History of Art – Chapter 9 – Islamic Art
·
Early 7th Century.
·
Islamic art resulted from the clash of old
cultures with the new religion.
·
It reflects the consistencies and contradictions
of the society and culture that give it life.
o
In includes elements of religious art, but also
o
Secular elements and
o
Elements frowned upon.
·
*** Reverence for the word is a unifying theme
among all types of Islamic art.
o
Reflected in the art of beautiful writing.
o
The development of artistic expression
independent of the human figure.
§
Figural sculpture and painting go out the door.
·
No idolatry with figurative representations
§
Focus on ceramics, metalware, weaving and
carving.
§
Decorative art takes on the notions of fine art.
·
Formation of Islamic art.
o
Appropriations from Graeco-Roman, Byzantine
Christian and Sassanian.
§
Molded into a new synthesis to serve the needs
of the new Islamic religion and political goals.
o
The new religion required art and architecture
for:
§
Memorialized great leaders.
§
Holy men
§
Historic events.
§
All of which helped form a unique and emblematic
style of the faith.
o
Architecture – many architects were recent
converts from Christianity.
§
They used their Christian training to build
Islamic buildings.
·
Important Themes
§
*** Arabic scripts, repeating geometric motifs,
and highly stylized vegetal and floral elements would form a distinctive
Islamic repertoire of decoration.
§
*** Scrolling vines, leaves and flowers
distantly based on nature, and a range of repeating geometric patterns.
§
Jewels and jeweled objects as symbols of
royalty.
§
Islam saw itself as the culmination of
Christianity and Judaism.
·
Mosques were formed for prayer to god, without
the intercession of the clergy.
No comments:
Post a Comment