Islamic Art

Unfortunately I had to miss our classes visit to the Islamic Mosque last Saturday, and instead I had to watch a movie about Islam. I chose the movie Islamic Art II which sounded pretty interesting considering I am an art major. I was very disappointed by the fact that the movie was simply a video tape of a speech given by a visiting artist in 1981. What the artist was discussing was quite interesting, but the video itself was absolutely awful.  The artist, whose name escapes me at this moment, was discussing the treatment of tile work within an Islamic Mosque. He started his lecture by explaining that many styles of tile work from areas such as China and Turkey were adapted by the Islamic people to better suit their aesthetic.  He stated that by looking at the tiles one could immediately notice the Chinese inspiration; however Chinese porcelain dishes were not discovered in the region until about 100 years ago when over 8oo bowls were found.  The tile making process was pretty interesting. In many cases if there were colors showing through the tile, such as turquoise leaves that were distinctly different from the painted surface of the tile, then the turquoise stone would actually be attached to the back of the tile, and would show through a cut out hole in the front.  The visiting artist and his crew actually cleaned the tiles in the mosque in order to view them more accurately. To their surprise, what appeared to be faux marbling actually turned out to be a green ground with white abstracted figures such a ducks and flowers. In one set of tiles the crew uncovered a painted image of two very stylistically painted tigers. This kind of imagery is rare within mosques; however the speaker explained that it is a common misconception to think that there is absolutely no representational imagery in Islamic art. He explained that although it may be rare it is not forbidden in all mosques as many people think.  This can be seen below. 

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