How Was Islamic Art Similar or Different From Its Established Contemporary Art?

Islamic Art
History, Characteristics of Muslim Visual Arts, Architecture of Islam, Calligraphy, Ceramics.
Master A-Z Index

Islamic Calligraphic Ornamentation
(15th-century) from Samarkand.
Ceramic earthenware console with
moulded decoration under a
turquoise glaze. Part of Timurid
culture (1336-1405).

Islamic Fine art (c.622-1900)

Contents

• Brief Definition of Islamic Art
• Main Elements of Islamic Art
• Influence of the Organized religion of Islam on Civilization
• Islamic Decoration
• History of Islamic Art
- Umayyad Art (661-750)
- Abbasid Art (750-1258)
- Umayyad Art in Spain
- Fatimid Art in Egypt (909-1171)
- Seljuk Art in Iran and Anatolia (Turkey)
- Mongol Art (c.1220-1360)
- Mamluk Fine art in Syria and Egypt (1250-1517)
- Nasrid Art in Spain (1232-1492)
- Timurid Menstruation (c.1360-1500)
- Ottoman Fine art (c.1400-1900)
- Safavid Art in Iran (c.1502-1736)
- Mughal Islamic Art in India

• For the earth's top centres and libraries of Islamic heritage and culture,
see: Museums of Islamic Art.

ISLAMIC ART WORLD
The civilisation of Islam embraces
1.5 billion people, across nearly
all continents. Influenced importantly
by Arab, Persian and Turkish
traditions, Islamic visual arts
have e'er played an of import
role in Muslim society and are
significantly influenced by the
organized religion of Islam. Traditional
Islamic fine art forms include:
architecture, painting, ceramic
tiles/pottery, lustre-ware and
calligraphy, among many others.

Islamic Abstruse Mosaic Art
Tens of thousands of private tiles
make up the geometric Arabesque tiling
on the dome of the Tomb of Hafez in
Shiraz. These intricate mosaic patterns
are known every bit Girih, and can be seen
in Muslim cultures around the world.

Islamic Book Painting
Folio from the Hamzanama: 'The Spy
Zambur Brings Mahiya to Tawariq'
(c.1570) Metropolitian Museum of Fine art NY.

Brief Definition and Pregnant

The phrase "Islamic art" is an umbrella term for post-7th century visual arts, created past Muslim and non-Muslim artists inside the territories occupied past the people and cultures of Islam. It embraces art forms such as architecture, architectural decoration, ceramic art, faience mosaics, lustre-ware, relief sculpture, wood and ivory carving, friezes, drawing, painting, calligraphy, book-gilding, manuscript illumination, lacquer-painted bookbinding, fabric design, metalworking, goldsmithery, gemstone carving, among others. Historically, Islamic fine art has developed from a wide variety of different sources. Information technology includes elements from Greek and early Christian fine art which information technology combines with the bang-up Center Eastern cultures of Arab republic of egypt, Byzantium, and ancient Persia, along with far eastern cultures of Bharat and China.

Main Elements Of Islamic Art

Islamic Art is not the art of a item state or a particular people. It is the art of a culture formed by a combination of historical circumstances; the conquest of the Ancient World by the Arabs, the inforced unification of a vast territory under the banner of Islam, a territory which was in turn invaded past various groups of conflicting peoples. From the start, the direction of Islamic Art was largely determined past political structures which cut across geographical and sociological boundaries.

The complex nature of Islamic Art adult on the basis of Pre-Islamic traditions in the diverse countries conquered, and a closely integrated alloy of Arab, Turkish and Western farsi traditions brought together in all parts of the new Muslim/Moslem Empire.

WORLD CULTURES
For data and facts nigh
visual arts from around the world:
African Art
Celtic
Chinese Fine art
Chinese Painters
Chinese Pottery
Egyptian Art
Greek Art
Japanese Art
India: Painting & Sculpture
Oceanic Fine art
Western farsi Fine art
Roman Art
Tribal Fine art

MEANING OF Fine art
See: Meaning/Definition of Art

Arab Influence

The Arab element is probably at all times the nearly important. Information technology contributed the basis for the development of Islamic Art with the message of Islam, the language of its Holy Book, the Koran (Qur'an) and the Arabic form of writing. This terminal became the most of import single feature of all Islamic Art leading to the development of an infinite variety of abstract ornament and an entire system of linear brainchild that is peculiar to all forms of Islamic Fine art and can, in all it'southward manifastations, in ane way or some other be traced back to Arabic orgins. The Arabs were deeply interested in mathematics and astronomy and furthering the noesis they had inherited from the Romans. They applied this knowledge of geometric principles and an innate sense of rhythm (which also characterizes their poetry and music) to the formulation of the circuitous repeat patterns seen in all Islamic decoration.

MUSEUMS OF ISLAMIC Civilisation
Iv excellent centres of Muslim
art include the Louvre, the
Chester Beattie Library, Dublin,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art NY
and the Victoria and Albert Museum.

HISTORY OF VISUAL ARTS
For important dates, see:
History of Fine art Timeline.
For more than details, come across:
History of Fine art.

QUESTIONS ABOUT ART
Fine art Questions
Methods, Genres, Forms.
Questions About History of Fine art
Movements, periods, styles.

VISUAL ARTS CATEGORIES
Definitions, forms, styles, genres,
periods, see: Types of Art.

Turkish Influence

The Turkish chemical element in Islamic Art consists mainly of an ethnic concept of abstraction that the Turkish peoples of Central Asia practical to any civilisation and fine art grade that they met with on their long journey from 'Innermost Asia' to Egypt. They brought an of import tradition of both figurative and non-figurative design from Eastern to Western Asia, creating an unmistakable Turkish iconography. The importance of the Turkish element in Islamic culture can perchance all-time exist appreciated if 1 realizes that the larger office of the Islamic World was ruled past Turkish peoples from the 10th to the 19th century. The Art of the Islamic World owes a slap-up deal to the dominion of these Turkish Dynasties, and the influence of Turkish idea, taste and tradition on the Art of Islam in general can inappreciably exist overestimated.

Persian Influence

The Persian chemical element in Islamic Art is maybe most difficult to ascertain; information technology seems to consist of a especially lyrical poetical attitude, a metaphysical trend which in the realm of emotional and religious experience leads to an extraordinary flowering of mysticism. The major schools of Muslim painting adult in Iran on the basis of Farsi literature. Non merely an unabridged iconography only also a specific imaginary, abstract-poetical in information technology's realization, was created in Iran in the afterwards office of the 14th and 15th century, that is without parallel in any other part of the Muslim/Moslem World. The same attitude that creates in the field of painting an art grade of the greatest beauty simply of complete fantasy and unreality enters into architecture, creating forms of decoration that seem to negate the very nature of compages and the basic principles of weight and stress, of relief and support, fusing all elements into a unity of fantastic unreality, a floating world of imagination.

Even though these 3 elements of Islamic culture are at times clearly definable and dissever and each contributes more than or less as to the development of Islamic Art, in well-nigh periods they are so closely interwoven and integrated that ane cannot oftentimes clearly distinguish betwixt them. All the regions of the Muslim World share a great many central artistic features that depict the whole vast territory together in a super-national, super-ethnic and super-geographical unity which is paralled in the history of human culture merely past the similiar domination of the Ancient World by Rome.

Influence of the Religion of Islam on Islamic Fine art

Of all elements in Islamic Art the well-nigh important, undoubtedly, is organized religion. The multitude of small empires and kingdoms that had adopted Islam felt - in spite of racial prides and jealousies - first and foremost Muslim and not Arab, Turkish or Western farsi. They all knew, spoke and wrote some Arabic, the language of the Koran (Qur'an). They all assembled in the Mosque the religious edifice that, with minor alternations, was of the aforementioned pattern throughout the Muslim Globe, and they all faced Mecca, the centre of Islam, symbolized past The Kaaba (Quabba), a pre-Muslim sanctuary adopted by Muhammad equally the point towards which each Muslim should plow in prayer. In every prayer hall there was a focal or Kibla wall, which faced Mecca with a cardinal niche, the Mihrab. All Muslims shared the basic conventionalities in Muhammad'south message: the recognization of the across-the-board power and accented superiority of The One God (Allah). The creed of all Muslims reads akin; "There is no god but God (Allah) and Muhammad is his Prophet." In all Muslims of every race and country there is the same feeling of being equal in the face of Allah on the day of sentence.

The Infinite Pattern in Islamic Art

The experience of the infinite on the one paw, with the worthlessness of the transient earthly being of human on the other is known to all Muslims and forms part of all Muslim Art. Information technology finds dissimilar but basically related expression. The most fundamental is the creation of the infinite pattern that appears in a fully adult form very early on on and is a major chemical element of Islamic Fine art in all periods. The infinite continuation of a given pattern, whether abstract, semi-abstract or fifty-fifty partly figurative, is on the one mitt the expression of a profound belief in the eternity of all true beingness and on the other a condone for temporary being. In making visible but part of a pattern that exists in its complete class only in infinity, the Islam Creative person related the static, limited, seemingly definite object to infinity itself.

An Arabesque design, based on an space leaf-scroll pattern that, by division of elements (stem, foliage, flower) generates new variations of the aforementioned original elements, is in itself the perfect application of the principle of Islam pattern and tin can be applied to any given surface, the comprehend of a small metal box or the glazed curve of a momumental dome. Both the small-scale box and the huge dome of a Mosque are regarded in the aforementioned manner, differing only in grade, not in quality. With this possibility of giving equal value to everything that exists or bringing to one level of beingness everything within the realm of the visual arts, a basis for a unity of style is provided that transcends the limits of period or country.

Decoration of Surfaces Dissolves Matter

One of the nearly key principles of the Islamic manner deriving from the aforementioned basic idea is the dissolution of matter. The idea of transformation, therefore, is of utmost importance. The decoration of surfaces of any kind in any medium with the space blueprint serves the same purpose - to disguise and 'deliquesce' the thing, whether it exist momumental architecture or a pocket-sized gilded box. The event is a world which is not a reflection of the actual object, but that of the superimposed element that serves to transcend the momentary and limited individual appearance of a work of fine art drawing it into the greater and solely valid realm of space and continuous being.

This thought is emphasized by the way in which architectural ornament is used. Solid walls are bearded behind plaster and tile ornamentation, vaults and arches are covered with floral and epigraphic ornament that deliquesce their structural strength and funcion and domes are filled with radiating designs of infinite patterns, bursting suns or fantastic floating canapes of multitude of mukkarnas, that banish the solidity of stone and masonary and give them a especially ephemeral quality as if the crystallization of the design is their only reality.

It is perhaps in this element, which has no true parallel in the history of fine art, that Islamic Art joins in the religious experience of Islam and it is in this sense, that information technology tin be called a religious fine art. Characteristically, very trivial bodily, religious iconography in the ordinary sense exists in Islam.

Although a great many fundamental forms and concepts remained more than or less stable and unchanged throughout Islamic Art - especially in architecture - the multifariousness of individual forms is astonishing and can again exist called infrequent. Near every country at every menses created forms of art that had no parallel in another, and the variations on a common theme, that are carried through from ane period to another, are even more remarkable.

Islamic Decoration

Two important elements in Islamic decorative fine art are: Floral Patterns and Calligraphy.

Floral Patterns in Islamic Ornamentation

Islamic artists habitually employed flowers and trees as decorative motifs for the embellishment of cloth, objects, personal items and buildings. Their designs were inspired by international as well every bit local techniques. For instance, Mughal architectural ornamentation was inspired by European botanical artists, equally well as by traditional Persian and Indian flora. A highly ornate every bit well as intricate fine art grade, floral designs were often used as the basis for "space pattern" type decoration, using arabesques (geometricized vegetal patterns) and covering an entire surface. The infinite rhythms conveyed by the repetition of curved lines, produces a relaxing, calming effect, which can exist modified and enhanced by variations of line, colour and texture. Sometimes the ornate would exist emphasized, and floral designs would be practical to tablets or panels of white marble, in the course of rows of plants finely carved in low relief, along with multi-coloured inlays of precious stones.

Calligraphy in Islamic Decoration

Autonomously from the naturalistic, semi-naturalistic and abstract geometrical forms used in the infinite pattern, Arabic calligraphy played a ascendant part in Islamic Art and was integrated into every sort of decorative scheme - non least because it provides a link between the language of Muslims and the organized religion of Islam, as outlined in the Koran/Qur'an. Proverbs and complete passages from the Qur'an are still major sources for Islamic calligraphic fine art and decoration.

Thus, almost all Islamic buildings exhibit some blazon of inscription in their stone, stucco, marble or mosaic surfaces. The inscription is frequently, though non always, a quotation from the Qur'an. Or unmarried words like "Allah" or "Mohammed" might be repeated many times over the entire surface of the walls. Calligraphic inscriptions are closely associated with the geometry of the building and are frequently employed as a frame around the principal architectural elements such equally portals and cornices. Sometimes a religious text is confined to a unmarried console or carved tablet (cartouche) which might be pierced thus creating a specific pattern of light.

Calligraphic Scripts

There are two main scripts in traditional Islamic Calligraphy, the athwart Kufic and the cursive Naskhi.

Kufic, the earliest course, which is alledged to have been invented at Kufa, south of Baghdad, accentuates the vertical strokes of the characters. It was used extensively during the kickoff 5 centuries of Islam in architecture, for copies of the Koran (Qur'an), textiles and pottery. There are viii different types of Kufic script out of which only three are mentioned hither: (a) simple Kufic; (b) foliated Kufic which appeared in Egypt during the 9th Century BCE and has the vertical strokes catastrophe in lobed leaves or half-palmettes; (c) floriated Kufic in which floral motiffs and scrolls are added to the leaves and half-palmettes. This seems too to have been developed in Arab republic of egypt during the ninth Century BCE and reached information technology'southward highest development at that place under the Fatimids (969-1171).

From the 11th century onward the Naskhi script gradually replaced Kufic. Though a kind of cursive style was already known in the seventh Century BCE, the invention of Naskhi is attributed to Ibn Muqula. Ibn Muqula lived in Baghdad during the 10th century and is also responsible for the development of some other type of cursive writing; the thuluth, or thulth. This closely follows Naskhi, but certain elements, like vertical strokes or horizontal lines are exaggerated.

In Iran several cursive styles were invented and developed amidst which taliq was important. Out of taliq adult nastaliq, which is a more than beautiful, elegant and cursive form of writing. It's inventor was Mir Ali Tabrizi, who was agile in the second half of the 14th century. Nastaliq became the predominate way of Persian Calligraphy during the 15th and 16th centuries.

Another important attribute of Islamic Art, generally completely unknown, is information technology'south rich pictorial and iconographical tradition. The misconception that Islam was an iconaclastic or anti-prototype culture and that the representation of human beings or living creatures in full general was prohibited, is still deeply rooted although the existence of figuative painting in Iran has been recognized now for virtually half a century. In that location is no prohibition against the painting of pictures or the representation of living forms in Islam and there is no mention of information technology in the Koran (Qur'an).

Sure pronouncements attributed to the Prophet and carried in the Hadith (the collection of traditional sayings of the Prophet) have perhaps been interpreted as prohibition against creative activity, although they are of purely religious significance. Any the reason, the fact remains that in practically no period of Islamic civilisation were figurative representation and painting suppressed, with the singular exception of the strictly religious sphere where idolatry was feared. Mosques and mausoleums are therefore without figurative representation. Elsewhere, imagery forms one of the most important elements and a multitude of other pictorial traditions were also assimilated during the long and circuitous history of Islamic Art.

That said, it is fair to say that other experts in Islamic art take a slightly narrower view. According to this view, because the creation of living things like humans and animals is regarded as existence the role of God, Islam rightly discourages Islamic painters and sculptors from producing such figures. Although it is true that some figurative fine art can exist seen in the Islamic earth, it is generally confined to the decoration of objects and secular buildings and the cosmos of miniature paintings. Come across also Mosaic Art.

History of Islamic Art

Umayyad Art (661-750)

Noted for its religious and borough architecture, such as The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem (built by Abd al-Malik, 691) and the Great Mosque of Damascus (finished 715).

Abbasid Fine art (750-1258)

The Abbasid dynasty shifted the capital letter from Damascus to Baghdad - founded by al-Mansur in 762, the beginning major metropolis entirely built by Muslims. The city became the new Islamic hub and symbolized the convergence of Eastern and Western art forms: Eastern inspiration from Iran, the Eurasian steppes, India and Prc; Western influence from Classical Antiquity and Byzantine Europe. Later, Samarra took over every bit the capital.

Abbasid architecture was noted for the desert Fortress of Al-Ukhaidir (c.775) 120 miles south of Baghdad, the Great Mosque of Samarra, the Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, Abu Dalaf in Iraq, the Bang-up Mosque in Tunis, and the Not bad Mosque in Kairouan, Tunisia.

Other arts developed under the Abbasids included, material silk fine art, wall painting and ancient pottery, notably the invention of lustre-ware (painting on the surface of the glaze with a metal pigment or lustre). The latter technique was unique to Baghdad potters and ceramicists. Also, calligraphic decorations first began to announced on pottery during this period.

Umayyad Fine art in Spain

Parallel with the Abbasids in Iraq, descendants of the earlier Umayyad dynasty ruled Spain, with Cordoba becoming the second most important cultural eye of the Muslim world later Bagdad. Umayyad art and architecture in Kingdom of spain was exemplified past the creation of the Great mosque of Cordoba. In particular, this region was noted for its fusion of classical Roman and Islamic architectural designs, and the general development of a Hispano-Islamic idiom in painting, relief sculpture, metallic sculpture in the round, and decorative arts like ceramics.

Fatimid Art in Egypt (909-1171)

Under the Fatimids, Egypt took the lead in the cultural life of western Islam. In the arts, this dynasty was noted for architectural structures like the al-Azhar Mosque and the al-Hakim Mosque of Cairo; ceramic art in the form of pottery busy with figurative painting and ivory carving as well every bit relief sculpture and the emergence of the "infinite design" of abstract ornamentation. Fatimid fine art is particularly famous for applying designs to every kind of surface.

Seljuk Art in Iran and Anatolia (Turkey)

The struggle for power in Islamic republic of iran and the north of India, involving the Tahirids, Samanids, and Ghaznavids, was won by the Seljuk in the middle of the 11th century. In Islamic art, this dynasty was noted above all for its architecture and building designs, exemplified by the Masjid-i Jami in Isfahan, built past Malik Shah. Fundamental forms of architectural design are developed and permanently formulated for later periods. The almost of import were the court mosque and the madrasah, as well equally forms for tomb towers and mausoleums. Figurative representation, forth the lines of a Central Asian iconography, was too greatly expanded across the visual arts. The Seljuks also excelled at stone-carving, used in architectural ornament, as well as painted tiles and faience mosaics.

Mongol Art (c.1220-1360)

Despite the initial devastation acquired by the Mongol armies, Islamic art of Western Asia was greatly enriched past direct contact with the culture of the Far E, represented by the Mongols. Notable works of Islamic architecture which have survived from this flow include the tomb of Oljeitu (1304-17) in Soltaniyeh, and Masjid-i Jami Mosque of Taj al-din Ali Shah, in Tabriz, the Mongol capital. Also, the history of painting, miniatures and the art of the Persian book illumination was born during this era; the latter exemplified by the Manafi al-Hayawan (Usefulness of Animals) manuscript (1297), Firdusi's Shah-nameh (Book of Kings) manuscript (c.1380) and the Jami al-tawarikh past Rashid al-Din. New techniques appeared in ceramic pottery, like the lajvardina (a variant of lustre-ware). Chinese influence is axiomatic in all forms of visual arts. The Mongol menstruation provided a lasting repertoire of decorative forms and ideas to the Islamic artists of the Timurid and Safavid periods in Iran, and to Ayyubid and Mamluk Syria and Egypt.

Mamluk Fine art in Syria and Egypt (1250-1517)

Many monumental rock works of Islamic architecture were created during this flow include the Madrasah-Mausoleum of Sultan Hasan, Cairo (1356-63), the Madrasah-Mausoleum of Sultan Kalaun, Cairo (1284-5), and Kayt Bey's Madrasah-Mausoleum (c.1460-70). Exteriors besides as interiors became richly busy in a variety of media - plaster, relief carving, and decorative painting. Enameled glass and metalwork were also greatly developed (c.1250-1400). For example, the superb metal basin of Mamluk silver metalwork known as the "Baptistere de Saint Louis" (Syria, 1290-1310), is ane of the greatest masterpieces of its blazon in Islamic fine art. Decorated on the outside with a central frieze of figures and 2 corresponding friezes of animals, it is also ornamented with elaborate hunting scenes on the inside. In general the Mamluk era is remembered as the golden age of medieval nearly Eastern Islamic civilisation.

Nasrid Fine art in Spain (1232-1492)

The Nasrid dynasty, centred on their court in Granada, created a civilization that attained a level of magnificence without parallel in Muslim Spain, recreating the glories of the starting time bang-up Islamic catamenia under Umayyad rule. Nasrid architecture led the way, exemplified by the Alhambra Palace in Granada (c.1333-91). In this building the central elements of Islamic architecture and architectural design constitute their highest expression: for instance, the illusion of a edifice floating in a higher place ground. In decorative art, lustre-painting was greatly adult, as was textile weaving in gilt brocade and embroidery.

Timurid Catamenia (c.1360-1500)

Mongol rule in Islamic republic of iran was succeeded by that of Timur (Tamerlane) who came from southward of Samarkand. Timurid compages is exemplified past the mosques of Kernan (c.1349) and Yezd (c.1375), the Slap-up Mosque of Samarkand (Bibi Khanum mosque) begun effectually 1400, the Gur-i Amir, Timur's mausoleum in Samarkand (1405), and the Blue Mosque in Tabriz (1465). Architectural ornamentation employed polychrome faience to the greatest effect. In the other visual arts, Timurid painting introduced the concept of using the entire pictorial area, while illuminated manuscripts were produced in the "Purple Timurid style". Notable schools of Timurid painting sprang up in Shiraz, Herat and elsewhere. Herat produced a series of magnificent painted manuscripts, every bit well as a corresponding set of developments in the Islamic arts of calligraphy and book-binding. Stained drinking glass art was also developed. In general, Timurid art may be seen equally a refinement, even sublimation, of the basic ideals of eastern Islamic art.

Ottoman Art (c.1400-1900)

With the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, once the middle of Byzantium and the Eastern Roman Empire, the urban center once again became a focal point for western Islamic art and civilisation. Ottoman compages is noted to a higher place all for the domed mosque. An early form was the Ulu Cami mosque, Bursa (c.1400); later Ottoman buildings past Islamic architects include: the Sulaymaniyeh Cami Mosque of Sultan Sulayman (begun 1550) and the Selimiyeh Cami mosque, Edirne (1567-74) - both designed by Sinan, the most historic of all Ottoman architects - the mosque of Sultan Ahmet I (known as "the Blue Mosque") (1603-17), and the Sultan Ahmet Cami mosque (1609-16).

Advances in architectural decoration included a new style of floral polychrome designs in ceramic tilework and pottery (plus the discovery of the brilliant red paint used in ceramics, known as Iznik cerise), while in painting, Ottoman artists adult a new catechism of color, composition and iconography. One of the well-nigh famous of Ottoman crafts was the knotted rug, which - in its utilise, form and decoration - embodied most of the salient elements of Muslim civilisation. Too, Ottoman calligraphers developed Diwani script, a new cursive fashion of Arabic calligraphy. Invented by Housam Roumi, it became highly popular under Suleyman I the Magnificent (1520–66).

In general, an important aspect of Ottoman art is its play on contrasts: between tectonic qualities and the dissolution of materials, between realistic forms with fine detail and "infinite pattern" abstraction.

Safavid Art in Iran (c.1502-1736)

In the tardily 16th century, the Safavid capital was established at Isfahan, in the centre of aboriginal Persia, where it became the centre of eastern Muslim art and culture for near two centuries. Isfahan Safavid architecture is exemplified by the domed mosque of Shaykh Lutfullah (1603-eighteen) and the Groovy Mosque of Shah Abbas (1612-20) (Masjid-i Shah). Advances in Safavid painting - including, brightly coloured stylized imagery as well as a highly realist style of figurative cartoon - came predominantly from the schools of Tabriz, Herat, Bukhara and Kasvin. In the decorative arts, Safavid artists excelled in all areas of the book - similar gilding, illumination, calligraphy and lacquer-painted leather bookbinding. Too in carpet-design, the Safavid period saw the replacement of Turkish abstruse patterns by new floral and figurative designs. Also, advances were made in ceramic art, due in part to the influence of Chinese porcelain, during the era of Ming Dynasty Art (c.1368-1644).

Persian Safavid fine art is noted for its architecture, its decorative designwork (eg. knotted rugs, silk-weaving) and its figurative painting. The latter, in item, gave rise to a richness and multifariousness almost unparalleled in Islamic art, and led to the emergence of individual artists and the creation of personal styles.

Mughal Islamic Art in India

India vicious under the rule of the Mughal emperors (Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan) in the late 16th-century, giving ascension to a unified Indian-Islamic culture. Mughal achievements in architecture include the domed Tomb of Humayun in Delhi (1565); the palace circuitous of Fatehpur Sikri (c.1575) built during the reign of Akbar; the mausoleum of Itmad al-Daula, Agra (1622-28); the not bad Crimson Fort complex near Agra (17th century) its Delhi Gate (1635) and its Pearl Mosque (1648); and the sublime Taj Mahal (1632-54), the famous tomb built by Emperor Shah Jahan to commemorate his favourite wife Mumtaz Mahal. The greatest Mughal stone masons were employed on the project. When they had finished, it is said that Jahan ordered the amputation of the chief mason's hand to forestall replication of such exquisite work.

Influenced by Persian, Hindu painters and European painters, Mughal artists developed new forms of manuscript illumination, as exemplified by the sumptuous Dastan-i Amir Hamza (Hamza-nameh, 1575), the largest known Islamic manuscript, illustrated with total-page paintings, and Anwari's Divan (1588).

For more than nearly Islamic painting on the subcontinent of India see: Post-Classical Indian Painting (14th-16th century), Mughal Painting (16th-19th century) and Rajput Painting (16th-19th Century).

The Mughal era of Asian art is also noted for its metalwork and goldsmithing (goldsmithery). Mughal rulers were especially fond of gilded with niello and enamel ornament, silver and precious stones. This gave a considerable boost to the arts of jewellery and gemstone carving (particularly of jade, jasper, and emeralds). Notation: see also: Orientalist painting, a populist style of art which flourished in France during the 19th century.

• For more nearly religious art of Islam, see: Homepage.

---

Art Glossary
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ART
© visual-arts-cork.com. All rights reserved.

davishungs1983.blogspot.com

Source: http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/islamic-art.htm

Share this post