Art+-+Elements+of+Style+and+Design+Before+and+After+Islam

Elements of Style and Design Before and After Islam Christine Kirkpatrick The Persian Empire at its height was a diverse and wealthy conglomeration of cultures comprising a large geographical area due to thousands of years of regional invasions, conquests, location of trade routes, and migrations of other peoples. The diversity of this culture can be illustrated in the broad variety of design elements used in various forms of artwork including sculpture, relief, and decorative elements integrated into buildings, monuments, and textiles. For the purpose of this discussion, the focus will be on what is today known as Persia: Iran, and areas immediately surrounding.

Prior to assimilation of the Arabic culture in Persia and the advent of Islam, art was comprised of styles adopted from a variety of diverse cultures, most notably Hellenistic and Sasadian. There were many design elements present that identified much of the art as Persian, but there was not one unified element or singular quality that defined Persian art. However, the transition to Islam beginning in the 7th century C.E. began a slow, transformative period in both religious and secular artwork. Oleg Grabar, in his work //The Formation of Islamic Art//, states, “The naturalization of Iran into Islam was not immediate,” and, “The formation of a regionally identifiable Islamic art of Iran took longer than elsewhere and appeared in very diverse modes” (Grabar 1973:40). I argue that while Islamic religious influences had a direct impact on the style and subject matter of Persian art across several centuries, various traditional elements of Persian art – elements that had been adopted from other cultures – were incorporated into what we recognize today as Islamic art. Other design elements, such as image representation and military-style depictions, fell out of favor due to certain tenets of the Islamic religion. Common components of the resulting and mostly unified art forms were a general lack of human or animal representation, the presence of beautiful calligraphy, and the use of repetitive geometric patterns and flowery motifs, such as the arabesque. While some of these components may sound completely different than traditional elements of Persian art, they were able to incorporate aspects that were in fact uniquely Persian in origin. Some of the cultural influences that had characterized Persian art up until Arabic domination were an integration of Achaemedian, Hellenistic, Sasadian, and even Egyptian and Roman styles, among others; these influences can be seen in what is now known as Islamic art. In this discussion, I will go back in time to the earliest days of the Persian Empire to demonstrate a small sampling of various design elements that originated in and were eventually taken from these cultures, and visually illustrate their assimilation into both the religious and secular art of Persia after the introduction of Islam. The true origin of the Persian Empire can be traced to the Achaemenid period (550–330 B.C.E.), during which time the great administrative and ceremonial city centers of Susa and Persepolis displayed thousands of monumental reliefs and sculptures largely dedicated to the glorification of the king and the mightiness of his empire. Many sculptures and reliefs also included mythical creatures and other animals, such as the lion and bull (representing the sun god and the earth god), common elements found in art centuries later. While much of the art and sculpture is beautiful, many reliefs, especially those in Persepolis depicting soldiers or military endeavors, become repetitive in nature. They also lack color; however, it is not known if the reliefs had been painted at one time, but there is no trace of paint to be seen. Perhaps because of cultural influences of the craftsmen performing the carvings, the reliefs sometimes resemble ancient Egyptian art in form. This can be seen in the lack of fluidity or motion of the figures, and the non-portrait nature of the humans depicted in the figures. Unlike Persepolis, however, Susa was much more colorful and vibrant. Along staircases at Susa can be seen various ornamental flowers, animals, and patterns such as geometric shapes and rosettes. For the most part, these elements will become integral parts of both Persian and Islamic artwork. Next, we can briefly look to a time subsequent to the invasion of Persia by Greece's Alexander the Great around 334 B.C.E. and lasting up until around 226 C.E. After defeating the great Persian King Darius, Alexander took control of what was probably the wealthiest empire in the world at that time. Along with his armies, Alexander also brought the Hellenistic culture to the area. The Greek influence would from them on become integrated into that which was to be considered Persian. Many artistic items can be seen to incorporate basics of Greek style, including geometric patterns, ornate and colorful designs, and a certain fluidity of movement in relief and sculpture. However, basic lines and rigid forms were still commonplace in Persia, especially a century or two after Alexander's conquest, when Persians (Parthian era) attempted to revert to more traditional Persian design.

Another major era in Persian art is the Sasasnid Dynasty, which began several hundred years before Arabic conquest (224-633 C.E.) and ended upon rule by the Arab caliphs. The Sasanids simulated Parthian and Achaemenid style, with figures cut deep in relief in rocks and other structures. In most instances, reliefs depicted scenes of warfare, battle, and the power of the ruler. The main objective of this type of art, as in Persepolis and Susa centuries earlier, was purely for glorification of the king or leader, above all else, including divinities. However, divinities were sometimes portrayed as blessing the king. Like much of ancient Persian art in sculpture or relief, some of the figures did not appear to be in motion; rather they appeared still and somewhat stiff. Buildings were extensively decorated with colored brick, and designs on stucco first appeared. Animal designs, human busts, geometric designs, and floral motifs can be seen at Chal Tarkhan (see Figure 6). In the seventh century C.E., a drastic change would overtake the Persian Empire, and that change was Islam. "The Flight of Muhammad and his companions from Mecca to Medina in A.D. 622 (the //hijra//) initiated one of the world's great intellectual and cultural movements, which in a few centuries was to extend from China to the Atlantic" (Petersen 2005:100). As would be expected, the influx of a new religion, peoples, ideas and leaders brought about a change in creative expression. The art that became known as Islamic art portrays quite a different picture in relation to earlier depictions of victorious rulers in battle and kings being glorified by their subjects and divinities. However, many style elements remained, even while the subject matter somewhat changed. Several key components of what is traditionally known as Islamic art at "a general absence of figural representation, especially in overtly religious contexts, a prevalence of calligraphy in the Arabic script, and geometric and other motifs (arabesques), the latter usually derived from vegetal prototypes, and both used in repeat forms" (Insoll 1999:135).

I believe the biggest differencein art pre- and post-Islamic assimilation into Persia was the overall lack of image representation. Although not immediately apparent after the Arab conquest of Persia, as figures still appeared in art in private palaces and secular arenas, the religious beliefs of this system //generally// did not allow for a living being's image to be represented in any media. This was seen as a form of idolatry. But, Muslims still incorporated elements from the conquered territories into their secular art, for example, an intricate mosaic of a lion hunting gazelles under a tree, discovered in a bath hall at Khirbat al-Mafjar (Figure 7). As can be seen from much of early Islamic art, the concept of images representing idolatry did not really take hold for a few centuries, but eventually the idea was cemented in place. Grabar stated that "it is a typologically definable attitude that sees and understands any representation as somehow identical with that which it represents" (Grabar 1973:99). He goes on to state that the "peculiarity of the Muslim attitude is that it immediately interpreted this potential magic power as a deception, as an evil" (Grabar 1973:99). Although, later on, after the establishment of Islam, images were typically absent, in some religious art they were present, and Persian influences could be seen. In her book //Islam and the Religious Arts//, Patricia Baker states that "in early Islamic art the angels [...] are depicted not as heavenly messengers but rather as winged Victories celebrating or affirming regal triumph, much in the manner of Rome and Sasanid Iran, and this association with kingly power continued through the centuries" (Baker 2004:44).

Artists in the early Islamic period also used various ornamental motifs in their artwork, such as repetitive designs, flowerly lines, and symmetrical objects. There is a direct parallel between these design elements and those from the Sasanian period, as well as the Hellenistic. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art website, "While geometric ornamentation may have reached a pinnacle in the Islamic world, the sources for both the shapes and the intricate patterns already existed in late antiquity among the Greeks, Romans, and Sasanians in Iran. Islamic artists appropriated key elements from the classical tradition, then complicated and elaborated upon them in order to invent a new form of decoration that stressed the importance of unity and order."

In summary, while Islam brought much change and influence to an already-diverse region, Persians were able to maintain much of their traditional elements of design and style and merge them with new ideas and beliefs. Likewise, the Arabic culture incorporated much of the diversity of the Persian lands they conquered, and while maintaining their own traditional elements of design, weaved geometrical, animal, floral, and other design elements into their religious and secular art. "As each area was taken by the Muslims, pre-existing elements of Classical, Byzantine, Sasanian, and even Central Asian art were then appropriated and adapted in a long, drawn-out process. An ensuing characteristic was the widespread diffusion of previously restricted decorative motifs from one end of the newly-formed Muslim world to the other" (Insoll 1999:135). Comprised of regions inhabited for many thousands of years, along with a multitude of peoples and cultures, Persia was a comprehensive and diverse empire whose ability to maintain traditional artistic elements was admirably paralleled with a capacity to adapt. Reference List Baker, Patricia L. 2004. //Islam and the religious arts//. Religion and the arts. London: Continuum.

Boardman, John 2000 //Persia and the West: an archaeological investigation of the genesis of Achaemenid art//. New York, N.Y.: Thames & Hudson.

Burkert, Walter 2004 //Babylon, Memphis, Persepolis: eastern contexts of Greek culture//. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.

Department of Islamic Art. "Geometric Patterns in Islamic Art". In //Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History//. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/geom/hd_geom.htm (October 2001). (Accessed April 21, 2009).

Grabar, Oleg. 1973. //The formation of Islamic art//. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Insoll, Timothy. 1999. //The archaeology of Islam//. Social archaeology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishers.

Petersen, Andrew. 2005. "What is 'Islamic' archaeology?." //Antiquity// 79, no. 303: 10-106. //Academic Search Premier//, EBSCO//host// (accessed April 15, 2009).