Mina Moraitou
Mina Moraitou is the head of the Benaki Museum of Islamic Art. She has recently curated an exhibition on Sufism, co-organised an exhibition on Orientalism with the works of the Greek painter Theodoros Ralli and edited a catalogue on Ottoman glass. Her current projects include developing an exhibition of the designs of Thomas Hope from Istanbul, the publication of the Iznik ceramics collection in collaboration with John Carswell and an exhibition on the Fustat collection of the museum.
Mainly woodwork:
Early Islamic carving from the Benaki collection in Athens
The lecture will focus on Islamic carvings from the collection of the Benaki Museum. The woodwork, ivory and bone collection constitutes part of the personal collection of the founder Antonis Benakis and a number of important pieces were acquired before the opening of the museum in 1931. The discussion will contextualise the collection while focusing on the evolution and diversity of Islamic design and the Islamic art of carving. The use of calligraphy as ornament and the depiction of nature is central throughout these periods as a recurring theme with plant motifs appearing in isolation or set in a geometric framework and developing into either naturalistic or stylized compositions, often with a sense of energy. Some of the objects to be considered are associated because of the shared vocabulary used between Islamic and Christian context.