Honour and Fleming have sought to distinguish Islamic architecture from Western classicism by suggesting that the Moslem architectsˇ¦ ˇ§interest in structural problems would seem to have been primarily intellectual; their appreciation of architecture to be focused on the decorative and the ornamental.ˇ¨ Do you agree with the separation between structure and ornament in Islamic architecture that is suggested here? Examine two Islamic buildings ˇV one early, one late ˇV in the formulation of your response.
The surface decoration, the structural elements and the casting of the internals lend to the idea of the Islamic Mosque, (a common example of Islamic architecture) being a complex and sophisticated form of architecture. However, this is not really the case. The Islamic mosque is generally simple in design and architecture. This simplicity in structural design is evident in the Great Mosque of Cordoba and the Taj Mahal in Agra. Decoration and structure play an important role that is interrelated throughout the above mentioned structures forming the perception of highly crafted and sophisticated construction. ˇ§The Taj Mahal perfectly exemplifies a combination of arches and squinches of different type
. . .
They are seen as in this type of architecture a totally decorative and exceptionally time consuming and economic type of embellishment. The Islamic people felt content over hundreds of years to alter the surface decoration, as interest grew in this form of embellishment. In time these arcades could be doubled, tripled or even quadrupled. ˇ¨ The role of structure and ornamentation in Islamic architecture is very much interrelated. The themes and motifs of the ornamentation can be divided into three major groups. ˇ¦ The architects developed this type of construction in alliance with a ˇ§framework of ribs of the kind used to reinforce ancient Roman concrete domes, but whereas the Romans had concealed the framework inside the fabric, Islamic architects displayed the whole structural system and its complex patterns and linear grids of a kind which greatly appealed to Muslims with their interests in mathematics and astronomy. It would seem that the Moslem architectˇ¦s interests in structural embellishment came from a deep intellectual application involved with structure. The structure of the Taj Mahal sets the foundations for this overall impact. ˇ¨ It can be therefor accepted that this reason played party in the design of squinches with ribs. ˇ¨ With the spread of Islam outward from the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century, the associated artistic traditions of the newly conquered lands deeply influenced the development of Islamic art and architecture. The Moslem architects combated this problem by ˇ§adding arcades along the three subsidiary side, so that people could walk around the mosque in cool shade. Thus, highlighting the interconnectedness of structure and embellishment. The themes used were vegetal bands for vertical or horizontal elements, marble imitations for the lower parts of long walls, chevrons or other types of borders on floors and domes, and even whole trees on the spandrels or undersides of arches. For example in The Dome of The Rock as well as the Great Mosque of Cordoba there were religious themes that ran through the decorative art present. All these motifs tend to be quite traditional, being taken from the rich decorative vocabularies of pre-Islamic Iran.
Approximate Word count =
1590
Approximate Pages =
6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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