History of art . Mosque of the Al- jaferia, decorative detail. (Museum of Saragossa.) ^ A formula drew from the polygon and brought back to it all the geo-metrical motifs of decoration. ISLAM 243 arabesque which also has neither beginning nor eye cannot come to rest on it. It is Hke thosevoices of the silence that we hear and follow in theirinterminable round when we listen only to ourselves,and when our feelings and ideas are enmeshed con-fusedly in a kind of languid pleasure which we experi-. Granada (xiii and xiv Centuries). Ornaments of the Hallof the Ambassadors in the Alhambra. e
History of art . Mosque of the Al- jaferia, decorative detail. (Museum of Saragossa.) ^ A formula drew from the polygon and brought back to it all the geo-metrical motifs of decoration. ISLAM 243 arabesque which also has neither beginning nor eye cannot come to rest on it. It is Hke thosevoices of the silence that we hear and follow in theirinterminable round when we listen only to ourselves,and when our feelings and ideas are enmeshed con-fusedly in a kind of languid pleasure which we experi-. Granada (xiii and xiv Centuries). Ornaments of the Hallof the Ambassadors in the Alhambra. ence when we allow our consciousness to becomeclosed to the impressions of the world. If the rev-erie aims to reach some conclusion, if the meta-physical abstraction seeks to clarify itself, it canfind no other language—since it has remained out-side of life — than the mathematical abstractionwhich compels the mind to move in an absolute ofconvention. It is singular that the most precise of the languagesthat we employ, the most useful to our modern civiliza-tions, should also be the one which—when we seek dis- 244 MEDIAEVAL ART interestedly the pleasure of its abstract creations—should awaken in us only those sentiments that aremost lacking in precision and most impossible to seizeupon. It is singular that this instrument of puremind should serve only our most material needs, andthat, when used to explore the spiritual world, it shouldbe the most impotent of all in penetrating its myster
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
