New York, NY, Estados Unidos : Rizzoli International Publications, Editions d'Art Albert Skira, c1977.

209 p. : il. ; 28 cm.

Treasures of Asia

Map showing the Principal Centers of Arab painting. -- Introduction. -- I. Early phases of the pictorial arts. -- The proclamation of universal power (The Umayyad Monuments, 691-750). -- The pleasures of the Court (The early "Abbâsid Period, 9th to mid-12th century). -- The emergent awareness of the everyday world (Egypt and Iraq, 11th century). -- II. The flowering of the art of the book. -- General remarks on the manuscripts of the late 12th to the middle of the 13th century. -- The princely style in the Persian manner. -- Byzantine art in Islamic garb. -- The Arab-Muslim contribution. -- The interplay of cultural strains. -- Fulfillment in Baghdad. -- Life encompassed, I: The external world. -- Life encompassed, II: The agonies of love. -- III. The beginning of the end. -- The impact of the Mongol invasion. -- The formalization of miniature painting in the Bahrî Mamlûk period (1250-1390). -- On styles and production centers. -- The Turkish element in manuscript painting. -- IV. Beyond the material world. -- Koran illuminations from the late 9th to the 14th century. -- V. The final phase. -- Las ventures in Arab painting. -- Appendix. -- Bibliography. -- Index of manuscript. -- General index. -- List of illustrations. --

Tomado de la pasta: "The first reaction of many who hear of this book will be to ask: Does Arab painting really exist? While it is true that the Islamic religion prohibited the representation of the human figure, there were, nevertheless, certain forces at work in the Muslim East which made figural painting possible. One of the purposes of this book is to put the historical record straight and show the unsuspected range and character of Arab painting, a unique and splendid art which can hold its own with others produced in the Middle Ages. The word "Arab" is used here in its wider meaning, to refer to the universal civilization of that medieval empire that had its origin in the seventh century A.D. in a new Arab religion, Islam, which first became a military and political force in Arabia. Despite its Arab origin, Islamic civilization was soon extensively developed by the intellectual power and artistic skill of men of other ethnic stocks (Persians, Egyptians, Berbers, Turks), most of them Muslim, but also of other faiths. The core of this artistic world consisted, however, of the Arabic-speaking countries: Iraq, Greater Syria, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, the other areas between Spain and Morocco in the west and the Iranian plateau in the east. There the art of painting flourished from the late seventh to the fourteenth century. Admittedly the material available for such a book as this is limited. A few monuments with paintings have been brought to light. More numerous are the illustrated manuscripts discovered in libraries. It is symptomatic that less than half a dozen volumes with figural paintings are known to survive in libraries in Arabic-speaking countries; most of the extant manuscripts have been preserved in Turkish and Western institutions. And though relatively few in number, these works suffice to give us a vision of a long-vanished art which by its very existence in the face of virulent opposition showed its vitality."

0847800814

Includes 81 reproductions in full color.

Incluye bibliografía (pp. 193-195).