An approach to Islamic art

Posted by RileyMelvinsa on January 29th, 2018

The art called "Islamic" - calligraphy, architecture, decorative arts - is most often differentiated first by the immensity of the space on which extends the Muslim civilization: from Spain to China , passing through sub-Saharan Africa. Then comes the period that has characterized it since the 8th century, when it developed steadily until the 19th century, its art then undergoing perhaps a relative eclipse by the extension, in Arab-Muslim countries, of art says modern, or western.

There is inevitably in his artistic manifestation, crossing diverse societies, places and cultures, a multiplicity of conceptions, forms, materials. Yet there are immediately important constants, a fundamental unit that is not accidental. In the Muslim city, it is expressed in particular by attention paid to certain buildings, religious: mosques, mausoleums and madrasas, but also commercial or sanitary: souk and hammam. 

If we speak of it in the singular because of the unity without monotony which distinguishes it, we also use the plural for the richness of its infinite diversity which depends on the cultures covered, and insofar as it groups together multiple arts and special techniques: the architecture that is often the most commented because the most visible, the calligraphy that carries the meaning, the sculpture of wood, ivory, plaster, the work of ceramics, metals, the ivory, fabrics and carpets, painting ...

The arts of Islam are part of the conception, formerly known in the East as in the West, of art as a body of knowledge and rules for producing in a particular field. They have an instrumental value, are not an end in themselves, do not prioritize aesthetics - even if their works turn out to be authentic works of art. The artist is confused with the craftsman, apart from the differentiation between technique and fine arts, operated in Europe between the fifteenth and eighteenth century, over the course of industrial development. Click Here for more info:- https://www.jrdecal.com/