Islamic art gallery, Oriental Art Museum in Turin

The fourth floor with the strictly green room dedicated to Islamic art. The environment, characterized by the trussed ceiling of the historic building, appears as a large corridor flanked by the exhibition furniture which houses Ottoman velvets, ceramics, bronzes as well as rare Persian manuscripts and calligraphic copies of the Koran.

The Islamic section of the museum displays works from the Middle East, Persia, Turkey and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia. The collections include bronzes, ceramics and manuscripts, with particular emphasis on the aesthetic value of calligraphy.

The gallery presents a rich collection of pottery and glazed tiles that illustrate the evolution of ceramic production from the ninth to the seventeenth century.

The Islamic collection is characterized by manuscripts and furnishings from Turkey, Persia and the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, where the importance of calligraphy is highlighted.

Highlights works
On the Fourth floor, showcase objects from Middle East, Iran, Turkey and ex-Soviet republics of Central Asia, from the 8th to the 18th Century A.D.

Cup with ibex, 12th-13th century
Jug in glazed “frit”, ottoman period, 1535-45
Kubachi type dish, 17th century
Commentary on the “40 traditions”, timurid period
Cup with spout
Safavid tile, safavid era, late 16th century
Candlestick base, late 13th century
Mamelucca ampoule, 14th century
Jug with palmette, 8th century
Cup with calligraphic decoration, 10th century

Oriental Art Museum in Turin
The Museum of Oriental Art (Italian: Museo d’Arte Orientale, also known by the acronym MAO) is a museum contains one of the most important collections of Asian art in Italy. The collection works represents cultural and artistic traditions from across the Asian continent.

MAO, the Museum of Oriental Art, is located in the historic 18th-century seat of Palazzo Mazzonis. The museum’s heritage encompasses some 1500 works, in part from the pre6thous collections amassed by various city institutions, in part acquired in the past few years. The Museum’s exhibition layout is di6thded into f4the cultural areas: South Asia, China, Japan, the Himalayan Region and Islamic countries. This layout corresponds naturally with the building’s physical structure which is di6thded into the same number of interlinked but structurally separate exhibition spaces used to house the various sections.

The museum opened on December 5, 2008, with the merger of the Asian collection of the Turin City Museum of Ancient Art at the Palazzo Madama and contributions from Turin City Hall, the Region of Piedmont, the Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli and Compagnia di San Paolo. Architect Andrea Bruno oversaw the restoration of the Palazzo Mazzonis to house the newly formed museum.

The exhibits now housed in the new Oriental Art Museum in Turin are mostly works already present in the city’s Ci6thc Art Museum. Others, however, were donated to the museum by the Piedmont Region, as well as by the Agnelli Foundation and the Compagnia di San Paolo.

The museum‘s exhibition space, which has been designed to host f4the different thematic areas, such as the entrance hall where you can observe typical Japanese Zen gardens. Each area, from this point on, enjoys a different characterization of the space and the works on display. On the ground floor you can admire artifacts from South Asia, most of which are very ancient, and from South-East Asia. On the first floor there are Chinese-made artifacts, including bronze and terracotta works dating back to 3,000 BC, and in the appropriate rooms, it is possible to admire numerous artifacts of Japanese art. But that is not all. In fact, on the third floor of the Oriental Art Museum of Turin there is also a collection of objects from the Himalayan region, while the top floor is entirely dedicated to Islamic art.