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Essays on islamic art
Attributes of early islamic art
How do you see Islamic influence on the art essay
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Beginning with the life of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632) and continuing to the present day, Islamic art has both a wide historical range and broad geographical spread, including North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia and part of South and Southeast Asia as well as eastern and sub-Saharan Africa. Through it’s beautiful use of colors, and its balance between art and form, Islamic art has had a remarkable and unique visual impact.
Inside the century after the passing (ad 632) of the prophet Muhammad, worshipers spread his lessons through Egypt and North Africa, as far as west Spain, and to the extent east of Sassanid Persia. Because of their quick development and the famine of the earlier foundation of the Arabian Peninsula, the Muslims
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Dome of the rock is a shrine created by Artist Abd-al-Malik around the year 691. Located in Jerusalem, the buildings most notable feature is the 75 foot tall beautifully bronzed and aluminum dome. Apart from this, it takes the form of an octagon. Inside, ornaments consist of beautiful calligraphy, rather than figural representations most commonly used in early monotheistic churches. Furthermore, the dome of the rock is a perfect visual example and gives off the idea that Islam builds upon earlier …show more content…
Built in the Tang Dynasty (reign over Emperor Xuan Zong, 685-762), it is used by Chinese Muslims today mainly as an area of worship. The Great Mosque of Xi'an is laid out like a traditional Chinese temple, with successive courtyards concerning pavilions and pagodas occupying a lengthy yet slender site (48 meters by 248 meters).The one characteristic about Great Mosque Xi’an is that it mixes together along the typical Chinese architectural style or Islamic architecture style perfectly. In architectural style, it strongly represents the Chinese architectural style, however, the articles or decorations of the internal mosque are accurately accordant
The Hagia Sophia was constructed first and it was meant as the main church of the Byzantine Empire. It is said that they built the Hagia Sophia in only 5 years, while it took nearly a century for the Notre Dame cathedral to be completed. While it did have what some would consider an extremely short construction time, they did have many issues with the dome. It nearly collapsed more than a few times. Once the builders and architects figured a plan to keep it stable, one on looker said, ”it is as if the Dome is suspended from Heaven itself”. The Dome of the rock was constructed for Christians, Jews, and Muslims but was to attract new followers to Malik’s Islamic brotherhood. The project for the construction had many issues, not only with the Dome itself, but also with revolts that would postpone construction for years. Once completed, many followers believed that Jerusalem was the third holiest place in the world due to Muhammed’s journey to Heaven in order to talk to God. The art within the Hagia Sophia was beautiful Mosaics and paintings of the Virgin Mary with Jesus. These were meant to represent how holy the building was. When the Muslims claimed the Hagia Sophia they did not want to destroy it due to beliefs so they renovated the building. They did this by breaking down images of humans and animals due to their belief that no images of figures
...t advances in art and literature in the Islamic Caliphates during its rise differed greatly from the few advances during the rise of the Byzantine Empire,
Through these events, islamic themes are displayed by Salih, but they are shown in many different ways. In this miraculous representation of a Sudanese town, two individuals bring together and resemble the Islamic religion in two opposing ways. By describing
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA as it is commonly known, is among the world’s largest art collections in North America, and to be specific enough the most prevalent artwork in the western United States (Compton 165). This massive art museum has a collection of over 100,000 artworks, which extends from the ancient times to present days (Gilbert and Mills 174). These collections, which are mainly from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin-America and America itself, are grouped into several departments within the museums buildings, depending on the region, culture, media, and time period. This paper analyzes the different genres of art and explains the main features that make the Islamic artworks distinguish themselves as historic masterpieces, by using stylistic and interpretive analysis methods.
The Byzantine Empire was a primarily Christian empire whose reign started in 330 A.D and ended in 1453 A.D with the capturing of the its capital, Constantinople by the Muslim Sultan Mehmed II. In the years following the fall of the Byzantines, many of the Christian basilicas were transformed into mosques for Islamic worship, inspiring many artists to create works that embodied their religious politics. One of the pieces created following the fall of the Byzantine Empire is the painting of Yusuf Fleeing Zulayhka, created in 1488 by Kamal al-Din Bihzad, a famous Persian painter who worked under the patronage of several Persian sultans. The illustration depicts Yusuf’s struggle to escape his master’s wife Zulaykha as she chases him through her elaborate palace in an attempt to seduce him. The representation was made using paint, ink and gold, and features jewel-like colors in order to portray the extravagancy of the palace Zulayhka has built specifically for the seduction of Yusuf (Stokstad 286). This essay will assess three accounts of the story of Yusuf and Zulaykha and the reasoning behind why the narrative is often labelled as a cautionary tale and of what kind.
The artworks of Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, the Aegean cultures, and Ancient Greece have similarities that not only reflect objects and images, but also the media, style and representation. These countries were not always wealthy, clever, creative and powerful enough to gain supplies, but they all find a way to create art with what they had. They have all influenced on each other’s cultures and belief through their artistic values and ways, ranging from the materials and tools they use, position and representation of their monuments and their religious intent.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) announced recently that it had acquired “the remarkable Madina Collection of Islamic art. The collection contains works of various media dating from the late 7th through 19th centuries from the vast areas that comprise the Islamic world, from Southern Spain to Central Asia” (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2005). While the museum already had quite an extensive collection of Islamic art, this particular exhibit truly adds the collections as a whole.
The Grand Mosque is the first mosque in Islam also the greatest, and it is in the center of the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia." It is an area of 750,000 square meters and it can hold 4 Million people." It costs $11,316,818,165$ for the comprehensive restoration. In the center of the mosque, is Kaaba. Muslims believe that is a sacred spot. The meaning of Kaaba in Arabic is cube like structure. It is really based on a small room with marble and black basalt stones constructed brought in from the nearby mountains. According to the Koran, a man named Abraham and his son Ishmael built the Kaaba in response to God's command. Kaaba has been in the Grand Mosque for a long time however really a few people who saw the inside of it on the other hand millions saw the outside of the Kaaba but both of them who saw it from the inside and outside drank from Zamzam well which been running more than 1,350 years.
The Dome of the Rock Essentially unchanged for more than thirteen centuries, the Dome of the Rock remains one of the world’s most beautiful and enduring architectural treasures. Adorned with its magnificent gold dome and elaborate quranic inscriptions, the structure intimately represents the world’s second largest religion in a city historically associated with the three Semitic faiths. Representation, however, is not the only effect of this site. Despite its intended purpose, the Dome of the Rock inherently stands as the focal center of a millennium-old religious controversy. Located on what is essentially the world’s holiest site (obviously a speculative assertion) and inscribed with proclamations of Islamic religious superiority, the Dome symbolizes far more than Muhammad’s ascension to heaven.
When walking around a city, you may notice that the architecture and art look similar to other works. Many of these designs have changed along the course of history and time whilst others have not. The designs that many people still see in society and day to day living is from two of the many cultures of the old civilizations, Roman and Islamic. The art and architecture forms from the Islamic and Roman cultures have many comparisons and contrasts between them. They, the Islamic and Roman nations, have both adopted from other cultures and have made their own discoveries in the art and architecture worlds. The Roman and Islamic architecture and art vary drastically from each other and yet have varying comparisons between the two.
Above the Mihrab is a dome built covered with gold mosaic. Al-Mansoor, in 987, was among the last Islamic rulers to make major alterations to the building, increasing the area of the courtyard and building the outer naves. Mezquita-Catedral, The Cathedral and former Great Mosque of Córdoba, Spain - Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba. Photo by Victor Wong The cathedral, as we see it today, is a sprawling building with an arcade, hypostyle hall having 856 columns supporting a high ceiling.
Monuments such as the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem and San Vitale in Ravenna, perform a great importance in Byzantine and Islamic architecture. Both of these structures did not exclusively represent the main place of worship, but most importantly as a symbol of achievement and growth within the current times of construction. Starting in 524, under the influence of Orthodox bishop Ecclesius, the development of San Vitale was to represent the achievements of the emperor Justinian. Julius Argentarius was the sponsor for this structure and it was dedicated by Bishop Maximian in 547. The Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in 692 with the help of Abd al-Malik with the suspected intention to symbolize Islams influence in Jerusalem and its involvement in a highly Jewish and Christian supremacy. Although separated by over 100 yrs, both of these domes share multiple similarity's including a projected confidence of their originating culture.
In the 14th century illustrated books became a very popular form of art in Iran. Dynasties in power in Iran during this period played an important role in the creation and propagation of this form of art (Bahram Gur in a Peasant’s House, n.d.). The Ilkhanid dynasty created several of these illustrated books (Bahram Gur in a Peasant’s House, n.d.). The Ilkhanids, a Mongol dynasty, was in power in Iran from 1258 C.E to 1336 C.E (Bahram Gur in a Peasant’s House, n.d.).
In the Eastern Hemisphere, two of the greatest and most influential cultures both emerge from the Asian continent. From the Ancient World of Islam and Ancient China came some of the greatest contributions to art. Not only did these great cultures develop individually in painting, writing, pottery, and architecture, but influenced one another to great some of the greatest pieces of ancient art known. From the Silk Road, many peoples of Asia, Africa, and Europe traded not only goods, but also ideas about religion, languages, and even methods of creating art. The Ancient World of Islam and Ancient China both succeeding at creating ceramic works of art.
Adas, Michael, Marc Jason Gibert, Peter N. Stearns, and Stuart B. Schwartz. “Abbasid Decline and the spread of Islamic civilization to south and south Asia.”World civilizations. The Global Experience. 6th ed.Vol combined. New Jersey: Longman, 2011. 270-90. Print.