The visual arts of Islam

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

The art of Islam is a type of artistic creation, mainly in countries where Islam has become the state religion. In its main features, it was formed during the Middle Ages. It was then that the Arab countries and regions where Islam was brought made a huge contribution to the treasury of world civilization. The special attraction of Islamic art, its originality and traditions could make it go beyond time and space and become part of the common heritage.

History

Islamic culture emerged as a phenomenon in the seventh century AD. But the principles of this religion, set forth by its theologians, and mainly based on the interpretation of the Torah, forbade the depiction of living beings. Even more severe rules concerned the impossibility of embodying God (Allah) in painting or sculpture. Therefore, when this religion spread from the Arabian deserts to the east, as far as India, and collided with local cultures, it initially treated them with hostility. Firstly,Islam considered the art of other countries to be pagan, and, secondly, images of various deities, people and animals dominated there. But over time, Muslim culture nevertheless absorbed some of the principles of art, reworked them and created its own styles and rules. This is how the visual arts of Islam arose. In addition, just as Muslim theology in each region has its own characteristics, so culture has become dependent on the country and its traditions.

Characteristic features of the fine arts of Islam

First of all, the canon of this culture was developed in architecture and ornamentation. It was based on the traditions of Byzantine, Egyptian, as well as Persian art of the pre-Islamic period. In some countries, the ban on the image of people and animals was very ephemeral, as, for example, in Iran. Later, Islamic painting and plastic art forms emerged. Muslim culture is characterized by the construction of buildings with large domes, great attention paid to interior paintings, mosaics and interiors, rather than external appearance, bright and rich colors, symmetry, the presence of arabesques and the so-called muqarnas. These are vaults in the form of honeycombs, with numerous depressions and depressions.

Varieties

Islamic art has received its greatest development in the field of architecture. Not only religious buildings, such as mosques or madrasahs, but also secular buildings were built in this style. One of the most important types of this art is calligraphy, which has left usrich heritage of ornamental compositions. In Iran and Muslim India, such rare types of Islamic fine arts as painting and miniature became widespread. And in almost all countries where this religion was practiced, such popular applied types of creativity as carpet weaving and ceramics production were developed.

Architecture

It is customary to distinguish such main types of Islamic art in this area - the Egyptian style, Tatar, Mauritanian and Ottoman. The remaining types of architecture are considered secondary or derived from the main ones. Muslims developed their own rules for building and decorating buildings when Islam became the state religion in different countries, the number of worshipers increased, and mosques had to be built for their meetings. Initially, the architects proceeded from functional needs. That is, the mosque needed a hall where people gather, a mihrab (a niche facing Mecca), a minbar (pulpit), a courtyard with galleries, a pond for ritual ablutions, and minarets from where calls to prayer sound. The first such temples include the Dome of the Rock (Jerusalem, seventh century AD). At its core, it has an octagon and stands in the middle of a courtyard with galleries. In addition to mosques and religious schools - madrasahs - different public buildings have specific Muslim features. These are mainly caravanserais (inns), hammams (baths), covered bazaars.

Countries and regions

The art of Islam found its development in the Egyptian style of architecture. An examplethe mosques of Ibn Tulun (ninth century) and Sultan Hassan (14th century) in Cairo can serve. These temples give the impression of power, have an impressive size. They are covered with bizarre mosaic inscriptions, and their walls are decorated with arabesques, that is, stylized geometric and floral elements. Such repetitive decorations, filling all the voids, symbolized the reasoning of Islamic theologians about the endless "fabric of the Universe." The vaults in the mosques are dome-shaped, and they are based on columns in the form of stalactites. As a typical example of Iranian and Central Asian architecture, the mausoleum of the Samadin dynasty in Bukhara is cited. In Muslim Persia, they mainly liked to use tiles in the form of stars and crosses in the construction of buildings, from which various compositions were laid out.

Moorish style

The fine arts of Islam, like its architecture, reached their peak during the reign of the Arabs in Spain. Its most striking manifestation can be called the palace of the rulers of the Alhambra in Granada. This luxurious building with many richly decorated rooms and halls is surrounded by a wall with towers and fortresses. The so-called Myrtle Yard with a colonnade deserves special attention. From it you can go to the hall of the Messengers, covered with a dome. According to legend, the rulers of Granada received representatives of other countries there. Another well-known court is the Lion's. It is named so because the fountain, which is in the middle, is supported by 12 sculptures depicting these animals. There are many in the palaceother halls - Two sisters, Judicial - decorated with luxurious mosaics of rooms and chambers with balconies, porticos. The buildings of the Alhambra are located among gardens and flower beds. The Great Mosque in Cordoba (Mesquita) was built in the same style.

India

Features of Islamic art are perfectly embodied in such a masterpiece of Muslim architecture as the Taj Mahal. This is a late work. It belongs to the seventeenth century and was built by order of the ruler of the Islamic Mughal dynasty in India, Shah Jihan the First. In plan, this building has a cut square with a dome at the top, standing on an artificial marble platform. There are minarets at the corners of the building. The mausoleum is built of white marble and pink sandstone and decorated with precious stones. The building is also ornamented with golden inscriptions on a black background. Therefore, it effectively stands out in the middle of the sky and greenery. Inside, it has a rich interior decorated with ornaments of gold, silver and jewel mosaics.

Turkey

The art of Islamic countries is adequately represented in this country as well. In the beginning, the Turks built their mosques in the same way as the Arabs. But from the fifteenth century, after the conquest of Byzantium, their art was greatly influenced by the architecture of the empire they captured. Following the type of local temples, they began to build rectangular mosques, with many domes and adjacent buildings, as well as an inner courtyard - aivan. Turkish architecture reached its peak during the Ottoman era, especially in the work of Sinan. This architect designed and built a huge number of mosques, buthe personally singled out three in particular: two in Istanbul (Shahzade and Suleymaniye), and one in Edirne (Selimiye). These structures are distinguished by their exquisite minarets, huge domes and lancet arches.

Calligraphy

The fine arts of Islam has such an important branch as Muslim applied painting. It developed from the artistic copying of the Koran - the sacred Book. Then it began to be used to decorate mosques. This letter was called Arabic script or "Kufic", because it was believed that it comes from this Iraqi city. In various Islamic countries, calligraphy was brought to the highest degree of perfection. The master of this letter was at the same time a stylist, mathematician and artist. Types of calligraphy in Muslim countries have even been canonized. In the XV-XVII centuries, a new type of writing appeared - the so-called kita, where a whole picture was created in the authorized handwriting of one or several types. The artist's tool was a reed pen (kalam), the very method of sharpening of which determined the style. The calligrapher had to demonstrate his exquisite taste not only by the ability to gracefully draw Arabic script, but also by knowledge of spatial geometry, as well as mastery of the art of ornament - geometric, floral, zoo- or anthropomorphic.

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Features of the fine arts of Islam also lie in the fact that this religion does not allow the anthropomorphism of God. Therefore, artistic creativity was excluded from the sacred realm and remained only in the secularculture. But its distribution depended on different countries. There is no direct ban on the depiction of people and animals in the Koran, but in hadiths - Islamic traditions - there are such censures. Basically, painting was distributed as a decoration for luxury goods and book illustrations - miniatures. Basically, it flourished in Iran, Central Asia and the Indian Mughal Empire. The Persian miniature is based on the wall paintings of this country from the pre-Islamic period. It developed from book illustrations, but Iranian artists quickly turned it into an independent genre. They developed an excellent painting system in which color, form, composition and expression were combined to create one whole. Persian artists deliberately used a planar type of image, rather than three-dimensional. The heroes of this painting, as a rule, are idealized and live in a beautiful world. The shah's libraries, or kitabhanes, most often served as workshops for miniatures. Since the eighteenth century, Iranian painting has been strongly influenced by European techniques and traditions.

Applied arts: ceramics and weaving

These industries have been developed in Iran, Azerbaijan, Central Asia, Turkey. Architectural ceramics were especially famous. It could be patterned brickwork or carved terracotta. But the most famous was the facing of buildings with the help of multi-colored painted majolica. It is she who gives such chic and brilliance to oriental palaces. As for painting dishes, herebans on the use of silver and gold for household needs played a role. However, Islamic craftsmen tried to make clay vessels shine and shine. To do this, they began to make lead glaze, and also tried to create something similar to Chinese porcelain. This is how white enamel was invented for coating dishes, as well as the effects of gold and silver in glaze. The most ancient carpets were found in Egypt. They belong to the ninth century. Carpet weaving originated from the manufacture of prayer mats. There were two types of this art - ornamental, where patterns and geometric figures were intertwined, and pictorial, with scenes of hunting, battles and landscapes. The latter type is less common. The bright and fluffy Persian carpets and the special technique of Turkish masters won the greatest fame.

The Meaning of the Art of Islam

Despite the fact that we are talking about the cultural characteristics of a particular religion, the meaning of this term extends to secular life. In the Muslim world, painting, architecture, and other forms of art reflect people's perception of spirituality, values, and their surroundings. The main feature of this culture is the desire for beauty, which is a sign of divinity. Geometric shapes and ornaments seem to reveal the ciphers of the language of the universe, and repeating patterns testify to its infinity. Applied art tries to make everyday things beautiful. The culture of Islam has had a huge impact on the development of Western Europe since the Middle Ages.