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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Edinburgh College of Art : History of Art

Undergraduate Course: Islamic Art and medieval Europe: Artistic exchange and the circulation of objects in the Mediterranean (900-1400) (HIAR10115)

Course Outline
SchoolEdinburgh College of Art CollegeCollege of Humanities and Social Science
Course typeStandard AvailabilityAvailable to all students
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) Credits20
Home subject areaHistory of Art Other subject areaNone
Course website None Taught in Gaelic?No
Course descriptionBeginning with the 9th century a series of local dynasties ruled parts of the southern Mediterranean basin both in relation to and in competition with the Abbasid caliphal capital, Baghdad. In the centres of new towns, religious and palatial architecture were used to construct a political legitimacy and to express an Islamic identity. At the same time these dynasties established alliances and commercial relationships with the northern side of the Mediterranean basin: northern Iberia, southern Italy and Byzantium. These contacts implied an increasing circulation of objects and artworks across geographical, political, and cultural boundaries. Objects such as metalwork, rock crystals, ivories, and textiles were transferred from one place to the other following aesthetic, symbolic, or practical motives. Furthermore in several cases, once the objects were adapted to a new context their function changed. Artistic techniques also circulated widely at the time: the use of Byzantine mosaics as a medium in 10th century Muslim Cordoba and the appearance of Islamic artworks in non-Muslim contexts, such as the honeycomb ceilings in the 12th century Cappella Palatina in Palermo, are example of a fertile interchange between the shores of the Mediterranean.

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Additional Costs None
Information for Visiting Students
Pre-requisitesNone
Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus?No
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Students will gain knowledge of the artistic interchanges between the northern and the southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea during the Middle Ages. Besides providing the basis for understanding the different exchanges between medieval Islam and Latin Christendom (spolia, trade, mobility of craftsmen), the course will offer students examples and keywords to reflect on the life of art objects after their production.
Assessment Information
1 x 2 hour examination (50%) and 1 extended essay [2,500 words] (50%)
Special Arrangements
None
Additional Information
Academic description Not entered
Syllabus 1) Art and Architecture in the Islamic Mediterranean During the Middle Ages
The 10th century was characterized by the emergence of new peripheral powers which challenged the unity of the Abbasid caliphate and dramatically changed the development of Islamic art and architecture. On Mediterranean shores, the Fatimids in Tunisia and Egypt and the Umayyads of Spain tried to legitimize themselves as new Muslim dynasties against the hegemony of the Abbasid caliphate. Like literary sources, art and architecture were consciously used as rhetorical tools by rulers to express cultural links and loyalties. Instead of having one single centre from where artistic and architectural patterns propagated, from the 10th century onwards, the Mediterranean area appears more as a network of interrelated but independent regional capitals.

o Jonathan M. Bloom, Arts of the City Victorious. Islamic Art and Architecture in Fatimid North Africa and Egypt, (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2007), 52-87.
o Robert Hillenbrand, "The Ornament of the World: Medieval Córdoba as a Cultural Center," in The legacy of Muslim Spain, S. K. Jayyusi and M. Marín eds., (Leiden; New York: E.J. Brill, 1992), 112-135.


2) The Great Mosque of Damascus between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
The Great Mosque of Damascus is one of the masterpieces of Islamic architecture. Its artistic and architectural origins must be sought in late antique culture. After its construction, it became a model that several Muslim communities throughout the Mediterranean looked towards when they established their own Great Mosques. The references to Damascus' Great Mosque vary from near replica (Aleppo), to citations of specific architectural devices (Cordoba), to detailed quotations of its artistic decoration (medieval mosaics in Syria and Egypt).

o Nasser Rabbat, "The Mosaics of the Qubba al-Zahiriyya in Damascus: A Classical Syrian Medium Acquires a Mamluk Signature," in Mamluk History through Architecture, (London, I.B. Tauris 2010), chapter VI.
o Barry Flood, "Umayyad Survivals and Mamluk Revivals: Qalawunid Architecture and the Great Mosque of Damascus," Muqarnas 14 (1997): 57-79.


3)The Mosque of Cordoba between Damascus and Byzantium
The Mosque of Cordoba was founded in the 8th century and enlarged several times in the following centuries. Once the Umayyads of al-Andalus claimed the title of caliph for themselves, this mosque became the most important sacred place in the Islamic Western Mediterranean Sea. Its status was elevated through direct references and artistic borrowings from two Mediterranean imperial capitals: Umayyad Damascus and Byzantine Constantinople.

o Jerrilynn Dodds, "The Great Mosque of Cordoba," Al-Andalus: the Arts of Islamic Spain, (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), pp. 11-25.
o Nuha Khouri, The Meaning of the Great Mosque of Cordoba in the Tenth Century, Muqarnas 13 (1996): 80-98.


4) Byzantium and Islam in 12th Century Sicily: The Palatine Chapel in Palermo
The Palatine Chapel in Palermo was built in the 12th century by the Norman rulers of Sicily. Its interior is lavishly decorated with pavements in opus sectile, wall mosaics, and a painted wooden ceiling. The latter is a honeycomb (muqarnas) painted ceiling which both technically and iconographically belongs to the Islamic palatial tradition. This ceiling exemplifies the movement of forms and techniques not only across religious and political communities but also between secular and religious contexts.

o William Tronzo, The Cultures of His Kingdom: Roger II and the Cappella Palatina in Palermo, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997), Chapter I.
o Ernst Grube, "The Painted Ceilings of the Cappella Palatina in Palermo and Their Mutual Relation to the Artistic Traditions of the Muslim World and the Middle Ages," in The painted ceilings of the Cappella Palatina, (London: Saffron Books, 2005), pp. 15-34.


5) Methodologies on cultural transfers in medieval Mediterranean
The widespread circulation of artistic ideas, forms, techniques, and the movement of craftsmen and workshops in the medieval Mediterranean ask for theoretical interpretations. In the last decades scholars have tried to delineate likely cultural patterns in order to explain this phenomenon which involves the direct or indirect contact with the other, the overcoming of the distinction between secular and religious art, and the existence of an international taste shared by the medieval elites in the Mediterranean.

o Oleg Grabar, The Shared Culture of Objects, in Constructing the Study of Islamic Art, vol. 2 (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006), 51-67.
o Eva R. Hoffman, "Pathways of Portability: Islamic and Christian Interchange from the Tenth to the Twelfth Century," in Late Antique and Medieval Art of the Mediterranean World, (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007), chapter 18.
o Hans Belting, "Introduction," in Florence and Baghdad. Renaissance Art and Arab Science, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011).


6) Ivories: Egypt, Spain and Italy
During the Middle Ages, ivory was one of the most precious materials for luxury objects. Traded from distant markets, ivory was worked in various workshops around the Mediterranean, especially in Constantinople, but also in southern Italy, Fatimid Egypt, and southern Spain. Within the Islamic world carved and painted ivory was used for small and intimate court objects such as boxes, caskets, and coffers. The study of their decorative techniques, iconography and epigraphic content can help highlight the differences and similarities between the production of different workshops.

o Anna Contadini, "Fatimid Ivories within a Mediterranean Context," Journal of the David Collection 2 (2004): 227-247.
o Avinoam Shalem, "From Royal Caskets to Relics Containers: two Ivory Caskets from Burgos and Madrid," Muqarnas 12 (1995): 24-38.


7) Islamic Textiles from the "Tiraz" to the Latin World
Several Islamic courts around the Mediterranean had their own tiraz, the royal workshop where textiles were produced and lavishly decorated with inscriptions and figurative motifs. Inscriptions in particular allow an understanding of the rationale for Islamic patronage and the processes of textile manufacture. Islamic textiles also gained in popularity in the Latin world, where they were transferred and reused according to different modalities and purposes.

o Annabelle Simon-Cahn, "The Fermo Chasuble of St. Thomas Becket and Hispano-Mauresque Cosmological Silks: Some Speculations on the Adaptive Reuse of Textiles," Muqarnas 10 (1993): 1-5.
o Cristina Partearrojo, "Almoravid and Almohad Textiles," in Al-Andalus. The Art of Islamic Spain, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992), 105-113.
o Mohammad Abdil Aziz Marzouk, "The Evolution of Inscriptions on Fatimid Textiles," Ars Islamica 10 (1943): 164-166.


8) Islamic Rock Crystals and the Beauty of Light
In medieval times, rock crystal objects were appreciated for their technical features: only highly skilled workshops were able to work this mineral in order to produce perfectly polished and translucent artefacts. In an Islamic context, rock crystals objects - which were mainly produced in Egypt - were generally used in connection with water and light (as drinking vessels and lamps) and decorated with epigraphic and figurative carved motifs. Although they also produced their own rock crystals objects, Byzantium and Latin Europe highly appreciated the beauty of their Islamic counterparts, which were extensively imported and reused in both palatial and religious contexts.

o R.H. Pinder-Wilson, "Some Rock Crystals of the Islamic Period," The British Museum Quarterly 19 (1954): 84-87.
o Avinoam Shalem, "Fountains of Light: The Meaning of Medieval Islamic Rock Crystal Lamps," Muqarnas 11 (1994): 1-11.


9) Reuse of Spolia in Medieval Mediterranean: Booty of War?
Medieval architecture all over the Mediterranean Sea was largely characterized by the reuse of spolia transferred from a building to another. Columns, capitals, and works of marble were the most common spolia circulating in the Middle Ages. The reasons for reusing spolia vary according to time and place: the appreciation for the beauty of one artefact went together with more obvious, pragmatic and political reasons. The phenomenon included reuses of Christian material in an Islamic context and vice-versa.

o Finbarr Barry Flood, "An Ambiguous Aesthetic: Crusader Spolia in Ayyubid Jerusalem," in Ayyubid Jerusalem: The Holy City in Context, 1187-1250, (London: Altajir Trust, 2009), pp. 202-215.
o Lucy-Anne Hunt, "Churches of Old Cairo and Mosques of al-Qahira: a Case of Christian-Muslim Interchange," Medieval Encounter 2 (1996): 43-66.


10) Mudejar Art
Mudejar art is the product of Muslim artists and artisans working under Christian rulers. Developed in Spain after the late medieval Christian reconquista, Mudejar art was organized through a selection of medieval western Islamic techniques and motifs considered suitable by Christian patrons for both their secular and religious artistic production. Mudejar art and architecture not only speak of the movement of objects and artists across political and religious boundaries, but also of the existence of an international taste (connecting for instance Muslim Granada with Christian Sevilla and Muslim North Africa with Christian Spain) which reached its peak in the 14th century.

o Mariam Rosser-Owen, Islamic Arts from Spain, (London: V&A Publishing 2010), 76-107.
o Jerrilynn Doods, "Mudejar Tradition and the Synagogues of Medieval Spain: Cultural Identity and Cultural Hegemony," in Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain (New York: The Jewish Museum 1992), pp. 112-131.
Transferable skills Not entered
Reading list See Syllabus above
Study Abroad Not entered
Study Pattern Not entered
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserDr Mattia Guidetti
Tel:
Email: mguidett@exseed.ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: Sue.Cavanagh@ed.ac.uk
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