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'''Essay 2: Analysing Artistic Styles '''

Islamic art is characterised not as a style or movement, it is 1300 years of history and has amazing geographic diversity. Islamic art is about decoration and the display of faith, using their imagination to induce their beliefs; they used calligraphy, vegetal patterns and geometric patterns. The Muslims believed that all living things were created by God and only God had the right to use them, so figure representation was not allowed, however over time, figure representation was allowed on small scale pieces like cushions. Islamic art is not as widely known and many may think it is underdeveloped in comparison to Western art, but the difference is, in my opinion is, that Islamic art is purely decorative and not as controversial as Western art, it is not thought provoking. Islamic artists’ main goal was to capture beauty in the world, and we think they did.

In the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia (IAAM), there are many different styles of Qurans exhibited, all treated like artworks, mounted and displayed. Some of them show us the different art styles of their period and location. The Quran we want to talk about is the Qajar Iran (Figure 1). In Islamic Revolution, there was three different dynasties: the Zand, Qajar and Pahlavi dynasty. This Quran is from the Qajar dynasty due to its name. The Qajar dynasty took place between 1796 to 1925. Quran showcased Islamic history. We can see a lot of technical aspects, such as calligraphy, painting, and bookbinding. The exterior of the book reminds very much of the Art Nouveau movement; flora and fauna is used to decorate the cover in gold. In Islamic world, the technique of paper making was that they used rags of linen and hemp, not tree pulp. To decorate the book; some tint is added to the paper, sprinkled with gold, and other marble. As we can see, the book is thick but there was a good skill in how they were binding the book. Inspiration of Byzantine art can be seen through the illuminated manuscript technique in many of the Quran interior displayed in the museum, such as the Al-Quran (Figure 2). From the picture, we can see that the interior of Al-Quran is highly decorated with intricate borders surrounding the text. Some of the Al-Quran will also include this technique between the texts. In contrast to the Qajar Iran, the Al-Quran uses a wide array of colours and uses small geometric patterns.

Wood carving has been developed into an art from, particularly in the east coast of the Malay peninsula in houses and even palaces. Cengal or Jati wood is usually used as they are both durable hardwoods. This carved wooden wall ornament shows beautiful movement as the vines twists and curl. Due to its simplicity and lack of embellishments of semi-precious stones, this piece was most likely in the home of an upper middle-class family. As you can see the use of Arabic script is incorporated into the design suitably, panels like these are usually displayed on the central post of the house (tiang seri). The piece is made up entirely out of flowers, vines and leaves, creating this double infinity symbol in the middle, possibly conveying eternal beauty/life of nature or the divine. Leaves and flowers are popularly used as they represent the beauty of mother nature, as images of people or animals are not allowed in Islamic art, as they are seen as a temptation of idol worship.

For me jewellery is categorized as wearable art. It is a snippet in the fashion trends of that time period. Islamic lands are famous for being the origin of the world’s finest jewels and jewellery. However, unlike the Egyptians, the Islamic faith does not condone burying funerary items with the dead so there was no means for pieces of jewellery to be preserved and over time, due to war and times of instability, jewellery pieces unfortunately lost. Islamic societies as well as other Asian societies have favoured diamonds, emeralds and rubies in their jewellery, you can see this especially in Indian jewellery due to the abundance of these precious gems found in the land. This piece (Figure 4) reminded me a lot of Peranakan jewellery, as it looks like Intan jewellery. Intan is the outer skin of the diamond rock, usually rose cut and not finely polish like the modern diamond, so the clarity grade is not that great. However, this necklace has higher grade of diamonds, as you can see from their clarity but they are rose cut just like Intan jewellery are. The necklace is decorated mainly out of a floral pattern with the main centrepiece being a peacock, this shows that the importance of capturing the beauty of the natural world was not only limited to the Islamic people. The interesting thing about this piece is that it is highly decorated on the other side with enamel, creating a new meaning to the phrase “business in the front, party in the back”.

The Turban Ornament was one of the jewellery that shown in the museum, from India where jewellery has been prominent and can be traced back 5000 years ago. Most jewellery from India were in gold and were highly decorated in diamond and other gems. Due to it being made out of gold, most pieces were heavy, they were not as wearer friendly as they are nowadays. From the picture, the jewellery had shown that different sizes and shapes of the stones (diamonds) are used. Various precious and semi-precious stones like emeralds, diamonds, rubies, pearls, sapphires are popularly used in ornamental jewellery like this. There were some artists that used the local flora and fauna as inspiration to design their jewellery, such as shells, teeth, animal claws and so on. As you can see, the middle part of the turban piece resembles a flower and the upper part of the piece slightly mimics the shape of elephant tusks, and elephants are considered as sacred animals in India. Indian craftsmen had a good reputation in cutting precious stones and creating intricate pieces like these. Jewellery displayed someone’s rank and wealth.

In conclusion, many of the pieces in the Islamic museum fit perfectly in the Art Nouveau movement, as most if not all of the pieces were inspired by nature due to religious imperatives. In the Asian art world, everything is interconnect with each other, styles and techniques from different regions come together, that’s why each artwork has elements in them that come from different countries and cultures. It’s a real mixing pot of styles. And this is not just limited to artworks, it is common to see styles overlap in clothing, architecture and even food. I believe this is an amazing feature that comes across in the Asian World. We are all so appreciative of each other’s sense of design that we keep creating new ways/variations of it; so that the original idea has morphed and developed into another original design, gathering aspects from each culture and becoming a symbol of diversity.

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