Identifier: historyofar02faur (find matches)
Title: History of art
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Faure, Elie, 1873-1937 Pach, Walter, 1883-1958
Subjects: Art
Publisher: New York and London : Harper & brothers
Contributing Library: PIMS - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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theniches and vaults that offered an escape from theworld outside, from the sun and the soil whose torriduniformity heightened the charm of the multicoloredparadises stretching out in the cool shadow and thesilence over the perfumed waters and the soft divans.When linear ornament had attained its full sweep,it invaded the mosque, like the alcazar, from the baseof the walls to the top of the cupolas. Disdainful orignorant of the form of a world that offered little toattract the eye, the Arab had the time to pursue, tocombine, to vary, and to multiply his arabesques.In the interlacing rosework, the polygonal ornaments,the stylized inscriptions, all the ornamental motifs ISLAM 239 issuing together from a vague and subtle imagination,ecstasy, doubt, serenity, and distress were expressedby the obhqueness, the verticality, the waviness, thedetours, and the horizontahty of the hnes. All theornamental motifs corresponded with the obscure andcomplex ensemble of mans feelings and were developed
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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 carved.. . . 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-

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