Critique and Analysis of Decorative and Ornamental Components in Islamic Art from the Perspective of Oleg Grabar

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD Student in Art Research, Art University of Tehran,

2 Assistant Professor of Faculty of Theories and Art Studies, Art University of

3 Assistant Professor of Faculty of Theories and Art Studies, Art University of Tehran

10.22070/negareh.2023.17749.3234

Abstract

The issue of decoration in the historiography of Islamic art has been a matter of discussion since the formation of Orientalist approaches to Islamic lands. In the 20th century, historians focused on methodology and definitions of decorative motifs. Contemporary research continues to publish on the definition of Islamic decorations. Various methods and approaches have been proposed in this field, one of which is the historical approach of Oleg Grabar. He has attempted to establish principles and a framework for understanding the meanings of decoration in Islamic art and for interpreting them. Considering the influence and importance of Grabar's ideas in contemporary research on Islamic art, the aim of this study is to analyze and to explain Grabar's theoretical framework concerning the ambiguous nature of decoration in order to gain a better understanding of Grabar's approach.
Therefore, this study is seeking to answer the following questions:
1-What are the theoretical pillars of Grabar's theory regarding ornament?
2-Based on Garabr's theory, what perceptions can the audience have when facing ornament?
 
Instant pleasure is based on the inherent visual perception of humans and does not require prior knowledge. As soon as a work is seen, instant pleasure is conveyed to the individual without being aware of its inner meaning and concepts. Grabar discusses the relationship between ornament and reality. In fact, association is the creation of a visual language that does not remind the audience of any meaning or example, and this image does not have direct external accuracy.
In mediation, the ornament is referred to as an implicit and essential way of connecting objects or artworks on the one hand and the audience and user on the other.
Grabar also identifies various types of audience perceptions of ornament, including formal perception, expressive perception, iconophoric perception, and Optisemic perception.
Formalistic perception, according to Grabar, is when the audience sees and understands a collection of shapes and colors without bringing any particular iconic meaning to the mind. In fact, in formal perception, the audience only sees abstractions and patterns in which a specialized person may also discover symbolic meanings.
Grabar sees expressive perception as a judgmental perception of the audience. For example; if we feel fear or power from seeing a painting.
Iconophoric perception, according to Grabar, is a perception in which recognizable meanings are transmitted to the audience. For example, a viewer familiar with Shiite and Islamic culture reads the name “Ali”, which an unfamiliar person would not recognize.
Optisemic perception is the perception on which Grabar emphasizes the most. According to him, this perception is a tangible reminder for the audience. This identification initiates an initial sensory pleasure, and after the initial pleasure, intellectual, formal, and interpretive values are formed for the audience.
Each audience member may experience one of the three formal, expressive, or iconic perceptions, and each generation or subculture continues to reinterpret human creations based on their own needs and motivations and reacts to them accordingly. To sum up, the historical identification and classification of the changes in ornament is indeed based on two factors of the cultural influences of the environment as well as the continuation and development of motifs. Though, Grabar seeks to find a possible common ground beyond the examination of cultural influences of ornaments or following the changes and transformations of motifs to define the nature and manners of the infinite variety of types of ornaments in the Islamic civilization. As a matter of fact, in order to reach a unified and universal theory with the potential and capability of explaining all the ornaments in the Islamic territory, Grabar presents a clear and particular definition of ornament and Islamic decoration in which he undeniably is to an extent inspired by the theories of either his contemporary Western theorists or his predecessors.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Alberti, Leon Battista, 1991, On the Art of Building in Ten Books, The MIT Press.
Ballard, Elder M. Russell 1996, Filling the world with goodness and truth, Ensign, 10 -14.
Bloomer, kent, 2006, A Critical Distinction between Decoration and Ornament. In Abruzzo Emily & Jonathan Solomon.
Carlson-Reddig, Kelly, 1996, detail I, Detail I, Ornament, and decoration: A Taxonomy. Proceeding of 84th ACSA annual meeting: theory and criticism.
Coomaraswamy, Ananda, 1977, Ornament , Selected Papers I. Traditional Art and Symbolism, Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
Criticos, Mihaela, 2004, The ornamental dimension: Contributions to a theory of ornament, New Europe College Yearbook Special.
Crowther­, Paul, 1994, More Than Ornament: The Significance of Riegl, Art History, Volume17, Issue3.
Diamond, Murice, 1930, A handbook of Mohammedan Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Arts.
Harries,  Karsten.,1998, The Ethical function of Architecture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Flood, Finbarr Barry­, 2019, Bodies, Books, and Buildings. Economies of Ornament in Juridical Islam, Clothing sacred scriptures. Book art and book religion in Christian, Islamic and Jewish cultures p. 49-68
Hillenbrand, Robert, 2012, Oleg Grabar: the scholarly legacy. Journal of Art Historiography, (6), 1
Hogarth, William, 1753, The analysis of beauty: Written with a view of fixing the fluctuating ideas of taste. Georg Olms Verlag.
Grabar, André, 1969, Christian iconography: a study of its origins, The AW Mellon lectures in the fine arts ,35.
Grabar, Oleg, 1992, The Mediation of Ornament. Princeton University Press.
Grabar, Oleg, 2006, The Aesthetics of Islamic Art, In Islamic Art and Beyond, volume III, Constructing the Study of Islamic Art. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2006.
Grabar, Oleg, 2006, Art and Architecture, In Islamic Art and Beyond, volume III, Constructing the Study of Islamic Art. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited.
Grabar, Oleg,1994, Different but Compatible Ends, In Islamic Art and Beyond, volume III, Constructing
the Study of Islamic Art. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2006. First published in Art Bulletin, 76.
Grabar, Oleg, 1982, On the Universality of the History of Art, Art Journal 42.‏
Grabar, Oleg, 2003, From the icon to aniconism: Islam and the image, Museum international 55.2
Grabar, Oleg, 2004, An Art of the Object, In Islamic Art and Beyond, volume III, Constructing the Study of Islamic Art. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing­.
Gombrich, Ernest,­1980, The Sense of Order: A Study in the Psychology of Decorative Art, Newyork University Press.
Jones, Owen, 2016, The Grammar of Ornament: A Visual Reference of Form and Colour in Architecture and the Decorative Arts-The complete and unabridged full-color edition. Princeton University Press.
Ivins, William. M,­1933, The Philosophy of Ornament, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 28.5
Kennedy, John. M, 1974, A psychology of picture perception. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
Kuhne, Ernst, 1983, The Arabesque: Meaning and Transformation of an Ornament, Published by Verlag Fur Sammler, Graz.
Massey, Jonathan, 2013, Ornament and Decoration, The Handbook of Interior Architecture and Design. A&C Black.‏
Moussavi, Farshid & Kubo, Michael, 2006, The Function of Ornament, Cambridge: Actar.
Morrall, Andrew, 2017, Ornament as evidence, In History and material culture (pp. 51-70), Routledge.‏
Palaguta, Ilia, 2020, Studies of Ornament: Main Trends and Prospects, Вестник СПбГУ. Искусствоведение, Т. 10.
Papapetros, Spyros, 2012, Ornament and object-ornament as object, Journal of Art Historiography 7.
Rabbat, Nasser, 2010, Mamluk history through architecture: Monuments, culture and politics in medieval Egypt and Syria, Bloomsbury Publishing.
Riegl, Alois, 2018, Problems of Style: Foundations for a History of Ornament, Publisher: Princeton University Press.
Rose, Gilbert. J, 1991, Abstract Art and Emotion: Expressive Form and the Sense of Wholeness, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 39(1).
Ruskin, John, 1886, The Stones of Venice: The Foundations, Vol 1.
Rykwert­, Joseph, 1991, On the Art of Building in Ten books, The MIT Press.
Sedgwick, H. A, 2022, Ibn al-Haytham’s ground theory of distance perception. I-Perception, 13(5).
Shalem,­ Avinoam &Troelenberg­, Eva-Maria, 2012, Beyond Grammar and Taxonomy: Some Thoughts on Cognitive Experiences and Responsive Islamic Ornaments, Beiträge zur islamischen Kunst und Archäologie, Band 3: In memoriam Marianne Barrucand, Wilesbaden.
Smith, sara, 2019, A Meeting of Two Minds: Oleg Grabar and Amy Goldin on the Met's Islamic Galleries , With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972-1985, Yale University Press.
Stamatopoulou, Despina, 2008, Embodied imagination and expressive perception as fundamental mechanisms of our engagement with art, Tuesday August 19.
Thomas Thiis-Evensen, 1987, Archetypes in Architecture, Oxford University Press, Oxford and Norwegian University.
Thiis-Evensen, Thomas, 1987, Archetypes in Architecture. Norway: Norwegian University Press.
Trilling, James, 2003, Ornament: a modern perspective. University of Washington Press.
Ward, James, 2010, The Principles of Ornament, Nabu Press.
Ward, James, 1909, Historic ornament treatise on decorative art and architectural ornament, Chapman and Hall.
Etynonline.com
www.almaany.com
www.metmuseum.org
www.khanacademy.org
www.sothebys.com
 
 
Negareh Journal
Volume 20, Issue 73
April 2025
Pages 41-55

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 19 April 2023
  • Revise Date: 31 August 2023
  • Accept Date: 05 September 2023

Share

How to cite

Statistics