islamic art. founding of islam what is islamic art? western art historians have used this term to...
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What is Islamic Art?
• Western art historians have used this term to describe the variety of visual culture (ie. things we can see) created in the regions of the world that have at some time come under Muslim rule.
• Regions include (but are not limited to): Spain, India, Persia, the Middle East, North Africa, Mongolia, Afghanistan
Complexity and Balance
• The beauty and complexity of artistic achievement is meant to reflect the beauty and wonder of the world
• Common myth is that no animals or humans appear in Islamic art; in fact, in some periods and areas we see both of these things
High Points of Islamic Art:
• 8th to 10th centuries are renowned as a golden age for Islamic culture – especially in wealthy Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid caliphate
• Another highlight was the rule of the three greatest Mughal emperors, Akbar (1556-1605), Jahangir (1605-27) and Shah Jahan (1628-58) – in India
• Ottoman empire in present-day Turkey
Different regions and time periods
• Ummayad Caliphate – built Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem• Islamic Empires in Spain – invaded by the Ummayads -
(709 – 1614)• Mamluk Sultanate – capital was Cairo - (1250–1517) • Ilkhanid period- invasion of middle east by Mongols (late
13th century)• Abbasid Caliphate (Persia) – ca. 8th century to 1200,
followed by the Timurid and Safavid periods• Mughal Empire (northern India, Afghanistan, Pakistan)
1482 – 1867• Ottoman Empire (Turkey 1299 – 1908) – height of
Ottoman Empire was 1500-1700
Traditions in Islamic Art
• Three main branches of Islamic art:– Calligraphy and the art of the book – Vegetal Patterns (plants)– Geometric patterns
– -> These branches occur in all media: books, ceramics, glass, textiles, wood, architecture, metalwork, painting, etc.
Calligraphy in Islamic Art
• Calligraphy is the most highly regarded and most fundamental element of Islamic art.
• The Qur’an was transmitted in Arabic – the Arabic script has the potential for developing a variety of ornamental forms
• The practice of copying the sacred text of the Qur’an dates from the mid-7th century
• Scribes copied the words of the Qur’an in ever-increasing complexity
Early Calligraphy
Bowl in Chinese style, Abbasid Period, 10th century Iraq – one of the first examples using calligraphy as the main decoration
Kufic script
Bowl, 10th century Nishapur (Iran) or Samarkand (Uzbekistan) – use of Kufic script to enhance the shape
Mamluk Qur’ans
• The Art of producing illustrated manuscripts reached a new height in the 13th century under the Mamluks
The art of the book – manuscript painting
• Artists and craftsmen throughout the Islamic world produced beautiful illustrated books to show important stories and histories of various dynasties, sultanates and caliphates
Ilkhanid manuscripts
• In the late 13th century, the Mongol kings converted to Islam and conquered much of what is now Iran and Iraq, as well as places in between.
• They wished to show that they were equal and culturally legitimate in the Islamic world, and did this by ordering the creation of a World History and the Book of Kings
Mongol Ruler, Ghazan, studying the Qur’an, an illustration from Rashid-ad-Din's Gami' at-tawarih. Tabriz , 14th cenury
Ilkahnid manuscripts
Nushirvan Eating food, 1330s
Buzurgmihr Masters the Game of Chess- Folio from the Shahnama (Book of Kings), ca. 1300–1330
Persian Miniature Painting
Persians continued to develop the Very sophisticated art of illustration
Mostly during the Timurid and Safavid periods
The most famous artist was Behzad or Bihzad, who worked in the late15th century in Herat (now in NorthernAfghanistan)
Illustrations of daily life, of rulers, of well-known stories, etc.
Iskhandar Sultan consults the wise man in the cave, 1550s
Mughal miniature painting
• the great emperors of the Mughal empire (16th - 19th centuries) in India -- Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan – all encouraged the production of these detailed paintings
• More interest in realism (note especially in the plants)
Mughal miniature painting
Prince Khurram (Shah Jahan) with His Son Dara Shikoh: Leaf from the Shah Jahan Album, Mughal, period of Jahangir (1605–27), ca. 1620
Geometry
• The wonder of creation is reflected in the increasing complexity of patterns
• Islamic civilizations between the 8th and 15th centuries fostered great developments in mathematics, philosophy, science
• After the late 8th century, Euclid’s Elements had been translated into Arabic and had a great influence on Islamic mathematics
• While geometric ornamentation may have reached a pinnacle in the Islamic world, the sources for both the shapes and the intricate patterns already existed in late antiquity among the Greeks, Romans, and Sasanians in Iran. Islamic artists appropriated key elements from the classical tradition, then complicated and elaborated upon them in order to invent a new form of decoration that stressed the importance of unity and order.
• The four basic shapes, or "repeat units," from which the more complicated patterns are constructed are: circles and interlaced circles; squares or four-sided polygons; the ubiquitous star pattern, ultimately derived from squares and triangles inscribed in a circle; and multisided polygons.
Mamluk geometry
• The Mamluk period lasted from 1250-1517• Greatest empire of Medieval Islam, centred in
Cairo• Mamluk sultans built countless mosques,
palaces, madrasas, filled with complex geometric patterning
• known for geometric domes
Vegetal Patterns
• Vegetal patterns include all patterns inspired by plants and flowers
• Inspired by motifs from earlier civilizations (Byzantine Empire), patterns increased in complexity
• Ottoman and Mughal Empire saw the most sophisticated vegetal patterns
Ottoman Empire – Iznik Pottery
Vegetal patterns reached their height under the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent