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Although the concept of "Islamic art" has been put into question by some modern art historians as a construct of Western cultural views, [9] [10] [11] the similarities between art produced at widely different times and places in the Muslim world, especially in the Islamic Golden Age, have been sufficient to keep the term in wide use as a useful ...
Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World shows audiences nine countries (Egypt, Israel, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Iran, Spain, [8] Mali and India) and over 1,400 years of history. It presents the stories behind many well-known works of Islamic Art and Architecture.
For centuries, the art of writing has fulfilled a central iconographic function in Islamic art. [9] Although the academic tradition of Islamic calligraphy began in Baghdad, the centre of the Islamic empire during much of its early history, it eventually spread as far as India and Spain. Coins were another support for calligraphy.
Islamic art includes a wide variety of media including calligraphy, illustrated manuscripts, textiles, ceramics, metalwork, and glass, and because the Islamic world encompassed people of diverse religious backgrounds, artists and craftsmen were not always Muslim, and came from a wide variety of different backgrounds.
Islamic calligraphy has also displayed figurative themes. Examples of this are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic calligrams. [40] Islamic calligraphy forms evolved, especially in the Ottoman period, to fulfill a function similar to figurative art. [41] When on paper, Islamic calligraphy is often seen with elaborate frames of Ottoman illumination. [41]
Islam appeared in western Arabia in the 7th century AD through revelations delivered to the prophet Muhammad in Mecca. Within a century of Muhammad's death the Islamic empires controlled the Middle East, Spain and parts of Asia and Africa. Because of this, similarly with Roman art, Islamic art and architecture had regional versions. As the ...
[7] [8] In Islamic culture, the patterns are believed to be the bridge to the spiritual realm, the instrument to purify the mind and the soul. [9] David Wade [b] states that "Much of the art of Islam, whether in architecture, ceramics, textiles or books, is the art of decoration – which is to say, of transformation."
Islamic art began with artists and craftsmen mostly trained in Byzantine styles, and though figurative content was greatly reduced, Byzantine decorative styles remained a great influence on Islamic art, and Byzantine artists continued to be imported for important works for some time, especially for mosaics.