MFAH

INDIAN PAVILION

Ganesh & Siddhi, 10th century, sandstone

Vishnu and his ten avatars, 10th century, red sandstone

Maitreya Buddha

Lord of Dance, Shiva

Gold snuff box with watercolor on ivory

Tiffany Butterfly napkin clips, 1878 silver service of 24 pieces made with 1ton silver

Tortoise shell combs, 1670

Mexican sewing box

Painting of an art shop with many art pieces for sale

JEWISH CEREMONIAL ART

Lavish Hanukkah lamp shaped like a temple...8 lamps shaped like lions, 2 hands holding a crown in the center

Torah shield

and finials [decorative knobs]

Menorah... This jeweled almond tree, tree of life in Judaica is a jeweler's interpretation for the Jewish museum in Rome joint exhibition with Vatican

The menorah is a central, ancient Jewish candelabrum, with two main types: the 7-branched Temple menorah representing divine light and wisdom, and the 9-branched Chanukah menorah (Chanukkiyah) commemorating the Maccabean miracle. The original Temple menorah, made of pure gold, was used for daily lighting with olive oil.

Circumcision tools case

Italian art of pique, a complex inlay process

Piqué is a decorative technique, usually employed on tortoiseshell, in which inlaid designs are created by means of small gold or silver pins. The art reached its highest point in 17th- and 18th-century France, particularly for the decoration of small tortoiseshell articles such as combs, patch boxes, and snuff boxes. By an adroit arrangement of the gold and silver pins, by placing them in small or large clusters, effects of light and shade could be created in the design. In the finest French work, the pins are placed so close to each other and with such accuracy that they appear to form a continuous line. Decorative motifs include chinoiserie scenes, geometric designs, and arabesques

The Italians in Naples fine-tuned the mysteries of soldering and of moulage, using boiling water and adding olive oil to model the tortoiseshell, inserting gold inlay and nacre which looks like lacework, into the still-wet material, elastic and malleable like plastic. They were able, through that semi-transparent and vibratile texture, to create figurations and fantastical forms, dreamlike landscapes and romantic scenes, masks, rural celebrations and obelisks, mythical or baroque theatrical representations, chinoiserie, and evocative ruins. They combined inventiveness, creative flair, and a touch of humor, to decorate furniture tops and personal, everyday objects.

ISLAMIC ARTEFACTS

Quran manuscript, Calligraphy

Calligraphy tools in ivory

Powder Flask, Ivory, amber

Sandstone lattice work

Lute from Ottoman Turkiye

INDIAN, SYRIAN METAL WORK

Louvre Couture

fashion as art has an installation of 36 fashion ensembles in galleries across the Museum.

All were selected from the landmark debut of Louvre Couture—Art and Fashion: Statement Pieces, the first-ever fashion exhibition at the Louvre Museum

Ensembles have been selected from heritage houses such as Balenciaga, Chanel, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Versace, Louis Vuitton, and Vivienne Westwood, as well as from important designers established in this century, including Thom Browne, Erdem, Jacquemus, and Iris Van Herpen.

The earliest work, Yves Saint Laurent’s 1965 Robe Mondrian, is shown with Piet Mondrian’s 1918 Composition with Grid #1 from the MFAH collections.

Additional MFAH pairings include André-Charles Boulle’s 17th-century Longcase Clock with Givenchy’s 1990–91 Pantsuit;

the elaborate 18th-century folding screen Biombo with Views of Mexico City with a 1990 ensemble by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel; and

Louise Nevelson’s 1969 sculptural abstraction Mirror Image I with a 2024 Yohji Yamamoto ensemble.