Draft: this lesson was written with AI help and has not yet been read by a human editor.
1 What your class asks
This lesson asks you to explain how elements and principles of design are used to communicate meaning, and to be aware of works of art and artistic traditions from diverse communities, times and places. The museum offers Islamic geometric patterns and the arabesque, as its records describe them. The records do not analyse colour or symmetry; your class can examine that in the works themselves. 1
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- D2.2 explain how elements and principles of design are used to communicate meaning or understanding in their own and others’ art work […]
- D3.2 demonstrate an awareness of a variety of works of art and artistic traditions from diverse communities, times, and places […]
2 Before you start
A thought to carry into the lesson.
3 The lesson
What does a pattern do to a surface?
The expectations ask how design is used to communicate meaning. Look at a repeating pattern and follow one shape in it: where does it begin, where does it repeat, and what fills the space around it?
Go deeper
Walk down a lane in Fez with a writer from long ago. A house is going up, and you can tell by the gravel on the ground: it is chips of coloured glazed terracotta, the leftovers of zellij. In the courtyard the steel hammers of the tile-setters ring as they trim their pieces. Rexford Newcomb copies this picture from Jean Gallotti. 2 Zellij is the ceramic mosaic used to cover floors and walls in Morocco. 2
Think about it
The tile-setters trim each piece with a hammer before they lay it in the pattern. Why would a piece have to be trimmed before it can go in its place, and how do you know?
Into the museum
- Zellij: glazed pieces cut and laid in geometric patterns.
- The Decorative Tiles of North Africa: the monograph that holds the picture of the lanes of Fez.
- Islamic geometric patterns: a short record about stars, polygons and grids.
Try this
Read about Islamic geometric patterns and then about the arabesque. Draw one shape from a pattern and repeat it until it covers a sheet, then describe what the repeating did to the surface.
4 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Islamic geometric patterns have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Stars, polygons and grids. Islamic geometric patterns are repeated patterns of stars, polygons and grids that cover the surfaces of Islamic architecture and art from al-Andalus to Central Asia. Look at one pattern from this tradition: which shapes repeat, and how does your eye move across the surface?
In your own words: what does Arabesque have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
A pattern that respects the surface. In Yeomans's view geometric forms in Islamic art are dynamic and open-ended, rarely coming to rest, and the vegetal arabesque is stylised and two-dimensional, respecting the surface. What would you change in a drawing so that it respects its surface?
I can now