Images

A map illustrating the fragmented political situation in Al-Andalus (the Muslim-ruled area of the Iberian Peninsula) after the collapse of the Umayyad Caliphate of Cordoba in 1031. Known as taifas (from Arabic "party" or "faction"), numerous...

An 1893 oil on canvas, The Garden at Petit-Gennevilliers, by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-96) the French impressionist painter. This house, located near Paris, was the artist's home from 1881. Here Caillebotte indulged his interest in horticulture...

An 1875-77 oil on canvas, The Gardeners, by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-96) the French impressionist painter. The artist was often keen to capture manual labourers and here he fits his figures into a typical composition of diagonals and receding...

Album of Flower Paintings by Iranian artist Fathallah Shirazi, c. 1880. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Persian mirror case with bird-and-flower motif, painting by Ali Ashraf, 1751. Brooklyn Museum.

Lacquer mirror case with bird-and-flower motif, painting by Fathallah Shirazi, 1878. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

An 1880 oil on canvas, Woman at the Window (aka Interior), by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-96) the French impressionist painter. A typical Caillebotte view showing a person connecting to the outside world through their window. The strong blue-grey...

Persian vanity box decorated with a rose-and-nightingale motif, by Muhammad Baqir, 1789. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

An 1880-82 oil on canvas, Still Life with Oysters, by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-96) the French impressionist painter. Here there is a much looser use of brushstrokes than Caillebotte usually employed as he tackles the problem many impressionists...

An 1878 oil on canvas, Rue Halévy, Balcony View, by Gustave Caillebotte (1848-96) the French impressionist painter. Here the artist gives an unusually elevated view of a Paris street and his canvas is square like photographs of the time which...