Moroccan-Dutch writer and TV presenter Abdelkader Benali highlights the love the West harbored for the East in the 1840s to 1940s in 3 master classes.
In this final master class: the traces left by the influence of the Orient in history.
Thu May 11, 2023, 20:15
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22:00
Master class Abdelkader Benali
In love with the East: History
- Platform C
- Zonnesteinzaal
When
Thu May 11, 2023, 20:15
-
22:00
Where
-
Platform C
Stadsplein 99
Amstelveen
- Zonnesteinzaal
For whom
Buy tickets
Single ticket: €19.50 (including service fee)
In love with the East
Between 1840 and 1940, the cultures of the Orient find their way into the hearts and minds of European artists. What connects French painter Delacroix, the master of Romanticism, poet Goethe, writer Louis Couperus and dancer Mata Hari? The love of the East. We can hardly imagine it but a hundred years ago the West was in love with the East. The stories of One Thousand and One Nights, the images of Tangier, Constantinople and Cairo, excavations in Syria, translations from Arabic and Persian, musicians from India descending on Holland - it all found its way into artistic expressions. Benali recounts Louis Couperus' trip to Granada, where he fell in love with the last Islamic ruler Boabdil and immortalized it in his novel "The Unfortunate"; Benali explains why Goethe was so impressed by Islam that he taught himself Arabic in order to read the Koran, and takes you to Tangier where the painter Delacroix stumbled upon a world that amazed him and inspired great romantic works. Furthermore, Benali explains how it was that a collection of drinking songs by a Persian mystic, Omar Khayyam, would become the best-selling book around 1900.
Note: this master class was originally scheduled for Thursday, March 30, 2023.
