An exhibition featuring more than 100 works of art such as jewellery, weaponry and fragments of architectural history from the Mughal court – a Muslim dynasty encompassing most of present-day South Asia – opened in Hong Kong on Wednesday.
Advertisement
The Hong Kong Palace Museum is the first stop on the travelling show’s itinerary and the only one in Asia. The original London edition, which attracted 150,000 visitors, concluded earlier this year.
Other destinations for the “Treasures of the Mughal Court from the Victoria and Albert Museum” exhibition have yet to be announced.
“We are also looking at the link with China – that’s one of the themes that runs throughout the show here in Hong Kong which we’ve only hinted at in London,” said Emily Hannam, curator of the South Asia collection at the British institution.
“Although there were no diplomatic relations between the Chinese court and the Mughal court, we look at three distinct areas of this connection throughout the show,” she said, referring to ceramics, jade and paintings.
Advertisement
According to Hannam, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London has been collecting Mughal art since its founding in the 1850s and boasts one of the most important collections outside of India.
The exhibition traces the development of Mughal art through the reigns of three emperors – Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.