PRISSE D AVENNES, ARAB ART

Adventures in ArabiaA compendium of 19th century Islamic art and architectureEmile Prisse d'Avennes (1807-1879), a French Orientalist, author andartist, was one of the greatest pre-20th century Egyptologists. An ardentadmirer of the superb skills of Egyptian and Oriental artisans, he wasenamored of Arabic art. As a youth he dreamed of exploring the Orient, andat 19 began travelling to Greece and Palestine. Over the next 40 years heexplored Syria, Arabia, Persia, and resided in Egypt and Algeria.Converting to Islam, he travelled Egypt disguised as an Arab, using thename Edris Effendi. A student of ancient Egyptian and Islamic cultures, helater wrote: "We shall discuss all the arts, all the industries cultivatedby Orientals with so much taste, brilliance, and fantasy. We will presentsplendid reproductions of the monuments, objects of art and luxury, whichprovide evidence of an advanced civilization, the influence of which hasbeen felt even in Europe."In 1848/1851 Prisse d'Avennes published his Oriental Album inLondon (Oriental Album. Characters, Costumes, and Modes of Life, the Valleyof the Nile). This brilliant collection of 32 chromolithographsillustrating the people and costumes of the Nile Valley was accompanied bya commentary by renowned Orientalist and Egyptologist James Augustus St.John. After again travelling to North Africa, Prisse d'Avennes returned toFrance in 1860, bearing the fruits of his journeys—hundreds of foliodrawings, photographs, sketches, plans and 400 meters of bas-reliefs.Fascinated by the symmetry, complexity, and opulence of Egyptian and Arabicart, he drew from this vast collection to create compilations of the finestexamples of art and architecture, which also took into account historical,social, and religious contexts. In 1877, he published his outstandingsurvey on Islamic art and architecture, Arab Art (L'Art arabe d'aprčs lesmonuments du Kaire, 1869-1877), in Paris. This publication reproducesthe three atlas volumes containing 200 plates—137 of them magnificentchromolithographs—mainly by Prisse d'Avennes. L'Art arabe isan indispensable compendium on the development of Arabic art, portrayingits splendor and diversity, and a work of supreme draftsmanship.