The second stage of the journey towards the great autumn exhibition dedicated to the art of the countries between the Far East and Central Asia up to the shores of the Mediterranean is an exhibition project dedicated to the most refined Islamic metal art objects entitled Sovereign Metals. The feast, the hunt and the firmament in medieval Islam and represents the first collaboration between the Museum of Oriental Art and The Aron Collection.

The exhibition, which follows Luster and luxury from Islamic Spain inside the Islamic gallery of the MAO, presents a targeted selection of the main types of objects of Islamic metalwork (perfume burners, pen holders, candlesticks, trays, basins, cups, perfume bottles) which, together with the

miniature, can be considered among the highest expressions of Islamic artistic creativity. A creativity that from Persia spread throughout the world like a language, reaching India and China in the East and reaching the slopes of the Atlas in the West. Fruit of admiration and imitation, it also reached Europe, demonstrating how political and religious frontiers did not correspond at all to those of aesthetic perception.

What were the artisans' favorite subjects to decorate these precious metal objects? Without a doubt that of hunting, and in particular the iconography of the king on horseback flanked by some animals (often a falcon or a cheetah) and by a slave, who could have been an artist, scientist and musician. Astronomy, which together with astrology, played a central role in the life of sovereigns and influenced their political, military and even romantic choices, was a very common figurative theme with planets, constellations and zodiac signs, but also images linked to prediction of the future; finally the scenes of celebration and banquet, also linked to the literary genre known as Bazm-o-Razm, or "banquet and battle" to indicate how the glories of peace were contrasted in a cyclical manner with the ardor of fighting.

In particular, astrology, with the scenes of court life, and the splendor of royalty managed to escape Islamic iconoclasm in the Middle Ages, becoming the favorite depictions also for objects intended for the flourishing medieval Islamic bourgeoisie which, starting from the 10th century , populates the cities of the Caliphate.