Arabesque

The arabesque is a form of artistic decoration consisting of "surface decorations based on rhythmic
linear patterns of scrolling and interlacing foliage, tendrils" or plain lines,[1] often combined with
other elements. Another definition is "Foliate ornament, used in the Islamic world, typically using
leaves, derived from stylised half-palmettes, which were combined with spiralling stems".[2] It
usually consists of a single design which can be 'tiled' or seamlessly repeated as many times as
desired.[3] Within the very wide range of Eurasian decorative art that includes motifs matching this
basic definition, the term "arabesque" is used consistently as a technical term by art historians to
describe only elements of the decoration found in two phases: Islamic art from about the 9th
century onwards, and European decorative art from the Renaissance onwards. Interlace and scroll
decoration are terms used for most other types of similar patterns.

Arabesques are a fundamental element of Islamic art but they develop what was already a long
tradition by the coming of Islam. The past and current usage of the term in respect of European art
can only be described as confused and inconsistent. Some Western arabesques derive from Islamic
art, but others are closely based on ancient Roman decorations. In the West they are essentially
found in the decorative arts, but because of the generally non-figurative nature of Islamic art,
arabesque decoration is there often a very prominent element in the most significant works, and
plays a large part in the decoration of architecture.

Claims are often made regarding the theological significance of the arabesque, and its origin in a
specifically Islamic view of the world; however these are without support from written historical
sources as, like most medieval cultures, the Islamic world has not left us documentation of their
intentions in using the decorative motifs they did. At the popular level such theories often appear
uninformed as to the wider context of the arabesque.[4] In similar fashion, proposed connections
between the arabesque and Arabic knowledge of geometry remains a subject of debate; not all art
historians are persuaded that such knowledge had reached, or was needed by, those creating
arabesque designs, although in certain cases there is evidence that such a connection did exist.[5]
The case for a connection with Islamic mathematics is much stronger for the development of the
geometric patterns with which arabesques are often combined in art. Geometric decoration often
uses patterns that are made up of straight lines and regular angles that somewhat resemble
curvilinear arabesque patterns; the extent to which these too are described as arabesque varies
between different writers.[6]

Contents

1 Islamic arabesque
1.1 Significance in Islam

2 Terminology and Western arabesque

3 Printing

4 Notes

5 References

6 External links

Islamic arabesque

The arabesque developed out of the long-established traditions of plant-based scroll ornament in
the cultures taken over by the early Islamic conquests. Early Islamic art, for example in the famous
8th century mosaics of the Great Mosque of Damascus, often contained plant-scroll patterns, in that
case by Byzantine artists in their usual style. The plants most often used are stylized versions of the
acanthus, with its emphasis on leafy forms, and the vine, with an equal emphasis on twining stems.
The evolution of these forms into a distinctive Islamic type was complete by the 11th century, having
begun in the 8th or 9th century in works like the Mshatta Facade. In the process of development the
plant forms became increasing simplified and stylized.[7] The relatively abundant survivals of stucco
reliefs from the walls of palaces (but not mosques) in Abbasid Samarra, the Islamic capital between
836 and 892, provide examples of three styles, Styles A, B, and C, though more than one of these
may appear on the same wall, and their chronological sequence is not certain.[8]

Though the broad outline of the process is generally agreed, there is a considerable diversity of
views held by specialist scholars on detailed issues concerning the development, categorization and
meaning of the arabesque.[9] The detailed study of Islamic arabesque forms was begun by Alois
Riegl in his formalist study Stilfragen: Grundlegungen zu einer Geschichte der Ornamentik (Problems
of style: foundations for a history of ornament) of 1893, who in the process developed his influential
concept of the Kunstwollen.[10] Riegl traced formalistic continuity and development in decorative
plant forms from ancient Egyptian art and other ancient Near Eastern civilizations through the
classical world to the Islamic arabesque. While the Kunstwollen has few followers today, his basic
analysis of the development of forms has been confirmed and refined by the wider corpus of
examples known today.[11] Jessica Rawson has recently extended the analysis to cover Chinese art,
which Riegl did not cover, tracing many elements of Chinese decoration back to the same tradition;
the shared background helping to make the assimilation of Chinese motifs into Persian art after the
Mongol invasion harmonious and productive.[12]

Many arabesque patterns disappear at (or "under" as it often appears to a viewer) a framing edge
without ending, and thus can be regarded as infinitely extendable outside the space they actually
occupy; this was certainly a distinctive feature of the Islamic form, though not without precedent.
Most but not all foliage decoration in the preceding cultures terminated at the edge of the occupied
space, although infinitely repeatable patterns in foliage are very common in the modern world in
wallpaper and textiles.

Typically, in earlier forms there is no attempt at realism; no particular species of plant is being
imitated, and the forms are often botanically impossible or implausible. "Leaf" forms typically spring
sideways from the stem, in what is often called a "half-palmette" form, named after its distant and
very different looking ancestor in ancient Egyptian and Greek ornament. New stems spring from
leaf-tips, a type often called honeysuckle, and the stems often have no tips, winding endlessly out of
the space. The early Mshatta Facade is recognisably some sort of vine, with conventional leaves on
the end of short stalks and bunches of grapes or berries, but later forms usually lack these. Flowers
are rare until about 1500, after which they appear more often, especially in Ottoman art, and are
often identifiable by species. In Ottoman art the large and feathery leaves called saz became very
popular, and were elaborated in drawings showing just one or more large leaves. Eventually floral
decoration mostly derived from Chinese styles, especially those of Chinese porcelain, replaces the
arabesque in many types of work, such as pottery, textiles and miniatures.