and it was
thanks to him that Bock’s book would be ­published
27 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 544.
28 Vladimir Bock, Materialy po arheologii hristianskogo
Egipta [Materials on the Archaeology of Christian
Egypt] (St. Petersburg: Evgenij Til’, 1901).
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Yakov Smirnov’s Photo Collection 207

Figure 15.4 Palestine. Guides, Dragomans and Bedouin horsemen

Photography by L. Fiorillo, ca. 1880. SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, imp. Q 546/31

after his death.29 Said work includes illustrations
based on the plans of buildings Bock had drawn
and the photos he had taken during his trips to
the Nile Valley in 1887–88 and 1898. They are the
first photographic reproductions of architectural
monuments, sculptures and paintings of early
­ the photographs acquired during this period had
Christianity. Today, the Smirnov Collection pre-
serves the first-rate originals Bock had used for his
publication.30
C Palestine and Syria
About one hundred prints, gathered in three al-
bums, are from Palestine and Syria.31 It is likely
that they were collected during an expedition to
Syria and Palestine in 1891 that Nikodim Kondakov
had organized for the Imperial Orthodox Palestine
Society. Yakov Smirnov took part in this expedition
and carried out small excavations in a garden in
Jericho that belonged to the Society.32 Most of
been created by Luigi Fiorillo (1847–98), Tancrède
Dumas (1830–1905) and aforementioned Felix
­
Bonfils.
The albumen prints by Bonfils depict the ruins
of Greco-Roman cities, such as Palmyra, Gerasa
and Baalbek, as well as different views of J­ erusalem
and its surroundings, of Damascus, Bethlehem,
Jaffa, Beirut, and Tripoli. Fiorillo and Dumas both

29 Zhebelev, “Iz vospominanij o Ya. I. Smirnove”: 183. 32 Korol’kova, “Faktopoklonnik Yakov Ivanovich Smirnov,”
30 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. O.1019, Q 707. 298; Tihonov, “Ya. I. Smirnov v Peterburgskom univer-
31 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 530, 545, 546. sitete,” 453.

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208
Figure 15.5 Granada, Alhambra, interior of Mosque
Photography by Linares, late nineteenth century. SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, imp. Q 537/16
had come to the Middle East from Italy. Fiorillo
worked in North Africa from 1870 to 1890, and his
studio was located in Alexandria, Egypt. He is most
renowned for his photos of the Anglo-­Egyptian
War, especially the Bombardment of ­Alexandria in
1882,33 but he also took pictures of historic monu-
ments, landscapes, and the people of Palestine,
Eritrea, or Algeria. It has been assumed that Du-
mas studied with the Alinari Brothers; around
1865, he opened a studio in Constantinople, which
he later moved to Beirut.34 The Smirnov Collection
33 Mitchel P. Roth, Historical Dictionary of War Journalism
(Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood Press, 1997),
104.
34 Rachel Hallote, Felicity Cobbing, and Jeffrey B. Spurr,
The Photographs of the American Palestine Exploration
Society, Annual of the American Schools of Oriental
Medvedeva
houses Dumas and Fiorillo’s splendid photos of
biblical sites, together with panoramic views of
Palestinian and Syrian cities, as well as a very inter-
esting group of photographs by Fiorillo that por-
tray the life of Bedouins in the desert(fig. 15.4) and
the work life of Arabs, for example, as scribes, mu-
sicians, merchants of dried fruits, or porters.35
D Spain
Smirnov’s photographic collection also comprises
of monuments of Islamic Spain.36 They were
Research 66 (Boston: American Schools of Oriental Re-
search, 2012); Sylvie Aubenas and Jacques Lacarrière,
Voyage en Orient, photographies: 1840–1880 (Paris : Ha-
zan, 2001), 40.
35 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 546/28–35.
36 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 537, 538.
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Yakov Smirnov’s Photo Collection
Figure 15.6 Thessaloniki, Church of St. Sophia
Photography by Yakov Smirnov, 1895. SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, imp. Q 536/14
­roduced by Spanish photographers Abelardo
p and Menet was one of the leading Spanish print-
(1870–1936) and Enrique (?) Linares, Juan Laurent
(1816–86), and the printing company “Hauser y
Menet.” Very little is known about the Linares; in
fact, all we know for sure is that Abelardo and En-
rique Linares were pioneers of photography prac-
ticing in Granada. Juan Laurent, on the other
hand, was one of the greatest photographers of
Spain and Portugal during the nineteenth century,
who had established his studio in Madrid around
1855.37 He produced a large number of photo-
graphs, including panoramic views of cities, archi-
tecture, historic monuments, the paintings of old
masters, and of locals of all social classes. Hauser
37 Emilio Soler Pascual and Galina Dluzhnevskaya, Espa-
ña, 1889 (Alicante : Fundacion C.V. MARQ and Museo
Arqueólogico de Alicante, 2011), 169.
209
ing houses. Founded at the end of the nineteenth
century, it was famous for its prototype prints used
for postcards in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries.38 During the 1890s, Smirnov
assembled about one hundred images of Spanish
artworks. The approximately thirty photographs of
the Alhambra complex depict views of its different
segments and ­interiors, such as the Ambassador’s
Hall, the Wine Gate, the mosque and its courtyard
(fig. 15.5). ­Several photos have been devoted to the
Lion Court alone. Some photographs carry labels
with the dates of their creation, that is, the years
1893 and 1894, respectively. Another fifteen photo-
38 Enrique Ibáñez and Gumersindo Fernández, Comer-
cios históricos de Madrid (Madrid : La Librería, 2017),
151–55.
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210
Figure 15.7 Yakov Smirnov with three companions, Thessaloniki, 1895. SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, imp. Q 536/11
graphs show the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba,
including its oldest outer parts, interior views, the
doors and other details.
E Thessaloniki
Photos of Thessaloniki were collected in a sepa-
rate album.39 From 1430 to 1913, the city belonged
to the Ottoman Empire. During this period, Chris-
tian churches had been transformed into mosques.
Smirnov documented this transition in photo-
graphs from 1895, when he studied the mosaics of
the Church of St. Sophia (fig. 15.6). In addition, he
took pictures of the Church of St. George, the
Church of St. Panteleimon, the Eski Saray Mosque,
and the Soğuksu Mosque. These large-size and ex-
cellent prints on albumen paper prove that by the
mid-1890s, Smirnov had acquired the skills of a
professional photographer. We can even see
Smirnov himself on one of the pictures of the
39 SA ihmc ras, Photo Department, alb. Q 536.
Medvedeva
Thessaloniki Album (fig. 15.7). According to the in-
ventory, it was taken in front of the former Church
of St. George on August 13, 1895.
4 Conclusion
It was the intention of this brief outline of
Smirnov’s photographic collection to highlight
how much the magnificent images of the Middle
East can be used as valuable resources for different
disciplines dealing with the study of the cultural
heritage of the Orient, such as archaeology, eth-
nography, architecture and art history.
This kind of research does not stop with the
nineteenth century, of course, since old photo-
graphs such as these provide information on
­monuments and landscapes that have been lost,
­damaged or changed beyond recognition. They
thus allow us to reconstruct physical and socio-
cultural urban structures of the past. Naturally,
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Yakov Smirnov’s Photo Collection
they also serve as documents for the study of the
history of photography and of its application, for
example, as a scientific method in archaeology.
Apart from such issues, the historiographic val-
ue of the Smirnov Collection should not be under-
estimated either. In many ways and especially
due to the specific qualities of the medium, the
photographs of the Smirnov Collection make for
one of the most objective and impartial sources
for ­analyzing the period, as well as for examining
the emergence and evolution of Byzantine stud-
ies as an academic discipline in the nineteenth
century.
However, the Smirnov Collection represents
only a small fraction of the Scientific Archives of
the Institute for the History of Material Culture at
the Russian Academy of Science in St. Petersburg.
Founded in 1859, when the Imperial Archaeologi-
cal Commission was established by Tsar Alexan-
der ii (r. 1855–81), it now houses 109 record groups
and seventy-nine photographic collections from
different researchers and organizations. These
­various materials amount to a sum of approxi-
mately 700,000 documents, consisting of folders,
files, negatives, imprints, plans, drawings, and
manuscripts. Most documents date from the eigh-
teenth century to today. Due to its sheer size, it is
the most important archive for any research on
the history of Russian archaeology from the nine-
teenth to the middle of the twentieth century. It
nevertheless also provides a large number of ma-
terials on the history, architecture and archaeology
of European and Asian countries. In fact, at least
half the photos contain resources on the Orient,
particularly historic objects from the Ottoman
Empire and Central Asia, many of which have
not been d­ escribed properly yet and thus bear
­insightful knowledge to be uncovered by future
experts.
Acknowledgement
This study was made possible by the kind sup-
port of the program for basic research of the
211
­ ussian Academy of Sciences (project no. 0184-
R
2018-0002).
Archival Abbreviation
SA ihmc ras Scientific Archives of the Institute
for the History of Material Culture,
Russian Academy of Sciences
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Who’s Who
This list provides additional information on the main protagonists mentioned in this volume. It is not meant as a
list of all actors involved in 19th- and early 20th-century collectorship and architectural Orientalism.
ʿAbd al-Wuddūd (life dates unknown), founder in the
1930s of a demolition company in Cairo that was still
active in 2015.
Abdullah Frères Studio (fl. 1858–1900), a famous photo-
graphic studio in Istanbul operated by the brothers
Vichen (1820–1902), Hovsep (1830–1908), and Kevork
(1839–1918) Abdullahyan, of Armenian descent.
Aitchison, George (1825–1910), a British architect and
creator of the Arab Hall at Leighton House in
London.
ʿAlī Muḥammad Isfahānī (fl. 1870s–1888), a Persian pot-
ter and tile maker.
Alinari, Fratelli (fl. 1854–present day), a photographic
studio founded in Florence by the brothers Leopol-
do (1832–65), Giuseppe (1826–90), and Romualdo
Alinari (1830–90). They specialized in architecture,
artworks, landscapes and towns in Italy.
Amari, Michele (1806–89), a politician, historian and
Arabist, who taught at the Istituto di studi superiori
in Florence from 1860 to 1873. He is considered one
of the founding fathers of Oriental studies in Italy
thanks to his Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia (1868–
72) and Epigrafi arabiche di Sicilia.
Arnoux, Hippolyte (fl. 1860s–90s), a French photogra-
pher, whose studio was located in Port Said, Egypt,
and who produced a large visual documentation of
the Suez Canal project.
Barącz, Erazm (1859–1928), a Polish mining engineer of
Armenian origin and the brother of Roman and Ta-
deusz. Erazm collected Polish painting, Armenian
art, Oriental textiles and carpets, and later donated
his collection to the National Museum of Cracow.
Barącz, Roman (1856–1930), a Polish doctor of Arme-
nian origin and the brother of Erazm and Tadeusz.
Roman was a surgery professor at the University of
Lviv (Lwów), a collector of Oriental art and founder
of the Armenian Association in Lviv.
Barącz, Tadeusz (1849–1905), a Polish sculptor of Arme-
nian origin and the brother of Erazm and Roman.
Tadeusz was the creator of portraits and monuments
in Lviv (Lwów), including a painting of King Jean iii
Sobieski.
Bartold, Vasily (1869–1930), an eminent Russian Turkol-
ogist and Orientalist, a professor at Saint Petersburg
University and one of the founders of the Russian
school of Eastern studies.
Baudry, Ambroise (1836–1908), a French architect and
disciple of Charles Garnier with whom he worked at
the Paris Opera House. Today, he is best remembered
for his Islamic Revival architecture designed while
he was living in Cairo from 1871 to 1886.
Baudry, Paul (1828–86), the eldest brother of Ambroise
Baudry and one of the most celebrated artists during
the Second Empire in France.
Beklemishev, Vladimir (1861–1919), a Russian sculptor
and the director of the Imperial Academy of Arts in
St. Petersburg.
Benois, Aleksey (1838–1902), a Russian architect and a
graduate of the Imperial Art Academy in St. Peters­
burg, responsible for the 1890 Tashkent Exhibition.
Bentivoglio d’Aragona, Count Stanislao (1821–89), the
General Consul of France in Smyrna and an art
collector.
Berggren, Guillaume (1835–1920), a Swedish photogra-
pher educated in Berlin who worked in Turkey as of
1866.
Birdwood, George (1832–1917), a British writer, curator
and expert on Indian art.
Biseo, Cesare (1843–1909) an Italian painter, illustrator
and engraver. In 1875 he traveled to Morocco with
Edmondo De Amicis and Stefano Ussi, and illustrat-
ed the respective accounts they published in 1879
and 1882.
Blignières, Ernest de (1834–1900), French controller-
general of Egypt’s Public Debt from 1876 to 1882.
During his sojourn in Cairo, he became a determined
collector of Islamic art.
Bock, Vladimir (1851–99), a Russian historian, pioneer
of Coptic art studies in Russia and founder of the
Coptic art collection of the Imperial Hermitage in
St. Petersburg.
Bode, Wilhelm von (1845–1929), a German art historian,
museum expert, and the general director of what to-
day are the Berlin State Museums.
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Bonaparte, Napoléon-Joseph-Charles-Paul, also known
as Prince Napoléon (1822–91), a politician who com-
missioned the “Pompeian House,” a historicist hôtel
particulier built in Paris as of 1854 and known as the
location of parties à l’antique.
Bonfils, Félix (1831–85), a French photographer who
founded a studio in Beirut in 1867. The firm was ac-
tive until 1932 and commercialized a large amount of
topographical views of the Middle East.
Bourgoin, Jules (1838–1908), French theorist, architect
and draughtsman who traveled to Syria and Egypt
several times.
Bruin, Auguste ([1872]–[1908]), a stained glass artist in
Paris who created windows for the church of Saint-
Martin in Chevreuse, signed in 1872. He also created
neo-Mamlūk windows for Henri Moser’s fumoir
arabe.
Charlemont, Hugo (1850–1939), an Austrian painter.
Chlebowski, Stanisław (1835–84), a Polish Orientalist
painter, who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Saint Petersburg and at Jean-Léon Gérôme’s stu-
dio in Paris. Between 1864 and 1876, he worked as
court painter for the Ottoman sultan Abdülaziz
(1830–76).
Churchill, Sidney J.A., (1862–1921), a British diplomat,
connoisseur, writer.
Clarke, Caspar Purdon (1846–1911), British architect,
trained at the South Kensington School of Art, he
held several purchasing commissions (in Italy, Egypt,
Syria, Turkey and Iran) before being appointed as a
curator (Indian section) and later museum director
at the South Kensington Museum.
Cole, Henry (1808–82), British civil servant and first di-
rector of the South Kensington Museum from 1857 to
1873.
Contreras Granja, Mariano (1853–1912), an architect
from Granada who succeeded his father Rafael in
1890 as the director of the conservation department
of the Alhambra and as the head of the reproduction
atelier Estudio Contreras.
Contreras Muñoz, Rafael (1824–90), a stucco artist and
interior decorator born in Granada, he was head of
the conservation workshop of the Alhambra from
1847 to 1868, director of its conservation department
from 1868 to 1890, as well as head of the reproduc-
tion atelier Estudio Contreras.
Who’s Who
Czartoryski, Prince Adam Jerzy (1770–1861), a Polish
minister for foreign affairs in Russia and the presi-
dent of the Polish national government during the
anti-Russian insurrection of 1830–31. A writer, collec-
tor and patron, he was one of the founders and first
presidents of the Literary Society and Polish Library
in Paris.
Czartoryski, Prince Ladislas (1828–94), the son of Adam
Jerzy, he collected art, antiquities and Persian minia-
tures. He donated part of his artworks to the Polish
Library in Paris, the Jagiellonian University in Cra-
cow and the Polish Museum in Rapperswil; in 1878,
he founded the Museum of the Princes Czartoryski
with his family’s collections.
Davillier, Baron Jean Charles (1823–83), a French art col-
lector, traveler and writer. He is known for his inter-
est in Spain and as a connoisseur and pioneer in the
study of Ibero-Islamic ceramics.
Delort de Gléon, Baron Alphonse (1843–99), a mining
engineer and financier active in Cairo as of 1868. The
many Islamic artworks he collected while in Egypt
belong today to the Musée du Louvre.
Derpfeld, Wilhelm (1853–1940), a German archaeologist
and architect. He pioneered in stratigraphic excava-
tions and precise archaeological documentation. He
continued Heinrich Schliemann’s excavations at
Troy and is acclaimed for his contribution to Medi-
terranean archaeology.
Diebitsch, Carl von (1819–69), a Prussian architect and
protagonist of the Moorish Revival, active in both
Germany and Egypt.
Dumas, Tancrède (1830–1905), a French photographer,
who founded a studio in Istanbul during the 1860s,
which he later moved to Beirut.
Facchinelli, Beniamino (1839–95), an Italian photo­
grapher who worked in Egypt as of 1875 and au-
thored more than 1,000 photos of Cairo’s historical
monuments.
Facundo Riaño, Juan (1829–1901), a Spanish historian
and art historian, the director of Madrid’s Museo de
Re­producciones Artísticas and member of the Royal
Spanish Academies of History, Language and Fine
Arts.
Fiorillo, Luigi (1847–98), an Italian photographer based
in Alexandria, Egypt and active in North Africa and
the Middle East from the 1870s to the 1890s.
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Who’s Who
Foresi, Alessandro (1814–88), a Florentine surgeon, art
amateur and occasional art dealer. He was involved
in the 1865 Mostra dei Tempi di Mezzo e del Risorgi-
mento and the first years of the Museo Nazionale del
Bargello as a member of its committee.
Franz, Julius (1831–1915), a German architect, who in the
early 1860s became the chief architect of Ismāʿīl
Paša, the Khedive of Egypt and the Sudan.
Fortuny y Madrazo, Mariano (1871–1949), a Spanish
painter and fashion designer who devoted himself to
painting, engraving, set design, stage design and
lighting, and further applied arts.
Goupil, Albert (1840–84), a French art collector and
photographer, and son of the influential art dealer
Adolphe Goupil.
Gouron Boisvert, Marcel (1840–?), a French architect in-
vited to Cairo by Ambroise Baudry in 1872 in order to
assist him with his works; active at least until 1891.
Guimbard, Charles Léonard (1846–1932), a French ar-
chitect invited to Cairo by Ambroise Baudry in 1872
in order to assist him with his works; active at least
until 1890.
Jaladon, Jean (?–?), attestable as public works contrac-
tor in Cairo and distributor of ornamental casts of
the city’s monuments after 1873.
Gwinner, Arthur Philipp Friedrich Wilhelm von (1856–
1931), a German banker, diplomat and art collector.
Haberlandt, Michael (1860–1940), an Austrian ethnolo-
gist, Indologist, co-founder and director of the Aus-
trian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art (Öster-
reichisches Museum für Volkskunde), Vienna.
Hainauer, Oskar (1840–94), a Jewish banker and art col-
lector active in Berlin.
Herz, Max (1856–1919), a Hungarian architect active in
Cairo and head of Egypt’s Comité de Conservation des
Monuments de l’Art arabe.
Hörmann, Konstantin (1850–1921), a member of the
Austro-Hungarian administration, he held several
positions in the government and was the first direc-
tor of the Bosnisch-herzegowinisches Landesmuse-
um in Sarajevo until 1904, when he became its direc-
tor-general (Museumsintendant).
Jasieński, Feliks (1861–1929), a Polish art collector, art
and music critic, publisher and patron, who donated
his collection to the National Museum in Cracow in
1920.
215
Jandolo, Augusto (1873–1952) was an Italian antiquari-
an, poet and writer, author of the Studi e modelli di
via Margutta (1953), a major source on the history of
collecting during the 19th century.
Kállay, Benjamin von (1839–1903) was Joint Minister of
Finance of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and in
charge of the occupied territory of Bosnia and Her-
zegovina (1882–1903). He played a decisive role in
the development and implementation of its cultural
policies, especially through the creation of art insti-
tutes and academies.
Karabacek, Josef von (1845–1918), Austrian orientalist
and director of the Imperial Court Library (Hofbib-
liothek), today the Austrian National Library.
Kondakov, Nikodim (1844–1925), a famous Russian his-
torian of Byzantine and Old Russian art. He under-
took many expeditions into the Russian and Otto-
man Empires and gave influential lectures at the
University of Saint Petersburg.
Kowalski, Tadeusz Jan (1889–1948), a Polish Orientalist
specialized in Turkish, Arab and Persian languages,
who became chair of Oriental languages at the
­Jagiellonian University, and the General Secretary
of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Letters in
Cracow.
Kulczycki, Włodzimierz (1862–1936), a Polish biologist
and zoologist, who collected Islamic textiles and
carpets. His son transferred the collection to the
Wawel Royal Castle National Art Collection in Cra-
cow and the Museum Tatras Tytus Chałubiński in
Zakopane.
Lane-Poole, Stanley (1854–1931), a British Orientalist
and archaeologist.
Laurent, Juan (1816–86), one of the greatest photogra-
phers of Spain and Portugal in the nineteenth cen-
tury, who established his studio in Madrid around
1855.
Lechner, Ödön (Eugen) (1845–1914), a Hungarian archi-
tect and representative of the Hungarian Secession,
who attempted to create a national style by blending
Oriental elements (allegedly of Magyar origin) and
made a particular use of varnished tiles from the
manufacture of Vilmos Zolnay.
Leighton, Frederic (1830–96), a painter of the Victorian
age, who became President of the Royal Academy in
1878; in 1877–9 he commissioned an “Arab Hall”
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216
e­ xtension to his Holland Park house, furnished with
salvaged tiles and woodwork from Syria, Turkey,
Egypt, Iran and modern Pakistan.
Lemaire, Alfred (1842–1907), a French military musi-
cian, composer, and teacher at Dār al-Fūnūn in Teh-
ran, where he composed the first Iranian national
anthem.
Lessing, Julius (1843–1908), a German art historian and
director of the Berliner Museum of Decorative Arts
(Kunstgewerbemuseum).
Lewis, John Frederick (1805–76), a British painter and
Orientalist artist, who lived in Cairo from 1841 to 1850.
Linares, Abelardo (1870–1936) and Enrique (?–?), pio-
neers of photography in Granada.
Mańkowski, Tadeusz (1878–1956), a Polish art historian
and director of the Wawel Royal Castle National Art
Collection in Cracow.
Marteau, Georges (1858–1916), French engineer and art
collector, who, together with Henri Vever, organised
the first exhibition on the art of the Islamic book in
Paris in 1912.
Martin, Fredrik Robert (1868–1933), a Swedish art col-
lector and author.
Mehoffer, Józef (1869–1946), a Polish painter, who
worked on the decoration of Our Lady Church in
Cracow and was the creator of stained glass win-
dows in Freiburg, Germany (1896–1918).
Mīrzā Āqā (also known as Mehdī al-Imāmī and born as
Mehdī Muḥammad Imāmī, 1881–1957), together with
Hosseyn Behzad one of the founding fathers of the
“New Miniature Painting”.
Moser Charlottenfels, Henri (1844–1923), the son of a
Swiss clock manufacturer and a diplomat; he trav-
eled to Central Asia four times, and is furthermore
known as an art collector and exhibition curator.
Niedzielska, Maria (1876–1947), a Polish painter, who
created a School of Fine Arts for Women in Cracow
in 1880.
Odescalchi, Prince Baldassarre Ladislao (1844–1909), an
Italian politician and patron of the arts, who became
the president of the International Artistic Associa-
tion of Rome in 1871 and promoted the creation of
Rome’s Museo Artistico Industriale in 1874.
Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, marquis Ferdinando
(1813–97), politician, architect, and art connoisseur.
Who’s Who
He is remembered today mostly as the creator of the
Orientalist Villa of Sammezzano near Florence.
Pankiewicz, Józef (1866–1940), a Polish painter, engrav-
er and educator, who befriended French artist Pierre
Bonnard. He became professor at the Academy of
Fine Arts in Cracow in 1906 and the founder and di-
rector of the Academy’s Parisian branch as of 1925.
Poniatowski, Stanislas Auguste (1732–98), the last King
of Poland (r. 1764–95), who also was an art collector
and patron, and the founder of the Royal Theater
and Library.
Prisse d’Avennes, Émile (1807–79), a French Egyptolo-
gist and Orientalist, who authored several lavishly
illustrated surveys of the Ancient and Islamic monu-
ments of Egypt.
Przesmycki, Zenon “Miriam” (1861–1944), a Polish liter-
ary critic, translator and publisher, also the founder
of the periodical Chimera that was published in
Warsaw and devoted to the Polish Symbolist
movement.
Reyzner, Mieczysław (1861–1941), a Polish painter who
was educated in Vienna, Munich and Paris and
worked in Liviv (Lwów) as of 1887.
Riegl, Alois (1858–1905) an Austrian art historian, cura-
tor, and professor of art history at the University of
Vienna.
Robinson, Vincent J. (1829–1910), British art dealer. The
family business in London originally focused on car-
pets and textiles from India, but he would also deal
in Middle Eastern material, buying carpets from the
firm Philip Ziegler, and artworks from Caspar Pur-
don Clarke.
Rosenberg, Léonce (1879–1947), a French art historian
and very influential art dealer in Paris.
Rothschild, Édmond Benjamin James de (1845–1934),
a Jewish banker, philanthropist and influential art
­collector active in Paris, where he had a fumoir
­mauresque installed in his residence by Ambroise
Baudry.
Sabatier, François (1818–91), an art critic, translator,
and patron of the arts inspired by Charles Fourier
(1772–1837). His writings attest plans for establish-
ing a brand of art history based on German the­o­
ries and a life devoted to the studies of Oriental
languages.
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Who’s Who
Saint-Maurice, count Gaston de (1831–1905), a collector
of Islamic art and eighteenth-century furniture, he
was appointed the court equerry of the Khedive Is-
mail between 1868 and 1878.
Saladin, Henri (1851–1923), a French architect, monu-
ment conservator, and historian of Islamic arts,
­active in North Africa and Europe. He designed the
Tunisian Palaces at the 1889 and 1900 World Fair and
Henri Moser’s fumoir arabe.
Sambon, Arthur (1867–1947), a French antiquarian and
numismatist.
Scala, Arthur von (1845–1909), an Austrian textile engi-
neer, director of the Handelsmuseum and the Muse-
um für Kunst- und Industrie, Vienna.
Schwegel, Joseph von (1836–1914), an Austrian diplomat
and politician.
Sebah, Pascal (1823–86), founder in 1857 of a photo-
graphic studio in Istanbul. After his death, the studio
partnered with Polycarpe Joaillier (1848–1904) and
successfully commercialised numerous views of
Middle Eastern monuments and types.
Simonetti, Attilio (1843–1925) was an Italian painter
and antiquarian. A collaborator and friend of Maria-
no Fortuny, Simonetti played an important role for
the trade of Islamic artworks among Roman art
dealers.
Skinner, Arthur Banks (1861–1911), an assistant director
of the South Kensington Museum in London from
1896 to 1905, and the director of the Art Museum
from 1905 to 1908.
Smirnov, Yakov (1869–1918), a Russian archaeologist and
historian of early Christian and Byzantine art. He
was a lecturer at the University of St. Petersburg and
worked as a curator for the Imperial Hermitage.
Smith, Robert Murdoch (1835–1900), an archaeologist
and director of the Edinburgh Museum of Science
and Art.
Sobieski (1629–96), Jan iii, King of Poland (r. 1674–96)
and the patron of several artists and architects, who
also ordered the building of the residence palace in
Wilanów.
Soltykoff, Prince Alexei (1806–59), a Russian aristocrat
and grandson of Prince Nicolas Soltykoff, the presi-
dent of the Council of Ministers of Tsar Alexander i
(r. 1801–25). As a diplomat, he traveled intensively in
217
the Middle East, assembling a collection of medieval
artefacts auctioned in 1861 by his brother Petr.
Sommerard, Alexandre Du (1779–1842), a French arche-
ologist and collector of medieval objects who found-
ed the Musée de Cluny in Paris.
Spence, William Blundell (1814–1900), an English painter
and art dealer who settled in Florence in 1836. He was
a central figure in the local art market and mediator
between art collectors in Florence and abroad.
Stibbert, Frederick (1838–1906), an Italo-British art col-
lector, with a particular fascination for the decora-
tive arts, as well as for European and Eastern armors.
His collections were on display at a museum inside
his private home, which became, after his death, the
Stibbert Museum.
Stryjeńska, Zofia, née Lubańska (1891–1976), a Polish
painter and engraver, and a representative of the
Polish Art Déco movement.
Tafel, Emil Otto (1838–1914), a German architect and
professor, educated in Stuttgart and active in Wurt-
temberg and the region of Lake Constance.
Tournachon, Paul (known as Paul Nadar) (1856–1939),
son of the famous French photographer Nadar [Gas-
pard-Félix Tournachon] and a photographer himself.
He traveled along the Silk Road in 1890, as far as the
Turkestan and was active at the 1890 Tashkent
Exhibition.
Truhelka, Ćiro (1865–1942), an archeologist and first cu-
rator of the Bosnisch-herzegowinisches Landesmuse-
um in Sarajevo and its director as of 1904.
Urach, Karl von (full name: Karl, Prince of Urach, Count
of Wurttemberg), (1865–1925), a German aristocrat,
traveler and art collector.
Vasil’ev, Nikolaj (1875–1958), a Russian architect edu-
cated at the Institut des ingénieurs civils in Saint Pe-
tersburg. He had been a leader of the “Northern
movement” in Russian architecture before migrating
to New York after the 1917 Revolution.
Veselovsky, Nikolai Ivanovich (1848–1918), a Russian ar-
cheologist, expert on Central Asia, and member of
the Imperial Russian Academy of Science.
Vever, Henri (1854–1942), a French jeweler and art col-
lector, who, together with Georges Marteau, orga-
nized the first exhibition on the art of the Islamic
book in Paris in 1912.
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218
Vignier, Charles (1863–1934), a French poet and writer
of Swiss origin who also is known for being an art
collector and art dealer.
Wierzejski, Tadeusz (1892–1974), a Polish antiquarian
and collector, and a curator of the Polish National
Museum in Warsaw after 1945.
Wild, James W. (1814–92), a British architect and
draughtsman who brought back a large set of
­drawings and sketches from his sojourn in Egypt and
Syria (1842–46). He designed the British Embassy in
Tehran and headed the Sir John Soane’s Museum
from 1878 onward.
Wyczółkowski, Leon (1852–1936), a Polish painter,
draughtsman and engraver, and one of the key fig-
ures of the Young Poland movement (Młoda Polska),
and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in
Cracow.
Who’s Who
Zangaki Brothers (fl. 1880s–1915), a photographic studio
created by the Greek brothers Georgios and Con-
stantinos in Port-Said (Egypt). It specialized in
commercial views of ancient monuments and
­
scenes of everyday life.
Zanth, Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von (1796–1857), a German
architect, protagonist of the Moorish Revival, active
in Wurttemberg.
Zeerleder, Theodor (1820–68), a Swiss architect, drafts-
man, and author of the selamlik at Oberhofen Castle.
Zeller, Rudolf (1869–1940), a curator at Bernisches Histo-
risches Museum from 1905 to 1940.
Zhebelev, Sergei Aleksandrovich (1867–1941), was a
­Russian historian and archaeologist, specialised in
ancient Greek history.
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Index of Persons

ʿAbbās I, Shah of Persia 16, 17 Chałubiński, Tytus 55

ʿAbbās Mīrzā Qajar Nāyeb al-Saltāne 16 Charlemont, Hugo 120
ʿAbd al-Aḥad Khān (Émir of Bukhara) 139 Chenavard, Paul 41
ʿAbd al-Wuddūd 82 Chester, Greville John 75, 77
ʿAlī Muhammad Isfahānī 17, 18 Chlebowski, Stanisław 49
Abdulaziz 49 Churchill, Sidney J. A. 114
Abdul Kerim Pasha 55 Ciampolini, Vincenzo 173
Abdullah, brothers 205 Clarke, Caspar Purdon 9, 69–74, 77–81
Aitchison, George 33, 69 Cole, Henry 87
Alexander ii, Emperor of Russia 211 Contreras Granja, Mariano 99
Alinari, brothers 208 Contreras Muñoz, Rafael 99
Almendary, L. & J. Jaladon 99 Czartoryski, family 48, 58, 59, 71
Amari, Michele 9, 39–47, 165 Czartoryski, Adam Jerzy 59
Arnoux, Hippolyte 206 Czartoryski, Ladislas 48, 59
Arouani, Moussa 101
D’Annunzio, Gabriele 178
Barącz, Erazm 54 D’Ancona, Alessandro 40
Barącz, Roman 55 Davillier, Charles 172
Barącz, Tadeusz 55 Dawud, Mirza Yuhanna 190, 191, 193, 197
Bartold, Vasily 161 Delacroix, Eugène 179
Basile, Ernesto 178 Della Robbia, family 170
Baudry, Ambroise 9, 10, 32, 82–94 Delort de Gléon, Alphonse 9, 32, 83, 87
Baudry, Paul 82, 83, 89 Derpfeld, Wilhelm 203
Beaumont, Adalbert de 55 Diebitsch, Carl von 94
Becker, Moritz 55 Dostal, Walter 198, 199
Behzad, Hosseyn 24 Dresser, Christopher 70, 79
Benlliure, Juan Antonio 180 Du Sommerard, Alexandre 89, 92, 93
Benlliure, Blas Gil 180 Dumas, Tancrède 207, 208
Benois, Aleksey Leontievich 156 Dura, Raffaele 181
Bentivoglio d’Aragona, Stanislao 171
Berggren, Guillaume 204, 205 Eastlake, Charles Lock 170
Bettini, Francesco 178
Bing, Siegfried 50 Fabrési Costa, Antoni Maria  180, 186
Binyon, Laurence 15 Facchinelli, Beniamino 89
Birdwood, George 71, 72, 74, 114 Facundo Riaño, Juan 98, 99
Biseo, Cesare 178, 182 Fath ʿAlī Shāh Qajar 17
Blanc, Edouard 154 Fiorillo, Luigi 207–208
Blignières, Ernest de 87 Foresi, Alessandro 169–172
Bock, Vladimir 296, 207 Fortuny y Marsal, Mariano 178, 180, 182, 185–187
Bode, Wilhelm von 50, 52, 55, 114, 116, 119, 120 Franz Joseph I, Emperor of Austria-Hungaria 119, 126
Bonaparte, Napoléon-Joseph-Charles-Paul, Prince 87 Franz, Julius 94
Bonfils, Félix 207 Fraschina, J. 196
Boucher, Louise 39 Freppa, Jean 170
Bouquet, Auguste 41
Bourgoin, Jules 31 Garnier, Charles 83
Bruin, Auguste 35–37 Gasprinsky, Ismail 159
Gérôme, Jean Léon 9, 49
Carrand, Louis 169 Gillman, Henry 98
Cavallari, Saverio 41 Girault de Prangey, Joseph-Philibert 42, 45
Cavour, Camillo 39 Goupil, Albert 9, 71, 93
Cazelles, Émile 42 Gouron Boisvert, Marcel 83, 84, 86
Centlivres, Pierre 199 Gray, Basil 15

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220 Index of Persons

Gregorian, A. 196 Ljalevič, Marian 147

Gregorovius, Ferdinand 39, 40, 185 Longfield, Thomas Henry 77, 78
Gubernatis, Angelo de 165 Lowe, General Sir Hudson 193
Guimbard, Charles Léonard 83, 85, 86
Gwinner, Arthur Philipp Friedrich Wilhelm von 93 Maccari, Cesare 179
Maciet, Jules 54
Haas, Filip & Cie 55 Maev, N. 153
Haberlandt, Michael 120, 121 Maindron, Maurice 193
Habra brothers 77, 80 Makart, Hans 179
Hainauer, Oskar 93 Mańkowski, Tadeusz 59
Hallé Fils, Georges & Successeur 104 Marteau, Georges 22, 24
Hayashi, Tadamasa 50 Martin, Fredrik Robert 22, 24, 26, 50
Hedin, Sven 154 Mehoffer, Józef 51
Hérode 51 Meissonier, Ernest 179
Herz, Max 100, 101 Micchetti 171
Herzfeld, Ernst 55 Migeon, Gaston 50, 52, 54
Hokusai, Katsushika 50 Mīrzā Āqā, also known as Mehdī al-Imāmī, born Mehdī
Humayūn, Mughal emperor 16 Muhammad Imāmī 24, 26
Muḥammad ʿAlī, Governor of Egypt 83
Ismāʿīl Pasha, Khedive of Egypt 100 Muhammad Khān, Valī ruler of Khanate of Bukhara 16
Morelli, Domenico 186
Jaladon, Jean 87 Morris, William 69, 70, 71, 72
Kazimierz, Jan 55 Moser Charlottenfels, Henri 1–11, 28, 31, 32, 35, 37, 94, 95,
Jandolo, Augusto 179, 186 100, 101, 104, 105, 124, 127, 129, 132, 134, 135, 137, 142, 147,
Jappelli, Giuseppe 178 189, 192, 193, 199
Jaroszewski, Bolesław 55
Jasieński, Feliks (pseudonym “Manggha”) 10, 50, 52–55, 58, Nadar, Paul 145, 153, 154
59 Nenci, Giuseppe 40
Joaillier, Polycarpe 204 Neuffen, Baron Charles de (see Urach, Karl Prince of) 
Jones, Owen 67, 98 Nicolas i, Emperor of Russia 139
Joris, Pio 182 Nicolas ii, Emperor of Russia 139
Niedzielska, Maria 51
Karabacek, Josef 119 Noorian, Daniel Z. 174
Kaufman, Konstantin Petrovich von 153 Normand, Charles 89
Kelekian, Dikran 54
Kieniewicz, Jan 48–49 Odescalchi, Baldassarre 178–180, 182
Kläy, Ernst J. 199 Ossoliński family 58
Koechlin, Raymond 52, 54
Kondakov, Nikodim 202, 207 Panciatichi Paolucci, Marianna 173
Kowalski, Tadeusz 57 Panciatichi Ximenes d’Aragona, Ferdinando 9, 165, 166,
Kühnel, Ernst 52, 55 169
Kulczycki, Włodzimierz 10, 50, 55–58 Pankiewicz, Józef 53, 54, 216
Pellet, Gustave 50
La Roche Pouchin, Ferdinand Achille de 168 Peretjatkovič, Marian 147
Lane-Poole, Stanley 31, 32, 37, 75, 77 Pervushin, Ivan 156
Laurent, Juan 209 Pierre I (the Great), Emperor of Russia 49, 148
Lechner, Ödön 49 Poldi Pezzoli, Gian Giacomo 168
Leighton, Frederic 67, 69, 71, 80, 182 Poniatowski, Stanislas Auguste 49, 216
Lemaire, Alfred 17, 18 Prisse d’Avennes, Émile 33, 35, 38, 51, 55, 216
Leoni, Enrico 173 Przesmycki, Zenon 50, 59, 61, 216
Lessing, Julius 119
Lessore, Émile 41 Rau, Eugen 99
Lewis, John Frederick 31 Renan, Ernest 52
Lièvre, Édouard 48 Rex & Co 52
Linares, Abelardo 209 Reyzner, Mieczysław 55, 216
Linares, Enrique 209 Riegl, Alois 50, 51, 112, 114, 119, 120, 122, 123, 216

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Index of Persons 221

Riggs, William H. 174, 175 Stettler & Hunziker 105

Robinson, Vincent J. 9, 64, 69–77, 79, Stettler, Michael 198
80, 81, 114 Stibbert, Frederick 106, 149, 167–170, 172–175
Romanov, Nikolai 156 Stryjeńska, Zofia 51
Rosa, Ercole 180 Strzygowski, Josef 50
Rosenbach, Nikolai 153
Rosenberg, Léonce 22, 216 Tafel, Emil Otto 99
Rothschild, Adolphe de 172 Tahmāsp, Shah of Persia 16, 17, 26
Rothschild, Edmond Benjamin James de 9, 10, 32, 87, Tamerlan 139, 148
93–95 Tarenghi, Enrico 178
Rothschild, family 71, 93, 94, 107, 119 Taszycka, Maria 61
Roubaud, Franz 196 Torri, Stefano 170
Toscanelli, Giuseppe 167
Saadi 148, 189 Tournachon, Paul (see Paul Nadar)
Sabatier, François 9, 14, 39–47 Tuna, Mustafa 159
Sagot, Edmond 50 Twarowska, Maria 61
Saint-Maurice, Gaston de 32, 35, 76, 84–87, 89, 91, 96,
108, 176 Ungher, Caroline 39
Saladin, Henri ix, xi, xii, 9, 10, 28, 33, 35, 37, 38, 95, 101, Urach, Florestine Duchess of 95
105, 106, 144, 145, 147–149, 199 Urach, Karl Prince of 91, 94–96, 99, 100, 103, 105, 107
Sambon, Jules 181
Sambon, Arthur 22, 217 Valeri, Salvatore 178
Sanchez Barbudo, Salvador 180 Vannutelli, Scipione 179
Sarre, Friedrich 50, 107 Vasil’ev, Nikolaj A. 138, 139, 147, 149
Sartori, Giuseppe 171 Vertunni, Achille 9, 177–182, 185, 186, 187, 188
Sartori, Paolo 159 Vever, Henri 22, 24, 26, 27
Saulcy, Félicien de 61 Vignier, Charles 22, 50, 52, 54
Scala, Arthur von 113, 114, 118, 123 Villegas y Cordero, José 178–180
Scarletti 170 Vittorio Emanuelle ii (of Savoy), king of Italy 167, 168
Schein, Samuel 55 Vrevsky, Baron Aleksandr B. 153, 154, 156
Scherer, Maximilian von 99 Vuagneux, Henri 75–77
Schmidt & Söhne (workshop) 99
Schnaase, Carl 41 Wagner, R. 52
Schulberg, M. 55 Wagner, Richard 186
Schulz, Heinrich Wilhelm 40 Wegeli, Rudolf 193, 197
Schwegel, Josef von 113, 114 Wierzejski, Tadeusz 55
Sebah, Pascal 204 Wild, James W. 31, 38
Sella, Quintino 186 Wilkinson, James Vere Stewart 15, 26
Serra di Falco, Duca di 45 Wolf, Wilhelm 55
Signorini, Giuseppe 178, 180 Wyczółkowski, Leon 51, 53, 60, 61
Simakov, Nikolaj 149
Simonetti, Attilio 178, 179, 187, 188 Ximenes, Ettore 178
Simoni, Gustavo 178, 182
Skarbek, Aleksander 55 Zamoyski, family 58
Skinner, Arthur Banks 98, 99 Zangaki, Georgios and Constantinos 206
Smirnov, Yakov 9, 201–207, 209 Zanth, Karl Ludwig Wilhelm von 96
Smith, Robert Murdoch 118 Zeerleder, Theodor 31, 106
Soltykoff, Alexei 172, 175 Zeller, Rudolf 7, 108, 150, 191, 197, 200
Spence, William Blundell 168, 170, 172, 176 Zhebelev, Sergej 212
Stebbing, Edward 74, 76, 77 Zucker, A. 55
Stephanie of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, princess of Żygulski, Zdzisław 61
Belgium 119

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Index of Places

Alexandria 50, 83, 208 Constantinople (see Istanbul)

Algeria 67, 208 Cordoba 210
Anatolia 116 Cracovie (see Krakow)
Antwerp 76, 152 Crimea 159, 203
Athens 204 Cyprus 203
Austria 111, 114, 116, 204
Damascus 9, 65, 67, 69, 70, 71, 74–80, 89, 101, 207
Baalbek 50, 207 Dublin
Baku 154, 159 Museum of Science and Art (National Museum of
Baltimore Ireland) 76
Walters Art Museum 20
Basel 189 Egypt 10, 31, 66, 67, 75, 82, 83, 90, 91, 94, 96, 100, 180–182, 186,
Beirut 77, 207, 208 192, 203, 205, 208
Berlin 8, 9, 15, 50, 52, 53, 55, 67, 93, 94, 103, 119, 120, 152, 191, England 118, 203
204 Entella
A. v. Gwinner’s house at Rauchstraße 1 93 Rocca d’Entella 40, 44–46
Bern 31, 124, 189 Eritrea 208
Bernisches Historisches Museum (bhm) 9, 11, 28, 29, 30,
35–37, 137, 142–148, 189–199 Fiesole
Bethlehem 207 Villa Concezione 39
Bosnia and Herzegovina 1, 5, 10, 94, 95, 118, 124–135, 192, 197 Florence 33, 39, 41, 165–170, 174, 177
Bosporus 205 Galardelli & Mazzoni (auction house) 173
Budapest 67, 76, 119, 125–127, 131–133 Mostra Dantesca 167
Bukhara 4, 9, 71, 157 Mostra dei Tempi di Mezzo e del Risorgimento 167
Museo Nazionale del Bargello 168
Cairo 30, 31, 50, 82–84, 86, 137 National Exhibition 1861 167
al-Azhar Mosque 206 Palazzo Renai 39
Hôtel particulier Saint-Maurice 32, 35, 76, 84–87, 94, 96 Palazzo del Podestà 166, 167, 169, 172, 175
Mamluk tombs 206 Palazzo Panciatichi Ximenes, Borgo Pinti 166, 170
Mausoleum of Qāytbāy 206 France 10, 22, 76, 82, 89, 90, 171, 192, 203
Mosque of Ahmad Ibn Ṭūlūn 206 Fribourg 51
Mosque of ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ 206
Mosque of Sultān Baybars 206 Galicia 53, 55
Mosquée al-Mūʾayyad 87 Geneva 9, 103, 189, 197
Mosquée Qijmās al-Isḥāqī 87 Gerasa 207
Mosquée Sultān Hasan 87 Germany 92, 203
Musée arabe (see Museum of Islamic Art) Giza 83, 206
Musée archéologique de l’Université du Caire 90 Granada 99, 209
Museum of Islamic Art 89, 206 Alhambra 43, 87, 93, 98, 99, 147, 148, 178, 209
National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation 90 Partal Palace 93
Villa Baudry 84 Greece 201, 203
Villa Delort de Gléon 32, 83, 84, 94
Caucasus 152, 154, 155, 192, 203 India 67, 69–71, 72, 116, 118, 158, 191–193
Cefalù Indonesia 191, 192
Mandralisca House 43 Iran 16, 18, 22, 26, 70, 71, 74, 76, 113, 116, 118
Central Asia 3–5, 8–10, 71, 74, 94, 95, 101, 132, 151–161, 189, 191, Isfahan 16, 17, 18, 22, 24, 26, 71, 74
192, 199, 211 Dār al-Fūnūn 17
Ceylon 191, 192 Fourty Columns Palace (Chihil Sotūn) 16, 17, 18,
Chevreuse 20, 26
Church of St. Martin 35 Irkutsk 202
China 4, 191, 192 Istanbul 9, 35, 49, 50, 55, 59, 113, 114, 137, 154

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Index of Places 223

Castle of the Seven Towers 205 Zisa 40, 45

Hagia Sophia 205 Palestine
Ortakyoi Mosque 205 Palmyra
Rumeli-Hisarı Fortress 205 Paris 28, 31, 39, 50, 52, 59
Yedikule 205 Bibliothèque nationale de France
Yeni Camii 35, 37 Exposition universelle (1855) 39
Italy 167–169, 174, 177, 181, 187, 203, 208 Exposition universelle (1867) 31, 87
Exposition universelle (1889)
Jaffa 50, 207 Rue du Caire 87
Japan 118, 191, 192 Fumoir d’Edmond de Rothschild (no longer extant) 
Jerusalem 50, 207 32, 87
Hôtel et Musée de Cluny 89, 91, 93, 108, 168,
Kazan 159 176, 217
Khiva 157 Hôtel Drouot 91, 172, 175
Maison pompéienne (demolished) 87
Lebanon 201 Mosque (project, not realized) 95
Leipzig 119 Musée de Cluny ( See Hôtel and Musée
Léopol (today Lviv; see Lwów)  de Cluny)
Liberec (also known as Reichenberg) 119 Musée de Sculpture comparée (now Musée des
London 9, 15, 18, 19, 24, 26, 65, 67, 69–72, 77, 78, 80, 81, 96, Monuments français) 87
116, 152, 154, 168, 170, 180, 182, 191, 197 Musée du Louvre 32, 83
Khalili Collections 24 World Fair (1878) 32, 48, 71, 81
Leighton House 35 World Fair (1900)
National Gallery 170 Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina xi, 124, 126, 131,
South Kensington Museum (today Victoria and Albert 132, 136
Museum) 65–67, 69–80, 87, 98, 99, 113, 118, 168, 170 Tunisian pavilion 95
Tower of London 170 Persia 15, 27, 48, 143, 149, 192, 195
Victoria and Albert Museum (formerly South Kensington Pisa 39, 169
Museum) 8, 9, 20, 22, 31, 32, 65, 89, 99, 113 Podolie 53
Lwów (today Lviv) 50, 52, 55, 56, 57, 58 Poland 10, 48–51, 53, 54, 56, 58–61, 137
Portugal 209, 215
Madrid 43, 96, 98, 99, 168, 209 Poznań 60
Instituto de Valencia de Don Juan 43
Malaysia 191 Reichenberg (also known as Liberec) 119
Mazara 40, 43, 45 Regello
Mecca 139 Villa di Sammezzano 33, 165, 170, 174, 176
Melbourne 78 Rome
Milan 168 Castel Sant’Angelo 178
Mongolia 191 Circolo Artistico Internazionale 179
Montpellier 40 Lungotevere Mellini 178
Moscow 3, 49, 152, 153, 156 Piazza del Popolo 179
Mycenae 204 Piazza di Spagna 179
Studi Patrizi 179, 188
Near East 95, 192, 193 Teatro Alhambra 178
Neuchâtel 189 Tor Cervara 179
Neuhausen 92, 94 Via Margutta 179, 180, 187, 188
Charlottenfels Castle 1, 5, 6, 8, 10, 100, 104, 105, Villa Martinori 180
196, 197 Villa Torlonia 178
New York Villetta Doria 178
Metropolitan Museum of Art 17, 69, 174 Villino Villegas 187
Romania 203
Palermo Russia 1, 8, 9, 151–153, 155, 156, 158–161, 189, 192, 201, 203,
Palazzo Abatellis 43 206, 212
Museo dei Padri Gesuiti 43 Russian Turkestan 153, 154, 158

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224 Index of Places

Saint Louis Church of St. George 210

Art Museum 174 Church of St. Panteleimon 210
Saint-Pétersbourg (see St. Petersburg) Church of St. Sophia 209
Samarkand 3, 4, 5, 137, 139–142, 144–147, 149, 157 Eski Saray Mosque 210
Schaffhause, Schaffhouse 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 28, 106, 143, 189 Soğuksu Mosque 210
Serbia 203 Tibet 191
Sevastopol 204 Tripoli 207
Sicile (see Sicily) Turin 167
Sicily  9, 39, 40, 41, 42, 46, 47 Royal Armoury 168
Słuck 53 Turkestan 149, 152, 153, 154, 156, 158, 192
Spain 67, 95, 99, 192, 203, 208, 209 Turkey 22, 27, 48, 49, 67, 74, 79, 185, 203, 204
St. Gallen 189
St. Petersburg 17, 4, 17, 26, 151, 152, 156, 160, 201–203, Ukraine 53
212, 213 United States 65, 82, 91
Russian Academy of Sciences 201
Mosque 137–142, 147–148 Varsovie (see Warsaw)
State Hermitage Museum 26, 202, 206 Venice 171, 177, 183
Stuttgart 92, 95, 99, 100, 103, 105, 189 Vienna 55, 59, 111, 112, 113, 114, 118, 119, 120, 123, 126, 132, 133,
Palais Urach, Arab Rooms 92, 95, 96, 100, 104, 105 168, 179, 180
Palais Taubenheim 95 Imperial Armoury
Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt k.k. Handelsmuseum (formerly k.k. Orientalisches
Wilhelma 96 Museum) 111, 112, 113, 114, 122
Switzerland 1, 4, 5, 8, 11, 28, 92, 94, 105, 137, 148, 192, 203 mak Museum für angewandte Kunst (formerly k.k.
Sydenham Museum of Art and Industry) 111, 113, 116, 122
Crystal Palace 98, 106, 108, 170
Syria 9, 65–67, 70, 72–74, 79, 80, 192, Warsaw xv, 50, 52, 56, 57
201, 207 Washington (dc) 122
The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of Art 22
Tashkent 3, 4, 151, 153, 154, 156, 158, 161, 162
Tbilisi 154 Zakopane 55
Tehran 1, 4, 17, 18, 24, 59, 61, 70, 191 Zurich 8, 99, 189
Thessaloniki 113, 210

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