1 / 8

Islamic Art and Spirituality

Islamic Art and Spirituality. Islamic Art and Spirituality. What makes art ‘Islamic’?/Is there such thing as ‘Islamic’ art?. Essentially Islamic theme/s? Ideological Imagery (ex. Quranic imagery of Paradise) Inherent in Quran or in reaction to NE? Question of intention

jana
Download Presentation

Islamic Art and Spirituality

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Islamic Art and Spirituality Islamic Art and Spirituality

  2. What makes art ‘Islamic’?/Is there such thing as ‘Islamic’ art? • Essentially Islamic theme/s? • Ideological • Imagery (ex. Quranic imagery of Paradise) • Inherent in Quran or in reaction to NE? • Question of intention • Is it any art produced by Muslims? • A reference to the artistic styles that ended up predominating in Islamicate civilization?

  3. 1- Tawhid permeates and drives Islamic art • Designed to orient viewer towards God’s unicity and transcendence • Not mimetic, rather symbolic of what lies behind nature  hiding matter & nature • Abstract: stylization, geometry, non-individuation, repetition, boundlessness • No focal point or dramatic evolution (Quran)

  4. 2 - ‘Traditional’ Islamic Cosmology • Notion of emanation and return drives artistic representation • Geometry/Math as links to Reality • Sura and Ma’na: form and content as inseparable, irrepressible • Mosque as recreation of cosmos • Crafts as expression of traditional worldview

  5. 3: Islamic art is merely attempt at beautification in Islamicate World • Hadith: God is beautiful and loves beauty. • Focus on Word of Quran  calligraphy in mosques • Adoption of some aspects of Byzantine & Persian art, rejection of others • Sinization of art after Mongols • Persianate style of Timurids  Safavids, Ottomans and Mughals

  6. Going overboard: Arguing from results… • ‘Muhammad’looks like person bowing in prayer • لا إله إلا أللهis made of vertical characters bridging the divine and temporal worlds • Islamic art has a “fear of empty space” because 1) urban life of the NE was crowded 2) the deserts were the wastelands that the Muslims had left

  7. Common Artistic/Architectural Elements • Calligraphy: form and content • Arabesque (tawriq) • Courtyard, dome, riwaq (arcade), iwan (portal niche in courtyard), mihrab, muqarnas (squinch adornment)

  8. Representation of Living Things? • Original or acquired? Why? • Early representational art (Umayyad mosques, palaces and coins)  reaction to Christian and NE representational traditions? • Miskawayh (d. 1030): aesthetic enjoyment is dangerous  stylization of nature • Aversion/prohibition merely one factor • Hadiths: • on the Day of Judgment those who have represented living things will have to breathe life into them or face damnation • Angels do not enter houses where there are images • Islamic law

More Related