Arabic ornament. Ancient national ornament
To understand and understand the traditions of the people is possible onlythrough its cultural and artistic heritage. The most ancient activity of a person is the adornment with different images of himself, his clothes, home, various objects, tools, weapons. A widely used form of art is the ancient ornament. It can not be separated from the object on which it exists. But more often it is more valuable in itself and is a work of art. In style there are geometric, vegetative, in appearance - picturesque, sculptural, graphic ornaments. Any beautiful ornament carries a certain motif consisting of one or several elements. This set of elements in the ornament is always designed as a single work. By the way images of elements, by how the master created a pattern of patterns, how he combines motifs from flora or fauna with material or geometric motifs with the shape of an object, you can determine the cultural and historical roots of the ornament, belonging to its specific people.
And when the ornament is classified, at firsttalk about its origin, and then determine the purpose and content. The value of the ancient ornament, in all its national diversity, in the development of modern forms of applied art can not be overestimated.
Classification of the variety of ornaments
Drawings decorating pottery, and chasing onsilver trays; pattern of patterns on ancient self-made carpets, fabrics; a specially woven rope - ornaments of this type arose as a result of people's activities (as they later began to say - professional), and therefore are called technical. In the countries of the East, various symbols and signs were often woven into the ornament. This type is called symbolic. And the combination of symbols with complex technical elements without a certain plot gave a wide development to the geometric type. This is gothic and ornaments in Arabic style.
Plant type is considered the most commonand ancient. The motifs here are from exact copies of flowers, fruits, leaves of plants to unrecognizable stylization. And here each people has their favorite and revered plants. Just like in animal designs, ancient masters depicted the wild animals they hunt, or those that are sacred to them, as well as those living next to them and therefore particularly revered.
At the heart of the same fantastic type of ornament lienon-existent plants or animals. Ancient Rome, where especially loved the subjects with objects of theatrical and musical art, luxurious life or military weapons, is the birthplace of the subject ornament. The sky and stars, the Sun and the Moon are elements of astral ornaments, characteristic for China and Japan. Immediately there was born a beautiful ornament of landscape type: on it mountains, rivers, waterfalls, forests and fields. In the Arab countries, a special, calligraphic type of ornament that developed with the advent of the first written language, consisting of letters and fragments of the text, was widely developed. All types of ornaments rarely exist in pure form, more often they intertwine, penetrate and complement each other.
Features of Arab works of art
The works of art created by the peoples of the countriesthe Arab world, are distinguished by a special spirituality, expressiveness, a subtle sense of beauty and exaltation. Arabian patterns and ornaments are unique and original with amazing diversity. The basis is the Muslim religion, which prohibits the depiction of man, animals, in general, living beings. Therefore, for example, Arab ornament rarely includes elements of fauna, and then in a stylized form. Islamic culture is closer to geometric motifs, which are overwhelmed by the sense of continuity of movement and immerse a person in a world of contemplation, dreams, aspirations to learn the secrets of life.
Arabic ornament is the basis of the plastic creativity of Muslims, what became the art of artistic representation of words, sayings, aphorisms from the sacred Koran for them - calligraphy.
Ornament as a kind of art of the Arabs
Studying the patterns and connections with the society of ornamental art makes it possible to apply everything progressive from the past in art today. Arabic Ornament as the most important the component of the fine and distinctive art of the East has a special aesthetic content and is a most valuable part of world culture.
Forms amazing complexity and serene calm, they get used to reality and become a barrier between the world and man. Arabic Ornament reveals the deep inner world of its creatorsmasters. It seems that they have learned to manage their own talent, enriched by experience, in order to reproduce so subtly all the shades of human experience. To fully reveal the conceived motive of the Arabian ornament, the master uses different forms, giving them a new sound with the help of the language of color and light.
The figurative element dominates, and ornamentsArab masters seem to be voluminous, dynamic. Creatively transforming the whole space, the authors blur the boundaries, transforming their work into the embodiment of a dream. This is a very important feature that distinguishes Arabic designs and ornaments from any others.
Law of rhythm in ornament
For a man, the phenomenon of rhythm is familiar. Day and night. Sleep and wakefulness. Therefore, we are waiting for him in works of art: in music and versification, in painting and architecture. Rhythm is the order. Violation or absence of rhythm disturbs or even irritates. It is thanks to the presence of the rhythm that we are happy and full of wonder, admiring the beauty of works of art of Arabic ornamentation on plaster, brick, wood, copper, silver. It seems that the master combined the rhythm and material of the ornament, emphasizing the beauty and value of the material. Different elements of the ornament are subject to a certain rhythm, and in relation to each other they are in rhythm. The master of Arabic ornament is akin to a conductor in an orchestra. Therefore, these works of ornamental art are so harmonious.
Types of Arabic Ornaments
To understand where they derived their inspiration fromArab masters, you need to imagine the endless deserts of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula: an open, boundless space, riddled with winding paths, rivulets, hills. Before your eyes, the gilding of sand merges with the bright blue of the sky and rivers, and the winding fragrant greens and unusually bright flowers are closer to the water. The masters adapted and adapted in the ornament everything that for centuries surrounded them. There are a lot of motives. There are recognizable elements, for example, from the ancient culture, and there are so abstract that it is almost impossible to learn the prototype. An important element in the Arabic ornament is the knot. The roots of this - in the Muslim religion. In the East, a variety of images of a knot in ornamentation have a benevolent meaning for a long life, happiness. It is often used not just for communication, but for transforming one type of ornament into another and further into something completely abstract.
Girikhov knot
Girich is a geometric type of ornament.The main elements are figures: a circle, an oval, a triangle, a square, polygons. They are all symbols on which the universe is built. For example, the circle represents the center and movement, the square is associated with order and clarity. From these figures-symbols Arab masters, repeatedly twisting and overlapping one another, create the most complicated, mathematically precisely verified ornament.
And if you look at Arabic designs in general(in a mosque, for example), then the combination of geometric shapes in space admires. Admits the accuracy of the selection of the ornamental pattern with the shape of the arches of the galleries, the shape of the windows. What an amazing color solution of the ornamentation on the ceiling and walls, on the pediments and on the floor! All this separately and together volumetrically due to the play of light and shadow.
Islimi - the path to the divine garden
The basis of this Arabic ornament - imagesan infinite spiral with leaves and flowers. It's like a symbol of a continuous journey to the Garden of Eden or the idea of an uninterrupted development of a blossoming green shoot. Islimi ornament has five forms: braided, simple, bifurcated, almond-shaped and winged. These forms do not exist separately, they are supplemented and filled with other motifs of the Arabian ornament, which does not tolerate emptiness.
Khatai is a simplified islimi. The same stems and branches, but abstract. In Arab countries, it is often used on the facades of houses, with the painting of pitchers and in carpets.
Islamic arabesque
Throughout the Islamic world, a common typeornaments is arabesque. They are decorated with household items, and secular buildings, and religious buildings. This type of ornament is based on repetitions of fragments in a certain rhythm and does not carry in itself any image. It virtually eliminates the background, because the elements fit one into the other.
In the continuous weaving of the pattern, the form cthe eternal Arab hint of infinity. The main elements of arabesques are parts of plants and interlacing, united in a unique ligature that goes to infinity.
Arabic calligraphy
Special decorative quality in Arabiccalligraphy. The emergence of the alphabet and writing is generally considered the greatest invention of mankind. The ancient inscriptions on the stones from the village of Nabat, which have survived to this day and executed in pre-Islamic times in Arabic, confirm that the Arabs borrowed the alphabet from the neighbors of the nabat people living in the northeast of the Arabian Peninsula. For Muslim Arabs, the knowledge of the alphabet and the ability to read were sanctified and encouraged by the Koran. The Arabic language is, in fact, the language of this sacred book for any Muslim. And as the Koran, it became a unifying factor for the Arab people. They used to communicate and write educated people from any class with different religious views. This is the real democratic meaning of Arabic writing. And naturally, he became an instrument of creativity. Masters of calligraphy, especially those who wrote using the method of nonsense (he wrote the Koran), occupied a privileged position in a society close to power. Arab calligraphy is an art noble, sublime and unifying. Thanks to her, the sacred in the Quran acquired a tangible form. Very often masters of wall ornaments inscribed Arabic calligraphy in their works in the form of sayings from the Holy Scripture: "Praise to one God", "Power belongs to God"; or individual words: "Happiness", "Life", "Eternity".
