Jane Jakeman:

Art history and exhibition reviews and articles



Review of O. Grabar, The Mediation of Ornament: The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, 1989 (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992). In: Ars Orientalis 24 (1994). 

"Charting colour". In: Oxford Magazine Second Week, Hilary Term, 1994. 

"Stitches in time". Exhibition Embroideries from Islamic Journeys, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. In: Oxford Magazine Michaelmas Term, 1995. 

"Seen and not heard". Exhibition Louise Bourgeois: Sculpture; The Prints of Louise Bourgeois, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. In: Oxford Magazine No. 124 (1995). 

"Happy Hour with Genghis". Exhibition Legacy of the Mongols, Ashmolean Museum, Department of Eastern Art. In: Oxford Magazine No. 124 (1995). 

"Art-market orientalism". In: New Statesman April 21, 1995. 

"Nutshells". The Artist and the Moon. At the Museum of the History of Science to 28 January. Mortars made by the Neale family of bronze founders. At the Ashmolean Museum to 1 March. In: Oxford Magazine Second Week, Hilary Term, 1996. 

"Material difference". Exhibition Carl André, Sculptor, 1996. Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. In: Oxford Magazine Eighth Week, Trinity Term, 1996. 

"David Elliott at MOMA". In: Oxford Magazine Eighth Week, Michaelmas Term, 1996.

"Islamic light and lustre". In: The Times Higher Education Supplement December 6, 1996.

"Rudolph II in Prague". In: Oxford Magazine Eighth Week, Trinity Term, 1997.

"Sizzling colours". Review of Sheila R. Canby, Princes, Poets and Paladins: Islamic and Indian Paintings from the Collection of Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan (British Museum Press). In: The Times Higher Education Supplement April 3, 1998.

"Power dressing". Review of T. A. Allsen, Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire (Cambridge University Press). In: Times Higher Education Supplement September 18, 1998.

"From Paradise to Half a Life". In: Oxford Magazine Sixth Week, Hilary Term, 1998.

"The Power of the Collector". In: Oxford Magazine Hilary Term, 1998.

"Mummies past and present. The Roxie Walker Galleries at the British Museum". In: Oxford Magazine Eighth Week, Trinity Term, 1999.

"Leafing through pictures of Persia". Review of B. W. Robinson, Persian Paintings in the Collection of the Royal Asiatic Society (Royal Asiatic Society). In: The Independent July 9, 1999.

"Propaganda value". Exhibition Royal Persian Paintings: the Qajar epoch, 1782-1925. Brunei Gallery, London. Accompanying book by Layla S. Diba and M. Ekhtiar (eds.). J. Raby, Qajar Portraits (Azimuth Editions and the Iran Heritage Foundation). In: New Statesman Aug. 16, 1999. 

 "Been here, got the T-shirt". In: Oxford Today c.1999.

"Syntax of the divine spirit". Exhibition Heaven on Earth. Art from Islamic Lands, Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House. M. B. Piotrovsky and J. M. Rogers (eds.), Heaven on Earth. Art from  Islamic Lands. Works from the State Herrmitage Museum and the Khalili Collection (Prestel). In: TLS April 16, 2004.

"Enlightenment on a shoestring". Exhibition Pilgrimage. The sacred journey. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. R. Barnes and C. Branfoot (eds.), Pilgrimage. The sacred journey (Ashmolean Museum). In: TLS March 24, 2006.

"Writing on the museum wall. Arabic calligraphy's renewed engagement with the West". Exhibition Word into Art. Artists of the modern Middle East, British Museum. V Porter, Word into Art. Artists of the modern Middle East (British Museum Press). In: TLS June 16, 2006.

"Hosay from Iraq". D. Behrens-Abouseif and S. Vernoit (eds.), Islamic art in the nineteenth century. Tradition, innovation and eclecticism (Leiden: Brill). In: TLS Feb. 9,2007.

"Madder music". Review of R. Chenciner, Madder Red. A history of luxury and trade (Curzon). In: TLS April 6, 2007.

"Scribal eye candy". Exhibition Sacred, British Library. J. Reeve (ed.), Sacred Books of the three faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam (British Library). In: TLS May 25, 2007.

"Catalysts at court". Exhibition Spirit and Life, Ismaili Centre, London. Spirit and Life. Masterpieces of Islamic Art from the Aga Khan Museum Collection (Aga Khan Trust for Culture). In: TLS August 3, 2007.

"Latex and ferret". Review of C. Edwards, Encyclopedia of Furnishing Textiles, Floorcoverings and Home Furnishing Practices, 1200-1950 (Lund Humphries). In: TLS March 7, 2008.  

"Soft architecture". Exhibition The Fabric of Myth, Compton Verney. The Fabric of Myth (Compton Verney). In: TLS July 4, 2008.

"Byzantium, the thousand-year empire of images". Review of R. Cormack and M. Vassilaki (eds.), Byzantium, 330-1453 (Royal Academy of Arts) and J. Herrin, Byzantium: the Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire (Penguin Books). In: The Art Newspaper December 2008.

"Shah 'Abbas, the Remaking of Iran". Exhibition, The British Museum. In: Oxford Magazine Hilary Term 2009.

"Treasures from the Topkapi". Exhibitions Turks. A journey of a thousand years, 600-1600 (Royal Academy of Arts, London) and Meres, deesses et sultanes. Les femmes en Turquie de la prehistoire a la fin de l'empire ottoman (Brussels, Palais des Beaux- Arts). D. J. Roxburgh (ed.), Turks. A journey of a thousand years, 600-1600 and Meres, deesses et sultanes. Les femmes en Turquie de la prehistoire a la fin de l'empire ottoman (Bozar Books). In: TLS February 2009.

"And the Dictionary begat the Encyclopedia. A valuable reference book based on The Grove Dictionary of Art". In: The Art Newspaper No. 204, July-August 2009.

"What defines Middle Eastern art?" Review of Kamal Boullata, Palestinian Art, 1850-2005 (Saqi Books); Black Dog Editors, Contemporary Art in the Middle East (Black Dog); Hossein Amirsadeghi (ed.), Different Sames. New Perspectives in Contemporary Iranian Art (Thames and Hudson). In: The Art Newspaper No. 205, Sept. 2009.

"Concrets & Bodies". In: Oxford Magazine Fifth Week, Michaelmas Term, 2009.

"Not just little adults". Review of C. Hennessy, Images of Children in Byzantium (Ashgate). In: The Art Newspaper May 2009.

"Parasols for the pachyderms". Exhibition Maharadja. The splendour of India's royal courts. Victoria and Albert Museum. A. Jackson and A. Jaffer (eds.), Maharadja. The splendour of India's royal courts (Victoria and Albert Museum). In: TLS Nov. 27, 2009.

"When Hindu met Muslim". Review of Finbarr B. Flood, Objects of translation. Material culture and medieval "Hindu-Muslim" encounter (Princeton University Press). In: TLS Jan. 22, 2010.

"Pink squares". Review of G. Riello and Prasannan Parthasarathi, The Spinning World. A global history of cotton textiles, 1200-1850 (Oxford University Press). J. Turney, The Culture of Knitting (Bereg). In: TLS Feb. 12, 2010.

Review of C. Maury (ed.), A la cour du Grand Turque. Caftans du palais de Topkapi (Musee du Louvre). In: TLS April 30, 2010.

"Scenes from the garden of fidelity". Exhibition The Indian  Portrait, 1560-1860, National Portrait Gallery. R. Crill and Kapil Janwala (eds.), The Indian Portrait, 1560-1860 (National Portrait Gallery). In: TLS May 28, 2010.

Review of H. Amirsadeghi, S. Mikdadi and N. Shabout (eds.), New Vision: Arab Contemporary Art in the 21st Century (Thames and Hudson). In: The Art Newspaper May 2010.

Review of M. Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain (V&A Publishing). In: The Art Newspaper Sept. 2010.

Review of R. Irwin, Mamluks and crusaders. Men of the sword and men of the pen (Ashgate Variorum). In: TLS Sept. 3, 2010.

Review of S. Eigner, Art of the Middle East. Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World and Iran (Merrell). In: The Art Newspaper No. 214, June 2010.

"When Constantinople became Istanbul". Review of C. Kafescioglu, Constantinopolis/Istanbul: Culture Encounter, Imperial Vision and the Construction of the Ottoman Capital (Penn State University Press). In: The Art Newspaper July-August 2010.

"A vast Persian epic with a long history of fine illustration". Review of B. Brend and C. Melville, Epic of the Persian Kings, the Art of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (I. B. Tauris). In: The Art Newspaper No. 220, Jan. 2011.

Review of J. M. Rogers, The Arts of Islam. Masterpieces from the Khalili collection (Thames and Hudson). In: TLS January 7, 2011.

Review of S. Stronge, Made for Mughal Emperors: Royal Treasures from Hindustan (I. B. Tauris). In: The Art Newspaper No. 221, Feb. 2011.

"Piecing together the scrapbooks of the Mughal empire. The Chester Beatty's magnificent collection of folios is investigated and explained". Review of E. Wright et al. Muraqqa': Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. In: The Art Newspaper March 2011.

*Return of the Afghan hoards". Exhibition Afghanistan. Crossroads of the ancient world. British Museum. F. Hiebert and P. Cambon (eds.), Afghanistan. Crossroads of the ancient world (British Museum Press). St John Simpson, The Begram hoard. Indian ivories from Afghanistan (British Museum Press). In: TLS April 8, 2011.

"True reflection of a fine collection. A catalogue of remarkable Islamic ceramics is refreshingly honest". Review of M. Scagliola (ed.), Le Ceramiche Islamiche della Collezione Laura (Umberto Allemandi & Co.). In: The Art Newspaper April 2011.

"Sheer pleasure". Exhibition Heracles to Alexander the Great. Treasures from the Royal Capital of Macedon, a Hellenic Kingdom in the Age of Democracy, Ashmolean Museum. In: Oxford Magazine Second Week, Trinity Term 2011.

"Enhancing cultural life". Galleries of Ancient Egypt and Nubia at the Ashmolean Museum. In: Oxford Magazine Eighth Week, Michaelmas Term, 2011.

"Almost as many pictures as there are stories. A selection of western images made for The Thousand and One Nights". Review of R. Irvin, Visions of the Jinn: Illustrators of the Arabian Nights (The Arcadian Library in association with Oxford University Press). In: The Art Newspaper 229, November 2011.

"Nothing too risky ..." Review of Salima Hashmi (ed.), Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan (Yale University Press). In: The Art Newspaper 229, November 2011.

"A magnet for the faithful". Exhibition Hajj. Journey to the heart of Islam (British Museum). V. Porter (ed.), Hajj. Journey to the heart of Islam (British Museum Press), In: TLS March 9, 2012, 17-18.

"Ashmolean shows". Exhibitions Visions of Mughal India. Theb Collection of Howard Hodgkin, 2 Feb. - 22 April, 2012, and Guercino: A Passion for Drawing. The Collections of Sir Denis Mahon and the Ashmolean Museum, 11 Feb. - 15 April, 2012. In: Oxford Magazine Eighth Week, Hilary Term, 2012.

Review of Ahdaf Soueif (ed.), Reflections on Islamic Art (Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation). In: TLS May 4, 2012.

"The ecumenicity of iconophobia. Christian, Jewish and Muslim anxieties about images". Review of J. Ellenbogen and A. Tugendhaft (eds.), Idol Anxiety (Stanford University Press) and J. Pelikan, Imago Dei: the Byzantine Apology for Icons (Princeton University Press). In: The Art Newspaper 236, June 2012. In: The Art Newspaper 236, June 2012.

Review of S. Landrigan and Qais Akbar Omar, Shakespeare in Kabul (Haus). In: TLS June 15, 2012.

"A grand aesthetic sweep". Review of the new Islamic galleries in the Louvre and S. Makariou (ed.), Les arts de l'Islam au Musee du Louvre (Paris: Hazan). In: TLS November 9, 2012, 18.

"Another renaissance. A much needed survey of the arts under the Mamluk Sultans". In: The Art Newspaper 240, November 2012.

"Culture while awaiting al-Mahdi. The Shi'ite shrines, relics and monuments in the Middle East and India". Review of J. W. Allan, The Art and Architecture of Twelver Shi'ism: Iraq, Iran and the Indian Subcontinent (Azimuth Editions). In: The Art Newspaper 242, January 2013.

"Critters unite East and West. Beastly tales in the 13th-century Kitab Na't al-Hayawan". Review of A. Contadini. A World of Beasts in a Thirteenth-Century Illustrated Arabic Book on Animals (the Kitab Na't al-Hayawan) in the Ibn Baktishu Tradition (Brill). In: The Art Newspaper 242, January 2013.

"Earthly heroics". Review of the exhibition Love and Devotion. From Persia and beyond. Bodleian Library, Oxford and S. Scollay (ed.), Love and Devotion. From Persia and beyond (Bodleian Library). In: TLS January 25, 2013, 18.

"Mughals low and high. The British Library catalogue features many less-successful works of art as well as the masterpieces". Review of J. P. Losty and Malini Roy, Mughal India Art, Culture and Empire (The British Library). In: The Art Newspaper 247, June 2013.

"Cushions yes, curtains no. Figural imagery in islamic religious art". In: The Art Newspaper 247, June 2013.

"Forms in search of perfection. Abstraction and architecture in the work of Saloua Raouda Choucair". In: TLS June 14, 2013.

"Towers to tell the time to pray". Review of J. M. Bloom, The Minaret (Edinburgh University Press). In: The Art Newspaper 251, November 2013.

"Islamic art of the flesh". Review of F. Leoni and M. Natif (eds.), Eros and Sexuality in Islamic Art (Ashgate). In: The Art Newspaper 255, March 2014.

"Courtauld shows its 14th-century 'It' bag". In: The Art Newspaper 257, May 2014.

"Material success. Islamic arts and crafts in many media". In: The Art Newspaper 258, June 2014.

"Character studies. The tension between author, text and image in Islamic art". Review of Sheila S. Blair, Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art (Edinburgh University Press). In: The Art Newspaper 259, July/August 2014.

"A lifetime's work - and well worth it". Review of A. Adamova, S. Hartley and J. M. Rogers, Persian Manuscripts, Paintings and Drawings: from the 15th to the Early 20th Century in the Hermitage Collection (Azimuth Editions). In: The Art Newspaper 260, September 2014.

"The Ottoman effect in Europe". Review of A. Contadiniu and C. Norton (eds.), The Renaissance and the Ottoman World (Ashgate). In: The Art Newspaper 261, October 2014.

"How private museums can end up baffling the public". In: The Art Newspaper 263, December 2014.

"The world of the Mamluks, in theory and in practice. Two variant readings of the Middle Eastern sultanate, one more effective than the other". Review of S. Conermann (ed.), Ubi sumus? Quo vademus? Mamluk Studies - State of the Art (V&R Unipress/Bonn University Press) and D. Behrens-Abouseif, Practising Diplomacy in the Mamluk Sultanate: Gifts and Material Culture in Medieval Islamic World (I. B. Tauris). In: The Art Newspaper 265, February 2015.

"To show or not to show images of the Prophet? There is no clear-cut answer". In: The Art Newspaper 265, February 2015.

"Inclusive Bardo needs visitors". In: The Art Newspaper 267, April 2015

"Reflections on art as an (ineffective) social expression". Review of A. Downey (ed.), Uncommon Grounds: New Media and Critical Practices in North Africa and the Middle East (Ibraaz Publishing in association with I. B. Tauris). In: The Art Newspaper 268, May 2015.

"Horns offer plenty in the Middle Ages". Review of A. Shalem and M. Glaser, Die mittelalterlichen Olifante: die Elfenbeinskulpturen (Deutche Verlag fur Kunstwissenschaft). In: The Art Newspaper 269, June 2015.

"Letters to admire". Review of Ahmed Moustafa and Stefan Sperl, The Cosmic Script. Sacred geometry and the science of Arabic penmanship (Thames and Hudson), In: The Times Literary Supplement August 21 and 28, 2015.

"Illuminating the rich only". Review of Jonathan Bloom and Sheila Blair (eds.), God is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth. Light in Islamic Art and Culture (Yale University Press in association with Qatar Foundation, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar), and A. Ross (ed.), The Gulf: High Culture / Hard Labor. In: The Art Newspaper 278, April 2016.

"The stones cry out. The Ayyubid glories of Syria, now mostly in ruins". Review of Abd al-Razzaq Moaz, Yasser Tabbaa, Zena Takieddine et al. The Ayyubid Era. Art and Architecture in Medieval Syria (Museum with No Frontiers), and Ph. Mansel, Aleppo: the Rise and Fall of Syria's Great Merchant City (I. B. Tauris). In: The Art Newspaper 279, May 2016.

"A thesis undermined by silence. Lack of provenance is the devastating flaw of this book". Review of M. Carter (ed.), Arts of the Hellenized East: Precious Metalwork and Gems of the Pre-Islamic Era (Thames and Hudson). In: The Art Newspaper 281, July/August 2016.

"God-given iron. Cataloguing the armour of Islam". In: The Times Literary Supplement, August 19 & 26, 2016.

Review of Rosemary Crill (ed.), The Fabric of India (V&A Publications). In: The Art Newspaper 285, December 2016.

"Islamic Arts". Review of the Exhibition Islamic Art and the Supernatural, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 2016-17. In: Oxford Magazine 378, Michaelmas Term 2016, Eighth Week, 15-16.

"Credence and credulity". Review of F. Leoni (ed.), Power and Protection: Islamic Art and the Supernatural (Ashmolean Museum Publications). In: The Art Newspaper 286, January 2017.

"The sacrament of scripts. Calligraphy's potency as an Islamic art form." Review of Rose Issa, Juliet Cestar and Venetia Porter, Signs of Our Times: from Calligraphy to Calligraffiti (Merrell). In: The Art Newspaper 286, March 2017.

Review of A. Ohta, M. Rogers and R. Wade Haddon (eds.), Art, Trade, and Culture in the Islamic World and Beyond: from the Fatimids to the Mughals (Gingko Art Library). In: The Art Newspaper 293, September 2017.

"What is a mosque?" Review of Bernard O'Kane, The Mosques of Egypt (American University in Cairo). In: The Art Newspaper 294, October 2017.

"Articles of faith. Religion and the limits of tick-box curation". In: The Times Literary Supplement, December 15, 2017.

"Equal right for 'applied' art". Review of F. B. Flood and G. Necipoglu (eds.), A Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture, 2 vols. (Wiley Blackwell). In: The Art Newspaper 304, September 2018.

"Bones in the walls. A new exhibition exploring magic and belief". In: The Times Literary Supplement, October 26, 2018. See also The book of the "Spellbound - Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft. Exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford" by Sophie Page and Marina Wallace. In: Voices from the Vaults, Spring 2019.

Review of Shahed Saleem, The British Mosque: an Architectural and Social History (Historic England). In: The Art Newspaper 306, November 2018.