YSA TATIAA LLUISMA 2007-33726

The Manifestations of the Classical Tradition in Muslim Art

I. Overview of Classical tradition

Classical learning can be traced back to the period from around 1000 B.C.E. to around

500 C.E in Greece. This so-called Classical Period was the foundation of ancient wisdom which

would hold influence up to this day in the classical tradition. This tradition is in accordance to

the tenets: proportion and symmetry, balance, the concept of the “Ideal”, harmony, consistency,

which are attributed to Ancient Greeks. Classicism is characterized with the dominance of logic,

rationalization and repression; by repression, I mean the lack of exaggeration. The foundatioin

styles of Ancient Greece denote the classical tenets: geometric, orientalizing, archaic.

The geometric style is usually funerary and rigid in design. An example is the Dipylon

Vase, c.750 BC.

Towards 800 BC, humans and animals appeared in geometric pottery, succeeding the

abstract designs that came before. The vase depicts the dead man, the mourners and the funeral

procession. Norris (2000) explains that:

 The width, density, and spacing of the bands are subtly related to the vessel,
but interest in representation is minimal. The figures are highly stylized and
repeated at regular intervals; this is a silhouette style that cannot
accommodate overlapping. The figures merge into an overall decorative
pattern.
The Dipylon Vase shows that abstract, geometric designs preceded human and animal

designs. The geometric style is based upon rectilinear and curvilinear forms. It manifests the

clarity and order that are, perhaps, the most salient characteristics of Greek art (Norris, 2000, p.

31).

The orientalizing style looked up to influences from Egypt and the East; it developed a

more naturalistic design. Greek artists rapidly assimilated foreign styles and motifs into

new portrayals of their own myths and customs, thereby forging the foundations of Archaic and

Classical Greek art (Norris, p. 32). An example is the amphora (vase for storing wine or oil) from

Eleusis.

Norris describes it as:

Compared to the Dipylon Vase: ornamentation is secondary; the major areas

are given over to storytelling and figural representation of heroes, gods,
monsters. This shows the blinding of the giant one-eyed Cyclops
Polythemos by Odysseus and his companions, who the giant had
imprisoned.
 Around this time, representation is given importance and there was more

interest in mythological scenes and iconography.

The archaic style is characterized by development not just in pottery and

geometric designs, but especially in sculpture and painting of the Greeks. An example

is the vase by Psiax, Herkales Strangling the emean Lion, c.525 BC, which depicts a

man facing terrifying creatures, with heavy bodies locked in combat.

According to Norris, “Archaic vase painting introduces signatures of artists,

distinctive artists’ styles and some of the first clearly defined personalities in the

history of art; this was the great era of vase painting. This vase represents the

black figure technique, in which the entire design is silhouetted in black against

the reddish clay and all internal details are incised; this technique favors a layered,

two-dimensional effect that complements the curvature of the vase”.

The different styles shown in Greek pottery show the development from

abstract designs to representational ones, though the idea of symmetry and balance

remained.
 The classical tradition, though, also left its legacy in architecture and sculpture.

The Parthenon and the sculpture of David will discussed as examples, respectively.

The artworks aforementioned will be bases of comparison for Islamic art on the

later part of this paper.

The Parthenon, dedicated to the goddess Athena, is the greatest temple in

Athens. This temple is of the Doric design and is made of white marble. It

represents the architectural order characterized only to Greek temples. The temple

is governed by a structural logic that makes it look stable and satisfying because of

the precise arrangement of its parts; it shows internal consistency, harmony, and

balance since the Greek orders a premium on design in architecture (as opposed to

mere building); symmetry and proportion are paramount (Norris, 2000).

A temple’s primary function was religious, its form and situation set to serve the cult of a

divinity. The interior of the building usually contained a statue of the god or gods celebrated

there and a treasury for the storage of precious offerings (Norris, p.41). Furthermore, the
Parthenon on the acropolis symbolizes the might of Athena. In order to fully grasp the

manifestation of classical tenets in the temples of Ancient Greece, Norris points out:

The form of a Greek temple was not a space inviting entry, but rather a sort
of abstract sculpture marking a place in the world. The temple incorporated
a stepped base of oblong plan, rectangular rooms for the main statue and
offerings, and one or more rows of columns surrounding all four sides. The
vertical structure of the temple conformed to an order, a fixed arrangement
of forms unified by principles of symmetry and harmony… In a Greek
temple, however, the order governed not only the column but the
relationships among all the components. As a result, every piece of a
Classical temple is integral to its overall structure; a scrap of molding often
can be used to reconstruct an entire building. (p.43)

The marble sculpture of a wounded Amazon, represents the classical elements

of the “Ideal”, symmetry, balance through the contraposto, and proportion. The

contraposto is a stance which is balanced, weight-bearing and free, tensed and relaxed,

bringing about subtle displacements; these make it seem more “alive”.

 The sculptural style, known today as Classical, emerged after the Persian Wars. Norris

notes:

It informed figures with a noble awareness and restrained emotion that

evoked the virtues of moderation and self-control to which the Greeks
attributed their victory over the Persians.The Classical style retained the
geometric principles of earlier periods, but for the first time represented
human beings naturalistically as self-conscious individuals.This
achievementwas coupled with a remarkable tendency toward balanced
compositions and formal harmony, which can be seen in sculpture large and
small. (p.37)

The sculpture is that of an Amazon, a mythical race of warrior women from Asia Minor which

were often depicted in combat with such heroes as Herakles, Achilles, and Theseus. This statue

is supposedly a fugitive from the war who lost her weapons and is bleeding from a wound near

her right breast. This, however, is not adversely reflected on the Amazon’s face since it shows

little sign of pain or fatigue. “She leans lightly on a pillar at her left and rests her right

arm gracefully on her head in a gesture often used to denote sleep or death. Such emotional

restraint was characteristic of Classical art of the second half of the fifth century” (Norris, p.126).

At the fall of the Roman Empire, the classical civilization declined and suffered a great

loss as books and libraries were destroyed. However, with the help of Persian kings, people who

gathered and taught at Jundi-Shapur, Persia, translated, copied, and discussed many books.

Greek learning was preserved by way of copying and translating. The rise of Islam in the 6th

century especially played a role in preserving classical learning. Having a high value on

learning, the Muslims preserved what they could and translated ancient writing into Arabic.
 The remnants of ancient knowledge have survived throughout history as the idea of

classicism. Baignet (2003) characterizes classicism as, “Aesthetic attitudes and principles based

on culture, art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and characterized by emphasis on

form, simplicity, proportion, and restrained emotion”. Classicism, then, is regarded as an idea

rooted from the Ancients, rather than the time period of the Ancients. Baignet further explains

that, “Classicism is an all encompassing ideology with a few basic rules and regulations, but over

time it has become somewhat flexible with the changing tastes”. In this paper, particularly,

classicism is placed within the context of Islamic art and its manifestation in Muslim “taste”.