Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, the Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, opened on Monday the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s latest international exhibition, Furusiyya: The Art of Chivalry between East and West.
Opening to the public from 19 February to 30 May 2020, Furusiyya will take visitors on a journey through the culture of knights in the Middle Ages, from Christian Europe to Islamic lands in the Middle and Near East. Through more than 130 artefacts, the exhibition will showcase how the emergence of knights as a social class, their art of war as well as their favourite pastimes has manifested throughout the visual culture of the Middle.
Furusiyya: The Art of Chivalry between East and West is held in partnership with Musée de Cluny, musée national du Moyen Âge in Paris, and Agence France-Muséums which produced this exhibition. The exhibition is curated by Chief Curator Dr. Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye, former Director of Musée de Cluny, musée national du Moyen Âge, alongside Co-Curators Dr. Carine Juvin, Curator of the Department of Islamic Art at Musée du Louvre and Michel Huynh, Head Curator at Musée de Cluny, musée national du Moyen Âge.
Spanning the early 11th to the 16th centuries, the exhibition features objects ranging from arms and armour, written and illustrated treatises and manuscripts, to heraldic and decorative objects. Alongside a historic account and comparative study between knightly culture in East and West throughout the Middle Ages, Furusiyya will also bring to light knightly values, namely courage, bravery, honour and generosity – as well as the parallels between these across both cultures.
Manuel Rabaté, Director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, said, “The image of the warrior mounted on a horse or chevalier, is a visual that transcends history and civilisations. With Abu Dhabi acting as a gateway between East and West, Louvre Abu Dhabi is the ideal museum for this comparative study. The exhibition speaks to our global aspiration, while building a strong connection to the region. Our first international exhibition to open this year, Furusiyya: The Art of Chivalry between East and West is part of our current cultural season Changing Societies, and we are incredibly grateful to our partners from across the world, without whom this extraordinary showcase would not have been possible”.
Dr. Souraya Noujaim, Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management Director at Louvre Abu Dhabi,added: “Born out of comparable values – courage, honour, discipline, and faith – both furūsiyya and Western chivalry required equivalent skills, at once physical, sporting, religious, and intellectual. The visitors can engage with a cross-cultural comparison of the artistic manifestations of the life of knights, a group that was emblematic of medieval civilisation. Beyond war and battle, the exhibition sets out to shed light on the development of a chivalric culture in relation to the mutations of medieval society, through literature, music and the arts, making for an intellectually engaging and visually captivating exhibition.”
Séverine Lepape, Director of musée de Cluny, added: “Through an extraordinary array of different objects related to the social class of the knights in Medieval times, this exhibition showcases chivalric culture and its ideological values. It will allow visitors to gain insights into the way of life of a group that played a key role in the society of the Middle Ages, both in the East and West. In this, it fits perfectly into the scientific approach of Musée de Cluny, which wishes to make the medieval world better known in all its components.”
In the first part of the exhibition, visitors will understand the development of this particular social class, manifested through art, artefacts and archaeological remnants. The roots of furusiyya in the East and chivalry in the West are emblematic of historic changes throughout late antiquity.
The second chapter of the exhibition, through illuminated treatises, weapons and armoury, examines the techniques and education around fighting in East and West. Equipment, one of the main characteristics of a knight, demonstrates interesting commonalities between these two cultures.
The final chapter of the exhibition explores knightly pastimes related to combat, and the arts of chivalric cultures. In both Eastern and Western cultures, knights trained and perfected their horsemanship through games and exercise. As a result, pastimes such as polo, hunting, and – to practice strategic thinking – chess, emerged.
A talk led by the three curators of the exhibition will delve into the history of chivalry from historical facts to myths and legends, and include fascinating stories from medieval history’s most loved characters and the continued fascination with heroism in today’s contemporary culture. The talk will take place in the Auditorium on 18th February at 5pm. Access is free, with recommended reservation.
