Page 12 - Highlights of the Collection

interactions between different peoples via commercial and artistic
movements, via intellectual and scientific transfers. Closely linked to land,
trade or religious expansion strategies, yet also associated with technical
developments and scientific advances, these exchanges between different
peoples developed progressively at territorial and continental levels, then via
networks within and between continents. From desert caravans and coastal
navigation to the conquest of the high seas and the skies, visitors will learn
that the technological and scientific contributions were in no way out of tune
with aesthetic expression but instead stimulated its creativity.
Here at Louvre Abu Dhabi, the narrative is designed as a play in
four acts, corresponding to the major eras of history, from Antiquity to the
Modern period, concluding with our contemporary world. These historical
cycles are divided into twelve inspiring chapters, corresponding to the
museum’s twelve galleries.
The museum’s universal context is apparent in the very first gallery,
where specially-conceived groupings of objects invite us to ponder the
meaning of artistic encounters with the global vision artists possess, these
brilliant designers reducing space and time. Inspired by old nautical charts,
the floor traces the contours of the United Arab Emirates’ coastline, with
place names in various languages. It shows where the first works on display
at the opening of Louvre Abu Dhabi came from. They serve as starting points
Highlights of the Collection for collectively understanding our history.
The first sequence describes the long period from prehistory to Late
Antiquity. Taking place at the same time in many different parts of the world,
the Neolithic revolution marked the starting point of a collective history, with
its stream of mutations in the field of symbols and figurative representations.
The development of the first cities and kingdoms more than
Louvre Abu Dhabi 5000 years ago led to the rise of the first major powers and to complex
social and cultural structures and practices. These first aristocracies were
dominated by leaders who legitimised their power through positioning
themselves as intermediaries between humankind and the gods.
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The first great empires in the Mediterranean, the ancient Near East
and Asia were made up of vast communities, with the political stability
afforded by these empires promoting cultural and artistic syncretism and
fundamentally renewing the arts and thought.
Tools shaped by human hands, the rise of figurative depictions of
humans, the appearance of earthenware, the birth of writing, the adoption of
horses to shorten distances, or the various technological advances in the field
of metalworking were just some of the drivers of these major developments.
The emergence and spread of the major “universal” religions deeply
transformed this ancient order inherited from Antiquity. The universal
power of these first major empires was replaced by a spiritual universalism.
Between the 5th and 7th centuries, monotheism took hold of the Orient and
Europe via the Abrahamic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In Asia,
Hinduism and the Buddhist spirituality were to become determining factors
of unification, structuring the thinking of individuals and societies. Intellectual
and artistic activities led to new codifications of faith and transcendence,
expressed – irrespective of theological differences – in a set of universally
shared practices and rites: individual and collective prayer, pilgrimages and
the veneration of holy relics.
The Indian and Chinese worlds and the South-East Asian states were,
alongside the Eastern Roman Empire, Islam and the African kingdoms, the key
players in these major societal upheavals. Across the steppes of Central Asia, Highlights of the Collection
the Silk Roads and the Indian Ocean, vast land and sea networks developed
vectors for the exchange of precious metals, manufactured products and
currents of thought.
At the end of the 15th century, fuelled by the progress made in
cartography and navigation, global trading systems started to emerge. Louvre Abu Dhabi
Exploration of African coasts, the crossing of the Atlantic and the conquest
of the American continent very soon led to relations between Europe and
civilisations up to then totally isolated. This constituted the first wave of
modern globalisation, already at the service of the diplomatic and predatory
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