Pattern and the conventions of ornament

Curriculum expectations

C1.1 — demonstrate an understanding of the elements and principles of design, particularly those used in applied and commercial art works, and use terminology related to these elements and principles when creating and analysing art works […]

C2.2 — demonstrate an understanding of various visual arts conventions […] as they relate to the production of applied and commercial art work

Brief

This lesson asks you to understand the elements and principles of design, particularly those used in applied and commercial art works, to use their terminology when making and analysing art, and to understand visual arts conventions. The museum offers one Islamic case: the arabesque, described by an art historian in terms of surface and shape. The design terms themselves and your own analysis are for your class. ¹

Which term from class describes what the record says?

Take one sentence of the record and replace its description with a design term from your class. Ask what the term keeps and what it loses.

What is the convention, and what would break it?

State in one line the habit a maker follows in the case. Then sketch a piece that breaks it, and say what a viewer would notice.

Go deeper

The Encyclopaedia of Islam article on the arabesque says it reached the Christian countries of Europe from Islamic Spain in the late fifteenth century, where it was known as moresque and became fashionable in the first half of the sixteenth century. The article names Hans Holbein among the artists who brought it to Germany, and says that other artists imitated it, mainly in pattern-books for jewellers and armourers, such as the Livre de moresques printed in Paris in 1546. ²

How do we know?

The names of the artists who introduced the arabesque to Italy and France cannot be read reliably in the copy of the article the museum used, so the record leaves them out. ² What the record can name is Holbein in Germany and one printed example, the Livre de moresques of 1546. ² A full list of the artists would have to be checked in the article itself.

Think about it

Pattern-books let a design leave the building where it began and be copied by jewellers and armourers. Take a position and answer the strongest objection to it: is a pattern copied into a pattern-book the same design as the one on the building?

Into the museum

Arabesque: its journey from Islamic Spain to Europe, and what came before.
Al-Andalus: Islamic Spain, from which the article says the arabesque reached Christian Europe.

Try this

Read Arabesque. Describe one pattern in five lines, using the design words from your class.