Power and patronage on display

The renovations of the galleries of Islamic art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art completed in 2011 brought about changes to the way the museum’s Mamluk collection is displayed. While employed on the New Galleries Project from 2008–2011, Dr. Kenney conducted research and developed interpretative materials connected with the Mamluk art reinstallation. Here, she analyses how the new Mamluk display relates to the surrounding exhibits and how its narratives are presented for the general museum audience. Following this, she profiles three objects from the collection – elements from a wooden minbar, an inlaid metalwork ewer, and a large marble jar – as examples of the aesthetic and documentary interest that the museum’s collection holds for Mamluk studies specialists.