What makes Islamic art unique to
Muslims? The following passage gives the fundamentals of Islamic Art:
....We were with Masruq
at the house of Yasar bin Numair. Masruq saw pictures on his terrace and said,
"I heard 'Abdullah saying that he heard the Prophet saying, "'The
people who will receive the severest punishment from Allah will be the picture
makers. (Quran)
In essences what makes Islamic
art unique is that there is no pictures. More specifically, no portraits of
people. The Koran specifically states that no one should idolize (or worship)
anyone other than god. Portraits are seen, under sharia law, as a form of
idolization and therefore prohibited. This means no statues, paintings,
drawing, or lost wax castings of anything that could be misconstrued as
worshiping other than god to include the prophet Mohammed. So how then do they
artistically express themselves? Through calligraphy. Thus brings my example of
Islamic Art, a Mosque lamp for a Mausoleum.
 |
|
Mosque lamp for the Mausoleum of Amir Aydakin al 'Ala'I
al–Bunduqdar, Mamluk period (1250–1517), shortly after 1285
|
The artwork is a glass lamp that
has a conical shape and brownish in color. It is hand blown. The emblem of the
Keeper of the Bow, a pair of confronted bows against a red background, appears
nine times on this lamp. A rare mistake by the calligrapher is evident on the
neck, where the word bunduqdar (Keeper of the Bow) has been misspelled as a
meaningless word, bunqud-dar (The Metropolitan
Musemum of Art, 2012) . It uses a contrast of blue and red to
bring out the elements of the calligraphy, with obvious emphasis on the
calligraphic script. As it is a lamp,
the proportions are pretty symmetrical which would make sense if it was hand-blown.
I do not see anything that I could recognize that could be considered unity or
repetition other than the outlining at the top of the lamp that appears to be
more calligraphic scripts.
The
object comes from Egypt and was made between 1250-1517 (The Metropolitan Musemum of
Art, 2012) .
This lamp is the earliest datable example of its kind known to
have hung in an interior that still survives. The inscription states that it
was made for the tomb of the Mamluk amir Aydakin al 'Ala'I al-Bunduqdar (died
1285) in Cairo. Since the function was to light the mausoleum its function is
pretty clear and is an example of how two cultures come together. Egypt is
known for honoring their dead with elaborate tombs and Islamic art is all about
showing off the artist calligraphy skills. This object defines the combination
of two different culture that are distinctly “non-Western.”
I do not really have any particular
reaction other than it is interesting. I never really thought about how an item
such as this really could have such cultural implications. From seeing other
forms of Islamic artwork I have seem two themes in the Calligraphy. One is
trying to fit as much calligraphy into an object without seeming like it is
crowding. Second is to take a few words like a poem and having it fill as much
space as possible, sometimes in the shape of something in nature such as an
animal or tree. I conclude that this object is true to Islamic art that fits
within the confines of sharia law.
several. http://quran.com/. 20. 20 June 2015.
The Metropolitan Musemum of Art. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/17.190.985.
May 2012.
No comments:
Post a Comment