ORNAMENTATION IN THE ISLAMIC ARTNurul Huda Mohd DinVisual Culture Studies Dept.bisbas123@gmail.com

• The six general or core characteristics of the work of Islamic art having laid down in Chapter 8.

• This topic will discuss the special and unique relationship of the arts of Islam to ornamentation.

• Islamic ornamentation includes the decoration of portable objects made by wool, metal, ceramics, fabrics, or any other material. It also encompasses what is generally labeled as architectural decoration, as well as the embellishment in the arts of sound and movement.

• Islamic ornamentation features striking aspects of unity-in its functions and significance as well as in the formal structures upon which it is based.

The Functions of Ornamentation in the Islamic Arts

A Western art historian has described ornamentation as ‘that component of the art product which is added, or worked into it, for purposes of embellishment…….(It) refers to

motifs and themes used on art objects, buildings or any surface without being essential to

structure and serviceability…….This entire range of expression is used for ornamental purposes.’

• This definition may be accurate for describing ornamentation in most other art traditions. Unfortunately, many Western or Westernized scholars who have dealt with the Islamic arts have regarded such a definition as a universal in the arts of all cultures and civilizations, and have been influenced by it in their analysis and description of Islamic art.

• This has resulted in their misunderstanding of some of the most crucial premises of that art.

• Since ornamentation is for them only a superficial addition to an aesthetic entity, they have judged the proliferation of ornamentation in Islamic art to be indicative either of the hedonism of the Muslim peoples or of a cultural (an abhorrence of empty space)

• They not understanding the unique function and significance of ornamentation.

• In Islamic art, ornamentation (zukhruf –decoration) is not something added superficially to the completed work of art in order to embellish it in an unessential way. It is also not means of satisfying the appetites of a pleasure-seeking people. It should never be regarded as a mere filling of space to escape emptiness.

• Instead, the beautiful and intricate designs one finds on art objects of every region, and in every century of Islamic history, fulfill four specific and important function which define their significance

Reminder of Tawhid

• The patterns of beauty found in the Islamic arts are concretizations of the ubiquitous aesthetic effort of the Muslim peoples to create art products that would lead the viewer to an intuition of divine transcendence. The ornamentation of the works of art the outcome and the very substance of that effort.

• Since the need for such reminders of the Islamic ideology

of Tawhid is deemed an important addition to the environment…..

Transfiguration of Materials

• Islamic arts emphasizing abstraction or denaturalization in their choice and use of subject matter.

• But….subject matter was not the only thing determined by Muslim artists desire to express TAWHID.

• Their use of materials was also affected significantly by the wish for a mode of expression that accorded with their ideology. (see handout provided…)

• OVERLAY (see handout provided…..)

• DISGUISE of INHERENT QUALITIES of the materials. (see handout provided…..)

• LACK of concern for preciousness of materials.

Transfiguration of Structures

• Ornamentation of any Islamic work of art plays the role transfiguring it structurally, by hiding the basic forms or minimizing their impact on the viewer.

BEAUTIFICATION

•Islamic ornamentation can be said to perform this function with the great success, since the patterns it creates on the decorated object are themselves intrinsically pleasing to the eye.

•The ornamentation found in these works of art imparts an additional dimension of beauty for the Muslim percipient; for any figure or object any phrase or movement, any line or anecdote that expresses TAWHID is for the adherent of Islam an expression of truth and goodness. It is therefore, a fortiori, an expression of beauty.

• ALHAMDULILLAH, THANK YOU….

• ALL THE BEST