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Ancient Art
African
Masterpieces of African Art
African Masks
Akan, Asante, Fanti
Bambara
Baule
Benin
Bura
Chokwe
Dan
Dogon
Fang
Hemba, Luba, Shankadi
Igbo
Ife
Kongo
Kuba
Mangbetu
Nok, Katsina, Sokoto
Oceanic
Senufo
Songye
Yoruba
Asian
Masterpieces of Asian Art
Art of Cambodia
Art of India
Art of Indonesia
Art of Myanmar
Art of Nepal
Art of Thailand
Art of Tibet
Gandharan Artifacts
Indus Valley Art
Kushan Art
Biblical
Masterpieces of Biblical Art
Ancient Glass
Bronze Age Artifacts
Iron Age Artifacts
Oil Lamps
Phoenician Artifacts
Roman Period Artifacts
Sabean Artifacts
Byzantine
Masterpieces of Byzantine Art
Byzantine Crosses
Byzantine Glass
Byzantine Metalwork
Byzantine Oil Lamps
Chinese
The art of China has arguably the oldest continuous tradition in the world, and is marked chiefly by an unusual degree of continuity within it. It.spans over 10,500 years, over three main periods, (ancient, Imperial, and modern) and encapsulates almost twenty dynasties. Much of the best work in ceramics, textiles and other media was produced anonymously over a long period by various Imperial factories or workshops. It was used both internally by the court, and distributed abroad on a grand scale to demonstrate the wealth and power of the Emperors. Known for their ability to mold a material into simple and sophisticated objects, whether it is jade, porcelain, or lacquered wood, Chinese art embodies spiritual sensibilities. Both serene and dynamic, quintessential ancient Chinese artifacts like the Tang Horse or the Ming Lokapala universally express an air of bold strength and subtle discernment. And indeed they are just the tip of the ice berg… through countless varieties of color, shape, and form, Chinese Art embodies a spirit of incomparable grace and keen refinement as deep and rich as the people and their renowned history. The Barakat Gallery regularly exhibits one of the largest collections of ancient Chinese Art outside of the…
Masterpieces of Chinese Art
Han Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
Neolithic
Northern Dynasties
Qing Dynasty
Song Dynasty
Sui Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
Warring States Period
Zhou Dynasty
Classical
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world. It is the period in which Greek and Roman society flourished and wielded great influence throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. Conventionally, it is taken to begin with the earliest-recorded Greek poetry of Homer (8th–7th century BC), and continues through the emergence of Christianity and the decline of the Roman Empire (5th century AD). It ends with the dissolution of classical culture at the close of Late Antiquity (AD 300–600). The culture of the ancient Greeks, together with a cross section of influences from the Orient, prevailed throughout classical antiquity as the basis of art, philosophy, society, and educational ideals. These ideals were preserved and imitated by the Romans, and it is this “Greco-Roman” cultural foundation that has been so immensely influential on the language, politics, educational systems, philosophy, science, art, and architecture of the modern world. Out of this sprang the ground-breaking art of the period, with its emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry, and a revolutionary blending of naturalism with idealism. “Classical Art,”…
Masterpieces of Classical Art
Ancient Glass
Canosan Art
Classical Bronzes
Cypriot Art
Greek Art
Greek Pottery
Greek Terracotta Figures
Roman Art
Egyptian
Egyptian art spans three millennia from the Early Dynastic period (c. 3000 BC) to the period of Roman occupied Egypt ending in the first centuries AD. It is generally divided into 5 major periods: Old Kingdom (2700 – 2180BC), Middle Kingdom (2050 – 1650BC), New Kingdom (1550 – 1050BC), Late Period (665 – 330), and Ptolemaic era (330 – 30BC) with smaller groupings or divisions in between representing spans of time in which unified dynastic rule was interrupted. Concentrated largely along the Nile River since the 4th millennia BC, Egyptian civilization, developed a sophisticated culture and system of governance, science, agriculture, art, and architecture that remained unbroken for over 3500 years. Over this time, artists adhered to artistic forms and iconography that were developed during the Old Kingdom, and followed a strict set of principles that resisted foreign influence and internal change for thousands of years. These artistic standards—simple lines, shapes, and flat areas of color combined with the characteristic flat projection of figures with no indication of spatial depth—created a sense of order and balance within a composition. Images and text were intimately interwoven on tomb and temple walls, coffins, stelae, and even statues. However, over the millennia the…
Masterpieces of Egyptian Art
Egyptian Amulets
Egyptian Bronzes
Egyptian Ushabtis
Late Dynastic Period
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom
Predynastic
Ptolemaic Period
Roman Period
Islamic
Art of the Islamic world covers a vast range of objects beyond traditional modes of sculpture and pottery… from ceramics and glass to painting and textile. Influenced by its pre-Islamic territories, along with Roman and Byzantine art, Islamic art flourished at the beginning of the 8th century AD and continued well into the modern period. Notable divisions in style and era come from a variety of dynastic periods and empires, including but not limited to the Umayyad, Abbasid, Ghaznavid, Seljuk, Ottoman, Mughal, and Safavid empires. Islamic Art is perhaps most commonly known for utilizing geometry and line to create highly intricate floral and vegetal pattern designs, referred to as arabesque, which reflect God’s infinite nature. The dizzying depiction of natural elements and complex patterns in place of the generic figure is distinctive to Islamic art and creates a wonderfully unique aesthetic foundation from which a myriad of forms magically spring. Without ever having to literally reference the human form or the figure of God himself, Islamic art generates an aura of divine presence and profound spiritual power in a way no other art form can. Through the utilization of precise line work, unfathomable intricacy, and endless layers of complex elements…
Masterpieces of Islamic Art
Hispano-Moresque
Islamic Ceramics
Islamic Glass
Islamic Jewelry and Amulets
Islamic Metalwork
Islamic Oil Lamps
Near Eastern
The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East. These included Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran, northeastern Syria and Kuwait), ancient Iran (Elam, Media, Parthia and Persia), Anatolia/Asia Minor (Turkey’s Eastern Anatolia Region, Armenia, northwestern Iran, southern Georgia, and western Azerbaijan), the Levant (modern Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Jordan), Cyprus, and the Arabian Peninsula. It begins with the rise of Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, and ends with the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great in the 4th century BC. Within this span of roughly four thousand years, historians generally divide the period into 5 distinct ages: The Chalcolithic (4500 – 3300 BC), the early Bronze Age (3300 – 2000 BC), the middle Bronze Age (2000 – 1550 BC), the Late Bronze Age (1550 – 1200 BC), and the Iron Age (1200 – 500 BC). It is during these massive spans of time that some of the worlds most legendary empires arose and fell including but not limited to the Sumerian, the Babylonian, the Assyrian, the Elamite, the Hittite, and the aforementioned Achaemenid (or Persian Empire). The ancient Near East is generally…
Masterpieces of Near Eastern Art
Achaemenid Art
Aramaic Incantation Bowls
Art of Afghanistan
Assyrian Art
Babylonian Art
Bactrian Art
Bronze Age
Cuneiform Tablets
Elamite Art
Hittite Art
Iron Age
Luristan Art
Parthian Art
Sassanian Art
Scythian Art
Sumerian Art
Urartian Art
Pre-Columbian
Pre-Columbian art refers to the visual arts of indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America before the late 15th century, and the time period marked by Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the Americas. It is often broken up into three distinct periods from Pre-classic (13,000 BC- 200 AD), to Classic (c. 200-900 AD), and Post-Classic (c. 900-1580 AD). It contains art and artifacts created by a wide variety of cultures from the storied Olmec, Maya, and Aztec, to the legendary Inca, Moche, and Guanacoste Nicoya. The Barakat Collection contains masterpieces from each and every one of these civilzations amongest many others and hosts what is perhaps the world’s finest collection of Olmec masks along with hundreds of significant Mayan Cylindrical vessels and Atlantic Watershed region basalt statues. When asked in an interview many years ago “What do you collect these days?” Mr. Barakat resolutely responded with “Pre-Columbian art. It’s a lively kind of art, very human, a vibrant mirror of the cultures that created it. Almost every Pre-Columbian artifact is endowed with a distinct personality, as if it were alive and could speak about where it had been and what it had seen. It is an art that evokes strong…
Masterpieces of Pre-Columbian Art
Aztec Art
Art of Costa Rica
Art of Ecuador
Mayan Art
Mayan Ceramics
Mezcala Art
Olmec Art
Olmec Masks
Art of Panama
Art of Peru
Shaft Tomb Tradition
Taino Art
Teotihuacan Art
Toltec Art
Veracruz Art
Russian Icons
The Russians inherited the tradition of icon painting from Byzantium, where it began as an offshoot of the mosaic and fresco tradition. During the 8th and 9th centuries, the iconoclastic controversy in the Orthodox Church called into question whether religious images were a legitimate practice or sacrilegious idolatry. Although the use of images was in the end permitted, a thorough distinction between profane art intended to depict reality and sacred art designed for spiritual contemplation was established. That difference is one of the reasons that the artistic style of icons can seem so invariant. Certain kinds of balance and harmony became established as reflections of divinity, and as such they invited careful reproduction and subtle refinement rather than striking novelty. Although this philosophy resulted in a comparatively slow evolution of style, icon painting evolved considerably over the centuries. Unlike the pictorial traditions of the west that aspire towards increased realism and naturalism, the essence of Russian icon painting is not about the representation of physical space or appearance. Icons are images intended to aid in contemplative prayer, and in that sense, are more concerned with conveying meditative harmony than with laying out a realistic scene. They were not painted to…
Masterpieces
Icons
Travelling Icons
Decorative
Traditionally the Decorative arts are objects that are designed to work within a space, and because they are essentially created to be functional, they generally do not fall into the ‘Fine Arts’ category of painting, drawing, and sculpture. This distinction between the Decorative arts and the Fine arts most closely applies to Western art whereas in most other cultures the line between the mediums is heavily blurred. Objects for adoration can also be functional and utilitarian objects can also hold their own spiritual meaning. However, for the purposes of our gallery and the Barakat Collection of art, the term “Decorative Arts” applies to anything that is not categorically “ancient.” Thus, in this section you will find all sorts of art from paintings, to furnishings, to sculptures, and pottery which could plausibly be considered fine art under everyday circumstances. But for our purposes, and for ease of viewing, we have taken objects in the collection which do not fall into a distinct tradition of ancient art, and generally come from the 17th century or later and put them into the “Decorative Arts” category. Everything from exquistie Classical Revival marbles, to Faberge style eggs, to decorative replica bronzes from Africa can be…
Masterpieces
Faberge Style Antiques
Glass
Sculpture
Jewelry
It is with great pride and pleasure that we present the Barakat Collection of Jewelry. Each piece is a unique legacy from the past, a little part of History placed in beautiful contemporary settings that transcend time. Jewelry is often thought to be one of Life’s luxuries, but who can imagine the World without it? The love of ornament is as old as civilization itself. Througnout history, men and women have adorned themselves with rare and costly treasures to make a statement about their place in society. Primitive man wore the teeth and claws of wild beasts to prove that he was brave; Cleopatra dissolved a priceless pearl in wine to show her love for Marc Antony; and what few kings and queens remain today still appear on state occasions arrayed in glittering splendor. But the most common and the best reason for wearing jewelry is that it feels good. It enhances our appearance and sets us apart from the crowd. The jewelry we choose helps define us as individuals. When we adorn our necks, ears or hands with precious things we feel better about ourselves, somehow enriched, more self-confident and more attractive. These are internal emotions to be sure,…
Jewelry and Seals
Masterpieces
Cameo Jewelry
Ancient Jewelry
Coin Jewelry
Coin Rings
Coin Necklaces
Coin Pendants
Intaglio Jewelry
Beaded Necklaces
Modern Jewelry
Numismatics
Coins. Reach into any pocket or purse and you’re certain to find a few. They are an integral part of daily life, so ubiquitous that we rarely think about them. Few objects are as universally employed by human culture. Throughout the world, every civilized society uses coins as a medium of exchange. Coins serve as a kind of propaganda, an advertisement for the aims and ambitions of the people who mint them. Values vary, as do shapes and decoration, but the function is always the same. It is rare that a useful invention should have endured with so little alteration in form. In the course of an average day, we might use coins in a dozen different ways: to make a phone call, feed a parking meter, buy a newspaper, or tip a waiter. In antiquity, of course, the main purpose of coinage was to provide equivalent value for goods and services. Comparing a modern coin to an ancient one, very little has changed. Except for the uniformity of the minting process, all the major components – inscriptions, and metals – are similar. New monetary innovations such as paper currency, credit cards, and computer banking have reduced the need for…
Numismatics
Coin Forger’s Dies
Greek Coins
Roman Coins
Byzantine Coins
Jewish Coins
Selections
New Arrivals
Under $1000
Under $5000
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Jan 05, 2016
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The Incomparable Barakat Collection: Treasures of Vanished Civilizations.
By W.H. Bowart
BEVERLY HILLS & THE WESTSIDE, SEPTEMBER, PALM SPRINGS LIFE, 1986 / 1987
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Collecting Guide: Ancient Marbles
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Masterpieces of Chinese Art in The Barakat Collection
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