The Arts of Fire - Islamic Influences on Glass and Ceramics of t

The Arts of Fire - Islamic Influences on Glass and Ceramics of the Italian Renaissance
Edited by Catherine Hess, with contributions by George Saliba and Linda Komaroff
2004 / 184 pages / PDF / 14 MB

Students and scholars of the Italian Renaissance easily fall under the spell of its achievements: its self-confident humanism, its groundbreaking scientific innovations, its ravishing artistic production. Yet many of these achievements were made possible only by Italys proximity to the Islamic world. The Arts of Fire shows just how important Islamic influences were on one particular facet of the Italian Renaissance: the development of Italian luxury ceramics and glass.

The Arts of Fire demonstrates how many of the techniques of glass and ceramic production and ornamentation were first developed in the Islamic East between the eighth and twelfth centuries. Essays by volume editor Catherine Hess and by Linda Komaroff and George Saliba demonstrate early modern Europes debt to the Islamic world and help us better understand the interrelationships of cultures over time.