Pattern, repetition and the surface

This lesson asks you to analyse how elements and principles of design are used in art works to communicate a theme or message, and to judge how well they work by criteria your class has set. The museum links one record on ornament, the arabesque; what a design says and the criteria for judging it are your class's work. ¹

Look at the expectation: it asks how elements and principles of design carry a message. Choose one design and name an element in it, such as line, shape or colour, and one principle, such as repetition or balance. Then ask what each adds.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam article on the arabesque lists several principles that govern the design: reciprocal repetition, the formation of palmette or calyx forms from pairs of split leaves, and the insertion of geometric interlacings, medallions or cartouche compartments. Two aesthetic rules are said to be scrupulously observed, a rhythmical alternation of movement that always has a harmonious effect, and the wish to fill the whole surface with ornament. ² The article says that by its balance and serenity the arabesque avoids the convolution, excitement, restless whirling and violent twisting of the northern ornament with which it otherwise has much in common. ³

Does the arabesque carry a meaning? The article on the arabesque states that it never carries symbolic meaning and is simply one ornament from a large stock. ⁴ Eva Baer, in a later article on ornament in general, observes that ornament can also be interpreted symbolically, since it can communicate ideas or carry metaphor, and adds that the search for the meaning of ornament is still at its beginning. ⁵

The article says the arabesque achieves balance and serenity. If you tested that claim on one pattern, what would you look for, and what result would make you doubt it, and why?

• Arabesque: the definition and principles, and the two articles that differ on meaning.
• Samarran stucco styles: where Yeomans sees the genesis of the arabesque.

Read Arabesque. Pick one motif from it and write one sentence on how it spreads across a surface.