Your gift helps to promote the diverse arts and cultures of Asia.
Free for Singaporeans & PRs. Ticketing charges for tourists apply.
5 min walk from Raffles Place MRT Station
The gallery showcases ritual, secular, courtly, and scientific objects that reflect Islamic values and sensibilities, inviting visitors to explore the rich variety and beauty of Islamic art. Exquisite works of religious art produced by and for Islamic faithful across Asia, with a main focus on Southeast Asia, show how global notions of Islamic art were adapted across the region to create unique visual forms that reflect indigenous influences.
This folio is a Persian translation of a 1st-century AD text by the Greek physician, Dioscorides, detailing the properties and preparation of medicinal plants. The first Arabic translation of the original Greek text was completed in the 9th century in Baghdad, after which the work spread throughout the Islamic world, laying the foundation for the study of botany and pharmacology among Muslim scholars and scientists. Arabic versions of Dioscorides’ text provided the basis for translations into Latin, Persian and Armenian. Written in nasta’liq script, this folio follows the iconography of Arabic versions of the work, although the illustrations have an artistic freedom and vibrancy that are typical of the Deccan.
One of the significant contributions of potters from the Islamic world is lustre painting. This technique involved the application of metallic glazes on already fired surfaces. The objects would then be fired a second time to produce a shiny metallic veneer over the existing glaze.
Name
Email*