The Pisa Griffin and the Mari-Cha Lion

Professor Anna Contadini graduated in Arabic and Islamic Art at the Oriental Institute of Venice University with a thesis on miniature painting of the Mamluk period. She also has a great interest in music and has received a Diploma in piano as a soloist from the Conservatorio ‘Benedetto Marcello’ in Venice. Subsequently she completed her doctorate in Islamic Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) of London University with a thesis on early Arab and Persian miniature painting. She was then appointed Baring Foundation Research Fellow in Islamic Studies at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, where she was based in the Research Department. She conducted research on a range of objects drawn from the splendid Islamic collection of the Museum, but concentrated on the Fatimid material, on which she then wrote a book, published in 1998. From 1994-7 she was in Ireland, as Lecturer in Islamic Art at Trinity College Dublin, and Curator of the Islamic Collections of the Chester Beatty Library. Anna Contadini is now Professor in the History of Islamic Art.

Professor Contadini is the SOAS representative for the Illuminating Objects programme of The Courtauld Gallery which aims to shine new light on unexpected objects from the decorative arts and sculpture collections, through partnerships with SOAS, King’s College, London, the University of Kent in Canterbury and University College, London. See https://www.soas.ac.uk/art/phdstudents/soas-phd-internship-for-illuminating-objects-at-the-courtauld/