Books published by Museum of Fine Arts,Boston

Explores the dynamic and complex traditions of Islamic art through more than 115 major works in a dazzling array of media.

New in the MFA HIGHLIGHTS series, which presents the best of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's collections accessibly and affordably.

"This book was published in conjunction with the exhibition Quilts and color: the Pilgrim/Roy Collection, organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, from April 6 to July 27, 2014"--Colophon.

A new addition to the MFA Highlights series.

Sometime in the early fourth century bc, an unknown Egyptian master carved an exquisite portrait in dark-green stone. The statue that included this remarkably lifelike head of a priest, who was likely a citizen of ancient Memphis, may have been damaged when the Persians conquered Egypt in 343 bc before it was ritually buried in a temple complex dedicated to the worship of the sacred Apis bull. Its adventures were not over, though: after almost two millennia, the head was excavated by August Mariette, a founding figure in French Egyptology, under a permit from the Ottoman Pasha. Returned to France as part of a collection of antiquities assembled for the inimitable Bonaparte prince known as Plon-Plon, it found a home in his faux Pompeian palace. After disappearing again, it resurfaced in the personal collection of Edward Perry Warren, a turn-of-the-twentieth-century American aesthete, who sold it to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Along the way, this compelling and mysterious sculpture, known worldwide as the Boston Green Head, has reflected the West's evolving understanding of Egyptian art - from initial assertions that it was too refined to be the product of a lesser civilization, to recognition of the sophistication of the culture that produced it.