Islamic Art: The Early Period
The two pictures above are of a mosque called Dome of the Rock. This structure was made in 687 and can still be found today in the city of Jerusalem. The first picture shows the outside of the dome, while the second picture depicts the base of the dome. Aside from the piece depicted above, another well-known mosque is the Great Mosque of Corbada (784-786), which can be found in Spain. Just like the Dome of the Rock, this mosque expresses styles that already existed.
During the early period, many new religions were on the come up. Therefore, mosques, along with religious books, were one of the very first creations that played a role in Islamic religion. This dome, is in fact still a designated place in modern day Jerusalem for religious people to praise their God. It is important to note that this building is not (technically) a mosque, but it does play the roles of one. At the time, Islam was a very new religion and it had no artistic vocabulary of its own. Because of this, Egypt, Syria, and modern day Iraq had various influences on Islamic art. Islamic art inherited abstract and naturalistic qualities from these societies, including mosaics that depicted animals and plants. The specific monument depicted above.
I would like to add a little bit of background information to have a better understanding for Islamic art. There are many ways to breakdown Islamic art, the first one being medium: ceramics and architecture. Another way to organize these artworks is geography. However, modern boundaries do not match the ones of past Islamic states. Therefore, the most common solution to organizing Islamic artwork is to consider the states by who ruled them at the time.
I think that learning about buildings like this one is especially unique because we have been trained to think that artwork is only limited to paintings on a canvas. However, this class has taught me that art is all around us: in our historical buildings, monuments, etc. In fact, these historical buildings (to me) are much more extravagant than any other kinds of artworks. This is because they have actual uses in everyday life such as worshipping.
1. Macaulay-Lewis, Dr. Elizabeth, and Dr. Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis. “Introduction to Islam,” 2020. https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-islam/.
2. Barlow, Glenna, and Glenna Barlow. “Arts of the Islamic World: The Early Period.” Smarthistory, 2020. https://smarthistory.org/arts-of-the-islamic-world-the-early-period/.
Its cool to think about the influence that Egypt, Syria, and Iraq all had on Islam as it was newly introduced during the earlier periods. The designs inside of the dome are actually incredible, they way they depict not only a work of art but a great understanding of geometry and architecture as well. I always thought of these types of building to be mosques' or places of prayer and if they aren't technically a mosque do you know what they were made for? You draw comparisons between "Dome of the Rock" and "The Great Mosque of Corbada". How similar were they? I would love to see side by side pictures for comparison.
ReplyDelete