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Description:
A Persian Carpet, 10'2" x 7'. Red ground with blue and brown. The Arab conquest in the 7th century AD and, in the 8th century, Muslim expansion into India and Spain had profound influence on the decorative arts throughout the known world, especially as most of the long-distance trading routes passed through Arab lands. The skills of the conquerors fused with the traditional skills of their subject peoples, and because Islam forbade the portrayal of human or animal form, whether for religious or artistic purposes, and encouraged the incorporation of Qur'anic texts into design, religion played a considerable and direct part in the development of design. As with nearly every other society, the finest and most lasting buildings were of a religious nature, and, unfortunately, few domestic dwellings have survived. Architectural quality and form were subordinated to intricate and richly coloured surface decoration. Perhaps the finest results were achieved in Persia, where a high level of technical ability already existed in combination with great lyrical sensitivity. There the principal decorative features were the ceramic tiles and tile mosaics that encrusted floors, walls, roofs, and domes both inside and out. The mosques of Isfahan, Meshed, and Tabriz, ranging in date from the 13th to the early 17th centuries, demonstrate a completely satisfactory use of colour in architecture. Lustred tiles with a combination of floral and geometric design date from the 10th and 11th centuries, and naturalistic flowers frequently give a gardenlike effect to the tile decoration. Iris, rose, carnation, tulip, pomegranate, pine, and date are depicted, always with delicately interlacing stems, and contained within plain or patterned borders. Blues of all shades, from turquoise to a deep ultramarine, are characteristic. Patterns for tilework and patterns for the Persian carpets are frequently interchangeable. Carpet designers soon managed to circumvent the Muslim ban on the use of animal forms: lions, deer, leopards, ornamental birds, and, occasionally, even mounted huntsmen were depicted, the figures always judiciously placed to give the maximum decorative effect. Artistic achievement reached its peak under Shah Abbas I (AD 1588–1629), but well before this time Persian carpets, silks, and pottery were known and valued among Europeans, as they still are in the 20th century. In Egypt and Sicily one of the results of Muslim domination was the introduction of a high degree of ornamentation on wall surfaces, once again principally by means of vividly coloured ceramic tiles. The patterns are more solid than those of Persia, filling up the areas between the containing arabesques and with less open backgrounds. Moorish design in Spain shows even more complex interlacing geometrical framework, which is filled in with formalized leaves, flowers, or calligraphic inscriptions. Ceilings and the upper parts of walls were modelled in flat relief with coloured and gilded arabesques, while the lower wall areas were tiled. The decoration was partly hand chiselled and partly molded. Such decorations may be seen in the Alhambra, built at Granada in the 15th century, a pleasure palace whose arcaded courts and halls are embellished with stuccoed decoration in honeycombed ceilings, stalactite vaults and capitals, tiers of horseshoe-shaped or stalactite-fringed arches, and pierced or latticed windows. In the mosques of Turkey, walls were veneered with marble, and ceramic tiling was introduced only in small areas. Colours, too, are less exuberant in the large mosques, where a sense of space rather than of overwhelming decoration is preeminent. Domestic buildings were largely of wood, looking inward to secluded courtyards and gardens, but with elaborately latticed windows projecting at upper-floor level over the street. As in most other Islamic countries, the wealthy furnished their houses with velvet and silk hangings, couches, and innumerable cushions.
| Status: For Sale |
Reference#: 368366_ |
| Condition:
See Description |
Year:
See Description
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