In Conversation: Salman Rushdie and The Enchantress of Florence. October 6, 2009

In Conversation: Salman Rushdie and The Enchantress of Florence
Sir Salman Rushdie, award-winning author of ten novels, a Fellow of the British Royal Society of Literature, and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In June 2007 he was knighted for services to literature.

Carmen Bambach, Curator of Drawings and Prints.

Navina Haidar Haykel, Associate Curator of Islamic Art.

David Roxburgh, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History, Harvard University.

Salman Rushdie’s novel The Enchantress of Florence brings together Renaissance Italy, Mughal India, and the cultures that lie between in a tale that has been described as a “sumptuous mixture of history and fable.” The book combines imaginative stories with meticulously researched historical detail, referring widely to works of art of the period. Artists and their creations—from gilded manuscript pages to monumental architecture—form a key to the central themes of the book. In evoking them, Enchantress brings the world of the art historian alive.

Rushdie will talk with curators and art historians to explore the aspects of the novel that deal with the visual arts, culture, and historical setting of the period.

Official Website: http://www.metmuseum.org/tickets