The largest Collection of Islamic production cups108 specimens datable from the twelfth to the twentieth century, will be available for the Eastern University students and for every enthusiast from March 3, a Palazzo du Mesnil, in Naples. Thanks to the donation by the Aron collection To the Neapolitan public institution, the objects that come from this “refined collection of Islamic metals”, as the curator of the collection defines it, Veronica Prestini, will be available to the public, in an unprecedented exhibition. “In fact, similar specimens are known only in a few other collections: that of the Islamic art museum of Cairo, the Gayer-Cairrson collection also in Cairo, or the Khalili collection of London”, highlights Prestini.
The objects will be exhibited at Scerrated Museum of the University. Among these, some similar to saucers capable of being in the palm of one hand. In ancient ones there are animal engraved, zodiac signs and planets, or even magic recipes and formulas. The latest cups instead bring texts and numbers entered within geometric crossicles. They are mainly of Koranic passages with invocations aimed above all at sciite religious eminencies. “Often the cups are signed and dated by craftsmen and it is very likely that they were donated to those who went on pilgrimage to Mecca”, reconstructs the curator.
The extraordinary collection was the work of Armando Tagliacozzowhich brought together specimens from the sixties of the last century. “Tagliacozzo was a collector capable of embarking on divergent and nonconformist paths, helping to redefine the entire study of Islamic art,” explains Prestini. After the publication of a first catalog on the cups by Roberta Giunta (The Aron Collection, I, Islamic Magic-Therapeutic Bowls, Institute for the East, Ca Nallino, Rome, 2018), a second volume will appear in 2025 by Michele Bernardini.