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 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
Curriculum expectations, with their official codes
- D2.2 analyse ways in which elements and principles of design are used in a variety of art works to communicate a theme or message, and evaluate the effectiveness of their use on the basis of criteria generated by the class […]
2 The lesson
How does the design do its work?
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.
Go deeper
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
Two views
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
Think about it
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?
Into the museum
- Arabesque: the definition and principles, and the two articles that differ on meaning.
- Samarran stucco styles: where Yeomans sees the genesis of the arabesque.
Try this
Read Arabesque. Pick one motif from it and write one sentence on how it spreads across a surface.
3 Check yourself
Nothing here is marked or sent anywhere. It is for you.
In your own words: what does Arabesque have to do with this lesson?
Compare with the card
Leaves that become pattern. Yeomans sees the genesis of the Islamic arabesque in Samarra style B, where leaves and palmettes become abstract, lose their stems and are organised into the surface geometry of polygons and polylobes. In his view the vegetal arabesque is stylised and two-dimensional, respecting the surface, unlike closed, naturalistic Graeco-Roman ornament. By what criteria would your class judge whether such a design works?
I can now
Notes
- 1. Ontario Ministry of Education, The Ontario Curriculum: The Arts
- 2. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes, vol. 1 p. 583
- 3. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes, vol. 1 p. 585
- 4. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes, vol. 1 p. 586
- 5. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition (Leiden: Brill, 1954–2008), 13 volumes, vol. 11 p. 438