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ARABESQUE
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ARABESQUE , a word meaning simply " Arabian," but technically used for a certain See also:form of decorative See also:design in flowing lines intertwined; hence comes the more metaphorical use of this word, whether in nature or in morals, indicating a fantastic or complicated interweaving of lines against a back-ground. In decorative design the See also:term is historically a misnomer. It is applied to the See also:grotesque decoration derived from See also:Roman remains of the See also:early See also:time of the See also:empire, not to any See also:style derived from Arabian or Moorish See also:work. Arabesque and Moresque are really distinct; the latter is from the Arabian style of See also:ornament, See also:developed by the See also:Byzantine Greeks for their new masters, after the conquests of the followers of See also:Mahomet; and the former is a term See also:pretty well restricted to varieties of cinquecento decoration, which have nothing in See also:common with any Arabian examples in their details, but are a development derived from See also:Greek and Roman grotesque designs, such as we find them in the remains of See also:ancient palaces at See also:Rome, and in ancient houses at See also:Pompeii. These were reproduced by See also:Raphael and his pupils in the decoration of some of the corridors of the Loggie of the Vatican at Rome: grotesque is thus a better name for these decorations than Arabesque. This technical Arabesque, there-fore, is much more ancient than any Arabian or Moorish decoration, and has really nothing in common with it except the See also:mere symmetrical principles of its arrangement. See also:Pliny and See also:Vitruvius give us no name for the extravagant decorative See also:wall-See also:painting in See also:vogue in their time, to which the early See also:Italian revivers of it seem to have given the designation of grotesque, because it,was first discovered in the arched or underground See also:chambers (grotte) of Roman ruins—as in the See also:golden See also:house of See also:Nero, or the See also:baths of See also:Titus. What really took See also:place in the Italian revival was in some measure a supplanting of the Arabesque for the classical grotesque, still retaining the See also:original Arabian designation, while the genuine Arabian See also:art, the Saracenic, was distinguished as Moresque or Moorish. So it is now the original Arabesque that is called by its specific names of Saracenic, Moorish and Alhambresque, while the term Arabesque is applied exclusively to the style developed from the debased classical grotesque of the Roman empire. There is still much of the genuine Saracenic See also:element in See also:Renaissance Arabesques, especially in that selected for See also:book-See also:borders and for See also:silver-work, the details of which consist largely of the conventional Saracenic foliations. But the Arabesque developed in the Italian cinquecento work repudiated all the original Arabian elements and devices, and limited itself to the manipulating of the classical elements, of which the most prominent feature is ever the floriated or foliated See also:scroll; and it is in this cinquecento decoration, whether in See also:sculpture or in painting, that Arabesque has been perfected. In the Saracenic, as the See also:elder See also:sister of the two styles, which was ingeniously developed by the Byzantine Greek artists for their Arabian masters in the early times of See also:Mahommedan See also:conquest, every natural See also:object was proscribed; the artists were, therefore, reduced to making symmetrical designs from forms which should have no See also:positive meaning; yet the Byzantine Greeks, who were Christians, managed to work even their own ecclesiastical symbols, in a disguised manner, into their See also:tracery and diapers; as the See also:lily, for instance. The See also:cross was not so introduced; this, of course, was inadmissible; but neither was the See also:crescent ever introduced into any of this early work in See also:Damascus or See also:Cairo. The crescent was itself not a Mahommedan See also:device till after the conquest of See also:Constantinople in 1453 A.D. The crescent, as the new See also:moon, was the See also:symbol of See also:Byzantium; and it was only after See also:ARABGIR 253 that See also:capital of the Eastern empire See also:fell into the hands of the See also:Turks that this symbol was adopted by them. The crescent and the cross became antagonist See also:standards, therefore, first in the 15th See also:century. And the crescent is not an element of original Moorish decoration. The See also:Alhambra diapers and original See also:Majolica (See also:Majorca) See also:ware afford admirable specimens of genuine Saracenic or Moorish decoration. A conventional floriage is common in these diapers; tracery also is a See also:great feature in this work, in geometrical combinations, whether rectilinear or See also:curvilinear; and the designs are See also:rich in See also:colour; See also:idolatry was in the See also:reproduction of natural forms, not in the fanciful See also:combination of natural See also:colours. These curves and angles, therefore, or interlacings, chiefly in See also:stucco, constitute the prominent elements of an Arabian ornamental design, combining also Arabic See also:inscriptions; composed of a See also:mass of foliation or floral forms conventionally disguised, as the exclusion of all natural images was the fundamental principle of the style in its purity. The Alhambra displays almost endless specimens of this See also:peculiar work, all in See also:relief, highly coloured, and profusely enriched with See also:gold. The See also:mosque of Tulun, in Cairo, A.D. 876, the known work of a Greek, affords the completest example of this art in its early time; and See also:Sicily contains many remains of this same exquisite Saracenic decoration. Such is the genuine Arabesque of the See also:Arabs, but a very different style of design is implied by the Arabesque of the cinquecento, a purely classical ornamentation. This owes its origin to the excavation and recovery of ancient monuments, and was developed chiefly by the sculptors of the See also:north, and the painters of central See also:Italy; by the Lombardi of See also:Venice, by See also:Agostino Busti of See also:Milan, by See also:Bramante of See also:Urbino, by Raphael, by Giulio Romano, and others of nearly equal merit. Very beautiful examples in sculpture of this cinquecento Arabesque are found in the churches of Venice, See also:Verona and See also:Brescia; in painting, the most See also:complete specimens are those of the Vatican Loggie, and the See also:Villa Madama at Rome and the ducal palaces at See also:Mantua. The Vatican Arabesques, chiefly executed for Raphael by Giulio Romano, Gian See also:Francesco Penni, and Giovanni da See also:Udine, though beautiful as See also:works of painting, are often very extravagant in their See also:composition, ludicrous and sometimes aesthetically offensive; as are also many of the decorations of Pompeii. The See also:main features of these designs are balanced scrolls in panels; or standards variously composed, but symmetrically scrolled on either See also:side, and on the tendrils of these scrolls are suspended or placed birds and animals, human figures and chimeras, of any or all kinds, or indeed any See also:objects that may take the See also:fancy of the artist. The most perfect specimens of cinquecento Arabesque are certainly found in sculpture. As specimens of exquisite work may be mentioned the Martinengo See also:tomb, in the See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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