History of art . of a recent enamel that clothes them, the old Chaldean enamelthat ancient Persia had made known to China and thatChina brought back to Iran by the Tartar hordes—the enamel has kept its glassy brilliancy under thecoating of silicate that covers the brick. Violets, blues,and browns, ivory whites, lilacs, yellows, and greens,shine in these enamels, pure or in combinations thatmake rosebushes and anemone or iris flowers overwhite inscriptions and arabesques of gold. The pulpyflesh and the pearly surface of the flowers marry andswell the living garlands that here replace
History of art . of a recent enamel that clothes them, the old Chaldean enamelthat ancient Persia had made known to China and thatChina brought back to Iran by the Tartar hordes—the enamel has kept its glassy brilliancy under thecoating of silicate that covers the brick. Violets, blues,and browns, ivory whites, lilacs, yellows, and greens,shine in these enamels, pure or in combinations thatmake rosebushes and anemone or iris flowers overwhite inscriptions and arabesques of gold. The pulpyflesh and the pearly surface of the flowers marry andswell the living garlands that here replace the abstractarabesque in which the inventive faculty of the Arabs ^ Pierre Loti, Vers ISLAM 251 found its expression. Under the high ogive of thedoors framed with a crust of enamel, the dim glow ofturquoises, amethysts, and lapis lazuli makes a creepingphosphorescence; under the inner crown of the domeswhose rounded softness knows nothing of the mysticimpulse of the desert, the ornaments shaped like. Persia. Elephants fighting, miniature.{Musée des Arts Décoratifs.) honeycomb drip with stalactites. Sometimes theinterior of the cupolas sends forth flashes from platesof glass combined with prisms. It was in an ancient and forgotten period that thepeople spread on the walls the Persian carpets resem-bling dark, plowed earth into which crushed flowershave been pressed. In their place shone enameledbrick when, at the end of the sixteenth century, thegreat Abbas suddenly caused the monumental fairy-land of Ispahan to be built. The Persian school ofpainting which was born at that moment had only tolisten to the counsels of the men who gave the wealthof decoration to the enameled mosques in order to 252 MEDIAEVAL ART reach, through Djahangir, through Mani, and throughBehzade especially, the highest living expression thatMussulman art has known. The whole industry of thepotter, everywhere most ancient and most durable,brought its necessary contribution to this art
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
