What is an arabesque and why is it considered mathematics in art. Arabesque, oriental ornament, Arabic script, report What is an arabesque

An arabesque is a complex oriental ornament, consisting of floral, calligraphic and geometric elements. It has received special distribution in Muslim art for a number of specific reasons. According to the canons of Islam, the only creator of all living things can be Allah, to compete with which is a great sin.

The Prophet Muhammad believed that the worship of images of people or animals can return believers to the pre-Islamic practice of serving various manifestations of the material world, alienating them from God. Anthropomorphic images were tabooed here, but a new art form appeared, completely based on mathematical forms and geometric figures.

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The popularity of geometry in the countries of the East is another reason for the emergence of the cult of ornament. Despite the fact that some art historians convince of the accidental appearance of this style, historical notes say the opposite. Thus, in a scroll recently found in Istanbul's Topkapi Palace, 114 geometric patterns for wall and vault painting, developed by a Persian architect in the late 15th - early 16th century, were found.

Interestingly, the arabesque is one of the few artistic manifestations that contribute not to focusing on the image, but to dissipate it. Such an abstraction causes a kind of self-hypnosis, designed so that a believer can free his thoughts from worldly affairs.

The arabesque is built on the articulation and multiplication of one or more fragments of the pattern, and the movement of the patterns can be stopped or continued at any point without violating its integrity.

Most often it is a grid of decorative motifs of a geometric and vegetative nature.

Sometimes the ornament also includes inscriptions made in canonized scripts: “Kufic”, rectangular letters of the Arabic script and cursive handwriting – “naskh”. It is noteworthy that the recesses in the picture were usually painted in blue or scarlet colors, and more convex places were covered with gilding, which added brightness and volume to the whole composition.

The almost complete absence of a background with such a dense filling of space with patterns is half-jokingly called “fear of emptiness” by European art historians. Oriental theologians call it "the ever-continuing fabric of the universe."

Arabesques can be found everywhere - from places of worship to books and household utensils. The calligraphers themselves often call the ornament similar in rhythm and figurative structure to oriental music and poetry.

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Arabesque

ornaments in painting and plastic arts, a bizarre combination of shapes, colors, animals, monsters, attributes, architectural elements, vases and all kinds of objects and tools, created more by the artist's imagination than taken from real life.

ARABESCO. Wilde Stämme of uncultured tribes. - (Römisch) Roman. - (Aegyptisch) Egyptian. - (Assyrisch) Assyrian. - (Pompejanisch) Pompeian. - (Griechisch) Greek. - (Byzantinisch) Byzantine. - (Persisch) Persian. - (Maurisch) Moorish. - (Arabish) Arabic. - (Türkisch) Turkish. - (Romanisch) Romanesque. - (Japanesisch u. Chinesish) Japanese and Chinese. - (Gotisch) Gothic. - (Renaissance) The Renaissance (Renaissance). - (Deutsche R.) German Renaissance. - (Italienische R.) Italian Renaissance. - (Barock) Baroque style. - (Roceco) Rococo style.

Since Arab architecture is especially rich in decorating walls and capitals, it is customary to call arabesques all sorts of fantastic and painted ornaments of various styles, even one that preceded the Arab one. The concept of A. embraces only a part of the field of ornaments. The color pattern of wallpapers, carpets, embroidery, book binding decorations, carvings, vignettes, decoration on utensils, furniture, vessels, if they are not of a strictly sustained style, belong to the area arabesque, on the contrary, plastic decorations of a frieze, capitals, candelabra, as well as colored and non-plastic decorations in a strictly sustained style are called ornaments. Most of all, the colored decorations of the Persians, Turks, Arabs, Japanese and Chinese, as well as partly Romanesque and Gothic frescoes (wall paintings) and strange, bizarre Renaissance decorations (grotesques) are most suitable for the concept of arabesques, in cases where they fall into too fantastic a character. .

Encyclopedic Dictionary F.A. Brockhaus and I.A. Efron. - St. Petersburg: Brockhaus-Efron. 1890-1907 .

See what "Arabesque" is in other dictionaries:

arabesques- Arabesques pl. 1. A type of complex ornament consisting of geometric figures and stylized leaves, flowers, etc., which has become widespread in European art Ch. arr. influenced by Arabic patterns. SIS 1985. Painting consists in ... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

- (Italian arabesco Arabian). A pictorial or sculptural decoration, consisting of a bizarre combination of leaves, flowers, animals, monsters, vases, various figures and all kinds of other objects. Dictionary of foreign words included in the Russian ... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

Arabesque, pattern, pattern, ornament, decoration Dictionary of Russian synonyms. arabesques see pattern Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova. 2011 ... Synonym dictionary

Arabesque Arabesque, Arabesque, Arabesque (French arabesque from Italian arabesco Arabic). Arabesque type of ornament. Arabesque is one of ... Wikipedia

Arabesques, artistic decoration from various broken and crooked patterned styles, as well as flowers, leaves, animals, etc. (in Arabic taste). Wed For a whole hour I can’t get from you how you find this arabesque and an asterisk ... ... ... Michelson's Big Explanatory Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)

Mn. 1. Planar or thin stucco ornament with a complex, usually symmetrical pattern, stylizing plant shoots (sometimes combined with geometric figures, inscriptions, images of people and animals) Explanatory Dictionary of Efremova. T.F.… … Modern explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Efremova

Ornaments in painting and plastic arts, a bizarre combination of shapes, colors, animals, monsters, attributes, architectural elements, vases and all kinds of objects and tools, created more by the artist’s imagination than taken from real life ... Encyclopedia of Brockhaus and Efron

arabesques- incomprehensible (Sologub); motley (Shapir); colored (Fofanov) Epithets of literary Russian speech. M: The supplier of the court of His Majesty, the partnership of the printing press A. A. Levenson. A. L. Zelenetsky. 1913 ... Dictionary of epithets

arabesques- Arabe / ska, Arabe / ski pl. (French Spanish) 1. Folding and dribbling ornament is more important than stylized flowing and geometric motifs, like a whimsically intertwined. Often there will be symmetrically visible one or more axes, indicating ... ... Architecture and monumental art

A rich and complex ornament based on a whimsical interweaving of geometric and stylized plant motifs, sometimes including an inscription. Received development in the plastic arts of the Arab countries. In music, A. is called a play with ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Arabesque

(French arabesque, from Italian arabesco - Arabic) - a genre of instrumental play. The term "A." in architecture and painting denotes complex patterns in Arabic. style. The term was first applied to music by R. Schumann, who called A. his play for piano. op. 18 (1839) in the form of a rondo with contrasting sections in decomp. rhythms. Since then, the term "A." repeatedly used by composers as a name. short play, ch. arr. for piano, as a rule, of an elegant character, with a patterned texture and richly ornamented, "lace" melodic. pattern. A. op. 4 A.K. Lyadova (1878), like Shumanovskaya, are designed in decomp. rhythms. C. Debussy gave the melodies of his A. (1888) whimsical figurative character. A. for the orchestra was written by E. Wolf-Ferrari.

Musical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, Soviet composer. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysha. 1973-1982 .

See what "Arabesque" is in other dictionaries:

ARABESQUE, arabesque, m., and (more often) ARABESQUE, arabesques, f. [fr. arabesque]. 1. A patterned ornament of stylized leaves, flowers, geometric figures, etc. (originated in imitation of the Arabic style). 2. only pl. Collection of small pieces... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

- (French arabesque, literally Arabic), 1) a type of ornament that has developed in Muslim countries and is built on the principle of the endless development of repeating groups (rapports) of geometric, floral or epigraphic motifs, which ... ... Modern Encyclopedia

A piece of music, mainly for the piano, with a whimsical, richly ornamented melodic pattern. The authors of the arabesques: R. Schumann, A. K. Lyadov, K. Debussy and others ...

The European name for the ornament that has developed in the art of Muslim countries. It is built on the principle of endless development and rhythmic repetition of geometric, floral or epigraphic motifs. Differs in multiple rhythmic ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

ARABESCA, and, genus. pl. juice, female 1. A complex patterned ornament of geometric shapes, stylized leaves [original. in Arabic style] (special). 2. pl. Collection of small literary or musical works (books). | adj. arabesque, oh... Explanatory dictionary of Ozhegov

Female sometimes arabesque male. more used pl., artist molded or written decoration, with a belt, a border, from broken and crooked patterned features, flowers, leaves, animals, etc. Arabic numerals, numerical signs, now accepted throughout Europe: 1, 2, 3, etc. ... ... Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary

- (French arabesque, lit. Arabic), the European name for the ornament that has developed in the art of Muslim countries. Built on the principle of endless development of repeating groups (see Rapport) geometric, vegetative or ... ... Art Encyclopedia

I is the European name for the ornament that has developed in the art of Muslim countries. It is built on the principle of endless development and rhythmic repetition of geometric, floral or epigraphic motifs. Differs in multiple rhythmic ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

Quite often people have a question: what is an arabesque? It would be easy enough to explain if there was only one definition. But it is not. Under the same word are different concepts from different areas. Of course, the main definition is related to the pattern. But what else is it? Let's consider.

Ornament

In order to understand the traditions of any nation, you need to know its cultural heritage. One of the most ancient traditions of man is the decoration with all kinds of images of housing, household items, his body. At the same time, ornament is a widely used form of ancient art. It is inseparable from the object on which it is located.

Each beautiful ornament contains a certain motif, which consists of one or more elements. So, in the Arab countries, its special calligraphic type, which consists of fragments of text and letters, has been widely developed. It arose with the advent of writing.

The arabesque is an ornament that appeared in the Middle Ages in those territories of the East where Islam is widespread. There, absolutely all surfaces were decorated with these patterns: from walls to the vaults of mosques. They were also placed on jewelry, dishes, carpets. And after the conquest of the East, the arabesque came to Europe. The most famous masters used this her in their masterpiece works.

Pattern Features

The works of art created by Arab masters are distinguished by some special spirituality, a subtle sense of the sublime and beautiful, and expressiveness. Arabic patterns are unique and distinctive, despite the variety. What are arabesques in Islam? These are ornaments that do not contain images of living beings.

They have geometric shapes, stunning with their grace and immersing a person in dreams and aspirations to know life's secrets. They amaze with their simplicity, reveal the inner world of the master. In addition, the composition of the ornament included plant elements. These are leaves, buds, and stems, which, intertwined, create a continuous pattern. A distinctive feature of art in Islam was the fear of emptiness, so the ornament covered the entire surface, and there was no room for the background at all.

Oriental arabesque as the art of geometry

Because of the ban on the image of living beings, the masters turned specifically to geometry. Thus, the arabesque is an ornament that consists of elements that are repeated and intertwined. They can diverge in different directions. The patterns are characterized by a clear rhythm, which is verified with high accuracy. This is the real embodiment of mathematical science in art. Each individual element was a whole and complete pattern. The next one intertwined with the previous one very nicely. The ornament could end at any moment, and its integrity did not suffer.

Despite the accuracy, such a pattern cannot be called boring. The mathematical approach did not at all deprive the arabesque of artistic value.

Arabesque and its meditative properties

This ornament is fascinating and rhythmic. When contemplating repeating elements, one can very easily drown in an ocean of intertwining patterns. That is why the arabesque can be called an excellent meditative tool. It is in a special way able to disperse attention, thereby forcing you to forget about the external fuss and plunge into the inner world. That is why in many mosques the arabesque was part of the decoration. Her meditative function helped to focus on prayer and forget about other things.

term in ballet

But the named word denotes only an element of fine art. What is an arabesque in ballet? It can be considered one of the main poses in modern classical dance. This is a very important element of choreography, which is found not only in ballet, but also in belly dance. Classical arabesques are divided into four main types.

Allongee

This is the first and main posture, which is also called ouverte. The back plays the most important role here. To perform this element correctly, you need to stand on one leg, and lift the other, elongated and straight, back to such a height that the angle is 90 degrees. The arm that is opposite to the raised leg is extended forward, and the other is taken to the side. The hands at this time should be extended and pointing palms down. Thus, it seems as if they are leaning on the air.

Second position

The legs and body are in exactly the same position as in the first version. The only difference is that the arm that corresponds to the extended leg is extended forward. The other leg is pulled back so that it can be seen behind the body, while the head is turned towards the viewer.

Third and fourth positions

The next element must be performed facing the viewer. The body leans forward and stretches in the back. The arm and leg that are extended match each other. The second leg is taken to the side. The face is turned towards the outstretched hand. The fourth position involves turning the body half-turn to the viewer with his back. The legs are in the third position position and the outstretched arm is opposite the raised leg. The body turns with a strong arch in the back.

It must be said that the dance masters perform arabesques very beautifully and gracefully. This is the real aesthetics of ballet art.

term in music

There is another area where this word is used. Arabesque in music is such a genre of instrumental piece. For the first time, this term in the musical sphere was used by R. Schumann, who called his piece for piano this way. It was in the form of a rondo, and there were contrasting sections in the rhythms. Since then, the term "arabesque" has been used many times by composers to define small piano pieces that have grace, patterned texture. And their melodic pattern is richly ornamented.

term in vogue

In clothes, oriental motifs have long owned the hearts of lovers of unusual clothes. After all, an interesting ornament, bright colors always attract attention. What is an arabesque print? This is a pattern on clothes, which belongs to the oriental and represents plant, animal and geometric patterns. Sometimes Arabic calligraphy is used. All this is endlessly intertwined and repeated, replacing the entire background.

Very often you can trace the symmetry and rhythm in the pattern. It should be clarified that in some European countries an arabesque is a pattern that consists exclusively of plant elements. But in a broad sense, this term refers to all ornate, intricate patterns that have an oriental motif. It may look like an endlessly repeating fragment. This is a feature of the pattern. It is connected into one whole and it is impossible to find either the beginning or the end.

Drawings are both contrasting and multi-color, as well as plain. Different fabric textures can be used, which only adds to the intricacy of the pattern.

Results

So what is an arabesque? The definition, as you can see, has many meanings. I must say that these days the named ornament is very popular. It can be seen on carpets, wallpaper and in the work of artisans. Jewelers, fashion designers, and interior designers are inspired by the arabesque. And the emergence of such trends as dudling is associated precisely with oriental ornament. So what is an arabesque? This is an ornament that has become an integral part of world art.

Ornamentation. Arabesque

In the art of Islam, which is least focused on the depiction of specific images, an important function belongs to ornaments and patterns, which have concentrated in a unique form the enormous possibilities of expressing worldview values.

The most typical creation of Islam in this regard is the arabesque, which reflects the geometric genius and nomadic mentality. Arabesque (it. arabesco, fr. Arabesque- Arabic) - the European name for a complex oriental medieval ornament, consisting mainly of geometric, calligraphic and plant elements and created on the basis of an accurate mathematical calculation. The arabesque covers with its ligature an architectural building, a product of applied art, pages of handwritten books. The very idea of ​​an arabesque is consonant with Muslim ideas about the "eternally continuing fabric of the universe."

The arabesque must be regarded as an example of ornamentation, in which the logic of constructing a geometric pattern enters into union with the living continuity of rhythm. It is based on the repetition and multiplication of one or more fragments of the ornament. The endless movement of the pattern, flowing in a given rhythm, can be stopped or continued at any point without violating the integrity of the pattern. Such an ornament eliminates the background, as one pattern fits into another, covering the surface. The Europeans called it "fear of space". There are two main elements in the arabesque: weaving and vegetative leitmotif. The first, in essence, is the result of geometric speculation, which is reminiscent of a kind of geometrization of the doctrinal system of Buddhism (Chapter 2). While the second is a type of graphic rhythm, expressed in spiral patterns, which, according to experts, may originate not so much from plant forms as from the symbolism of the line. Thus, both themes in the arabesque have, as it were, a single source of inspiration ( rice. 37).

Rice. 37. Window lattice. Mosque of Sidi Sayyid.

In general, it is customary to talk about several types of ornament. The geometric ornament consists of points, lines (straight lines, broken lines, zigzag, mesh-intersecting) and figures (circles, rhombuses, polyhedrons, stars, crosses, spirals, etc.). A floral ornament is made up of stylized leaves, flowers, fruits, branches, etc. A zoomorphic ornament includes stylized images of real or fantastic animals. Sometimes a similar ornament is called "animal style". Anthropomorphic ornament uses male and female stylized figures or individual parts of the human body as motifs. The art of Islam knows many brilliant examples of the simultaneous use of all types of ornament. But it was in the arabesque that the art of ornamentation was brought to the highest degree of perfection.

Vahid Tabrizi, a Persian poet and theorist, likened such ornamentation to the figures of poetic speech: the pictorial decoration of the plane is congenial to the decoration of speech. Moreover, the unifying element here is undoubtedly rhythm. It is known that pre-Islamic poetry, which created outstanding examples and its own poetic dimensions, greatly influenced the entire culture and art of Islam. Moreover, this poetry has always been surrounded by special reverence in the Muslim environment.

The geometric ornamentation of Islam included archaic motifs of ancient nomadic peoples; thus, Islamic ornaments have very ancient roots. Of course, in the system of new worldview values, these motives, as well as all assimilated elements, underwent a significant transformation.

Ethical and aesthetic awareness of ornamental motifs in the culture of Islam was established practically along with the emergence of high art as such, that is, from the moment of the appearance of calligraphy, ornament and architecture in the context of a single statement of the culture of Islam. The Muslim arabesque, according to Sh. M. Shukurov, “is not just an ornament, but that level of abstraction, that stream of consciousness that requires certain preparation for its understanding. That is why the European reader and viewer remain alien and incomprehensible to both the Koranic discourse and the verses of Persian poets, and the fine arts of Islam. All this requires commentary and interpretation. rice. 38).

Rice. 38. Panel with carved inscription

The decisive role in this process of understanding the ornament as an ordered and ordering phenomenon was played by Arabic graphics and the graphic style of thinking in the culture of Islam. Graphics and ornamentation in the art of Islam interact extremely productively with other art forms. (This is generally characteristic of all the art of the East, which we will see, in particular, on the examples of the art of China and Japan.) Evidence of this is the first monument of the high art of Islam - the reliquary of Kubbat as-Sahra (Dome of the Rock) in Jerusalem. In the reliquary, calligraphic inscriptions and ornamental decoration, composed of plant motifs, are found for the first time in an architectural context, defining the iconographic future of the entire program of Muslim art ( rice. 39).

Rice. 39. Qubbat as-Sahra.

The whole course of the history of Islamic art and architecture shows the existence of a connection between architecture, calligraphy and ornament; the pronounced orientation of the temple consciousness of Muslims is the most important starting point here. It is in the temple and in the “field of vision” of the temple that the panorama of the vision of Being a man unfolds. According to the French philosopher-Islamist A. Corbin, "the temple is a place, a source of contemplation."

Floral ornaments in themselves are a very interesting topic, an important part of the Muslim vision. The theme of plant motifs is found in the Qur'an; in the last verse Surah Al-Fath, the faithful are likened to a strong shoot, a stalk. This is an image masal. An interesting motif is the likening of the faithful to plants, demonstrating the unity of Being. It is characteristic that there are parallels to this image in the Christian and Jewish traditions. Thus, the gospel motif of likening the faithful to the “good seed” (Matt. 13:38) is rooted in Old Testament antiquity. 1 Kings says that all the walls of the Temple "inside and out" should be entwined with palm and blooming flowers (6:18, 29, 32, 35). All this is especially significant in the context of Old Testament eschatology, according to which the Heavenly Temple will be established among the people of the new Israel, like a tree among vegetation. In this regard, it is worth recalling some correlations in the symbolism of the cross, in which a person and a plant correspond to the vertical, in contrast to the animal, which is connected to the horizontal.

In Islam and Islamic art, plant motifs have found their way as metaphors for paradise, salvation, and the ideal community of the faithful. The Qur'an says: "Have you not seen how God gives a likeness ( masal); a good word is like a good tree, its root is firm and its branches in heaven? (14:29). According to the Islamic concept, the key to the salvation of the Muslim community and every person is the Good Word and the Good Tree, a pictorial image ( masal) which naturally unfolds in the House of God ( Byte Allah).

An arabesque is a metaphorical image, a figure in one or another context of an utterance. It is believed that in the arabesque a Muslim foresees a well-known and extremely ethical image of his future, realizing the transcendent reality of this image, - since the Temple is first of all real, the eternal tree of culture, the stem of which always remains the faithful. Thus, the arabesque is one of the most important manifestations of the style of culture, focused more on graphic ways of seeing and expressing.

The word as such cannot be fully pronounced, and the tie of the arabesque, a metaphor for the eternal life of the faithful, must remain fundamentally unfinished.

Calligraphic, vegetative, and then geometric configurations create various combinations of the integral spiritual geometry of the universe. "The Science of Decoration" ( ilm al-badi) poetic speech, which was formed in literature in the 9th century, and the “ornamentation” of an artistically crafted “thing” are phenomena of the same order. They are united by ligature and rhythm.

Ornaments with spiral patterns - heraldic animals and vines - are also found in the art of Asian nomads, a remarkable example of which is the art of the Scythians with its famous "animal style". Elements of Islamic decorative art are extracted from the richest archaic heritage that was common to the peoples of the Middle East and Northern Europe. Some archaic elements included in Islamic art, such as a spiral, zigzag lines, circles, stylized animals, etc., connect the ornamentation of Islam with extreme antiquity ( rice. 40).

Rice. 40. Islamic ornaments.

This common heritage, according to T. Burckhardt, resurfaced as soon as Hellenism receded with its essentially anthropomorphic art. Christian mediaeval art also adopted it through the folklore of the Asian settlers and through the isolated art of both the Celts and the Saxons, which became one of the most amazing synthesis of prehistoric motifs. However, this heritage was soon obscured and emasculated in the Christian world under the influence of Greco-Roman models, assimilated by Christianity.

According to researchers, the Islamic spirit has a much closer relationship with the boundless stream of archaic forms, since they (these forms) are in full correlation with the conscious appeal of Islam to the original order, to the "primordial religion" ( din al-fitra). He assimilates these archaic elements and reduces them to the most abstract and most generalized formulations, "geometrizing" them, endowing the ancient symbols with a new intellectual clarity and spiritual elegance.

It is no coincidence that the arabesque has peculiar analogies in Arabic rhetoric and poetry. The rhythmic flow of thought becomes clear thanks to strictly interconnected parallels, inversions, and oppositions. The Muslim arabesque is not just a possibility of art without the creation of images; it is a direct means of gradually disappearing, dissolving images or what corresponds to them on the mental plane, just as the rhythmic repetition of a certain Qur'anic formula dissolves the fixation of the mind on the object of desire. Moreover, the arabesque is an amazing tool that is in service with Islamic art, with the help of which the faithful, as it were, plunge into rhythmic waves, into a special, ecstatic state that brings him closer to the perception of God. In the arabesque, every hint of individual form dissolves into the infinity of continuous weaving; the repetition of identical motifs, the “flowery” movement of lines, and the decorative transparency of forms that stand out in relief and are carved in the same way “reversely analogous” all contribute to this effect.

Thus, in the arabesque, we observe a synthesis of archaic symbolism with the mental sophistication and elegance of Islamic art - in order to solve spiritual problems, and not for purely decorative purposes. The walls of some mosques are covered with glazed ceramic mosaics or weaving of elegant arabesques, which is an excellent illustration of the content of the famous saying of the Prophet Muhammad, according to which God hides himself behind 70,000 veils of light and darkness; if they were all removed, everything that reaches His Eye would be incinerated from His Face. Veils that are made of light veil the Divine Light.