Heaven on Earth, the exhibition featuring art from Islamic lands on loan from the Hermitage, St Petersburg and the Khalili Foundation, has been pulling in the crowds to the Courtauld Institute’s Hermitage Rooms in London. Between March 25, when the show opened, and May 9 over 11,500 visitors have attended.
The exhibition packs a wealth of history into the five Hermitage rooms featuring artefacts relating to Islamic culture spanning the 8th to 19th centuries and is certainly worth seeing if you have not already made a visit. Even if you have, you may wish to return because on June 9 there will be a changeover of the works-on-paper element displayed in one of the rooms.
For reasons of conservation, the 17 Mughal and Persian miniatures dating from the 16th and 17th centuries, which have come from the Hermitage, will be replaced by 26 works from the Khalili collection. The Khalili exhibits include no fewer than five pages from the celebrated 16th century Houghton Shahnameh, one of the finest illuminated Persian manuscripts ever produced and particularly notable for their large scale and complexity.
Heaven on Earth continues at the Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House until August 22.
Heaven on Earth exhibition
Islamic works of art have not just been wowing collectors in the auction rooms, the museum- and exhibition-going public have also plainly found it a big and topical attraction.
