Awards
2004 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award
Linda Komaroff and Stefano Carboni, The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353
Linda Komaroff and Stefano Carboni, The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353 (2002)
The Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award, established in 1980 in honor of the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is given to the author of an especially distinguished exhibition catalogue in the history of art published under the auspices of a museum, library, or collection. This year, the award committee recognizes the remarkable achievement of Linda Komaroff and Stefano Carboni for The Legacy of Genghis Khan: Courtly Art and Culture in Western Asia, 1256–1353 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, in association with Yale University Press, 2002).
Genghis Khan created the “largest contiguous land empire in world history.” Subsequently, this empire broke into four huge, competitive, but still related parts; the southwestern one, centered in modern-day Iran but including much of Iraq, Turkey, and Afghanistan, is the subject of this superb catalogue. Western scholars have often followed the testimony of the conquered peoples in emphasizing the brutality of the Mongol invasions. While the contributors to The Legacy of Genghis Khan do not downplay the “massive destruction and loss of life,” they also substantiate how “in uniting eastern and western Asia for over a century, the Mongols created a unique opportunity for an unrestricted cultural exchange that forever altered the face of art in Iran and made it a focal point of innovation and synthesis for the next three hundred years.” Comprehensive, rigorous essays present the latest evidence and analysis of Persian architecture, luxury goods, religious arts, and the arts of the book under Mongol rule, and address the spread of artistic ideas and motifs across Eurasia (through artisans who were enticed or forced to move, portable artworks, and above all textiles). In addition, the essays discuss a wide range of fascinating issues such as the implications of climate change, the Mongols’ willingness for women to play somewhat more prominent and autonomous roles than were usually permitted in neighboring societies, and how Christian narrative scenes were transformed for Islamic use. Everywhere there is a sense of new findings and new thought, and of unanswered questions the essayists are eager to investigate further. In addition to the extremely useful catalogue entries, the book includes two important technical studies written by conservation scientists and an extensive bibliography of scholarship written in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Chinese, as well as various European languages. The Legacy of Genghis Khan is so intriguing and well written—and so beautifully and usefully designed—that it will enlighten specialists and nonspecialists alike.
Committee: Marilyn Brown, Tulane University, chair; Forrest McGill, Asian Art Museum; Virginia Mecklenburg, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Carolyn Wilson, independent scholar.
