Full Description
Dedicated to the topics of eroticism and sexuality in the visual production of the medieval and early modern Muslim world, this volume sheds light on the diverse socio-cultural milieus of erotic images, on the range of motivations that determined their production, and on the responses generated by their circulation. The articles revise what has been accepted as a truism in existing literature-that erotic motifs in the Islamic visual arts should be read metaphorically-offering, as an alternative, rigorous contextual and cultural analyses. Among the subjects discussed are male and female figures as sexualized objects; the spiritual dimensions of eroticism; licit versus illicit sexual practices; and the exotic and erotic 'others' as a source of sensual delight. As the first systematic study on these themes in the field of Islamic art history, this volume fills a considerable gap and contributes to the lively debates on the nature and function of erotic and sexual images that have featured prominently in broader art-historical discussions in recent decades.
Contents
Introduction: Eros and sexuality in Islamic art: old issues and new perspectives, Francesca Leoni and Mika Natif; Making love not war: the iconography of the cockfight in medieval Egypt, Fahmida Suleman; The generative garden: sensuality, male intimacy, and eternity in Govardhan's illustration of Sa'di's Gulistan, Mika Natif; Where have all the boys gone? The lady of the 'sala de justica' ceilings and Nasrid poetics of sacred and profane love, Cynthia Robinson; Visibly foreign, visibly female: the eroticization of the zan-i farangi in 17th-century Persian painting, Amy S. Landau; Frontiers of visual taboos: painted indecencies in Isfahan, Sussan Babaie; Ottomanizing pornotopia: changing visual codes in 18th-century Ottoman erotic miniatures, Tulay Artan and Irvin Cemil Schick; 'Not to toil in lonely obsession': modern Persian erotica in the Kinsey Institute, Christiane J. Gruber; Index.
