Fantastic fauna : decorative animals in Moslem ceramics

INTRODUCTION.

Ce the Moslem town, is every bit as important as the Pharaonic cities of which it is the continuation and successor. The heart of the town is the Arab Museum, the white and red building at the Bab el Khalk, where the greatest treasures of Moslem art have found a worthy resting place, and where those vestiges of Islamic culture which are threatened by the relentless growth of the modern capital have been collected and safeguarded for posterity.

Within the Museum there is much of beauty to enjoy, much to admire, and there are delightful surprises too -the arabesque, the geometrical design are familiar to all students of arabic art, but in the two rooms that contain the faience collection tradition is broken... There is still grace, but living grace—there is line, but in movement, every possible and imaginable animal disports itself in vigorous life, poised against the soft coloured backgrounds of plate and bowl.

Accurate knowledge of any kind on the Moslem Egyptian ceramics is of very recent date, much remains