History of art . Cordova (viii Century). Interior of the great mosque. to the point of mingling, superimposing, and juxta-posing themselves in squares, circles, bands, ovals,and fans. They passed without apparent effort—likethe soul itself—from exaltation to depression, fromreverie to logic, from rectangular forms to roundedforms, and from the fantasy of the unrestrained curvesto the severities of the geometrical figures. Everythingthat detached from the walls, the nimbars,^ the banis-ters, and the gratings, was embroidered with interlacing ^ In Moorish architecture the term for the niche in t
History of art . Cordova (viii Century). Interior of the great mosque. to the point of mingling, superimposing, and juxta-posing themselves in squares, circles, bands, ovals,and fans. They passed without apparent effort—likethe soul itself—from exaltation to depression, fromreverie to logic, from rectangular forms to roundedforms, and from the fantasy of the unrestrained curvesto the severities of the geometrical figures. Everythingthat detached from the walls, the nimbars,^ the banis-ters, and the gratings, was embroidered with interlacing ^ In Moorish architecture the term for the niche in the mosque indicatingthe direction of Mecca. MO MEDIAEVAL ART lines; stone and plaster were perforated, wood wasinlaid, plaques of bronze, silver, and gold were . An immense system of tapestries and embroideriesseems to be spread over the walls, to cover the arcades,to distribute the light from the windows, and some-. Cairo. Detail of the façade of the Kalaoum Mosque (1284). times to fall on the cupolas and the graded minaretswhere the interlacings and the arabesques becamemore and more complicated. The whole thing becamelike a hanging fairyland, like cobwebs in the greatgarden of space, dust, and sunlight. The arabesque had had its hour of concrete ornament, into which it was to evolve, isnever born spontaneously; it realizes, in the brain of
Size: 1626px × 1537px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectart, bookyear1921
