HI285 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Ablaq, Mihrab, Spolia
Document Summary
Islamic art followed the spread of islamic religion from mecca (saudi arabia to spain to west. Islamic art was not produced by or exclusively for muslims as there is evidence of other traditions within pieces especially those of the sasanian and greco-roman, byzantine empire. Intended to emphasize the conceptual rather than the actual or physical reality of the divine. As a result, a hallmark of islamic art is the use of complex ornaments to conceal the underlying structure of physical form, both of living things and architecture. Iconoclasm (breaking an image), destruction of images of religious figures in artistic and other pieces. Qur"an: minaret, tall tower attached to the mosque, it is where the call to prayer is issued. It is a visual symbol of the presence of islam: mosque design, mosques are a large, open roughly rectangular space. Its function is to draw attention away from the physical surface structure of the dome.
