HALL OF WOOD WORK
Wood is a soft material that man has used for numerous purposes. Wood,
in fact, serves for the construction of houses, manufacture of doors,
windows and partitions, decorations of buildings by covering the walls
and ceilings and for making furniture. Wood is also seen in the houses,
mosques, schools and tombs.
The artist has decorated wood in different manners: in sculpture to
display the decorative elements and in carving to produce profound
designs. To obtain various effects, the artist used it for softening,
interlacing, dovetailing, turning, piercing and chiseling. Sometime he
had inlaid it with precious wood of another color, or by incrusting it
with ivory and shell...
The Arab artist of Syria has been undoubtedly inspired by the
works of his predecessors, but at the same time ,he has not
imitated them blindly. He rather chose from the known elements what
suited his taste and belief. He began by using the floral motifs and
representing them in naturalistic shape. Since the Umayyad period, the
artist has used the carving for setting in relief the decorative
elements within a large background. After the carving, he adorned the
wood with paint and gold. ( See the carved wood and paints of Qasr
al-Hayr al-Gharbi which we have already indicated
).
During the First Abbasid Period, the woodwork maintained the traditions
of the Umayyad Period, but the artist also benefited by the Sasanid art.
An evolution then, took place in the forms of motifs, not directly on
the woodwork but on the garniture of the stucco. This is because when
the artists wanted to decorate the buildings of Samarra , they found
that the old methods (carving in stucco ) takes a longer time, so they
tried to cast the stucco motifs in moulds. They
made the surfaces of these motifs convex so as to facilitate the extract
of these motifs from the moulds. Here they maintained the old shapes of
the decorative elements and this was the first style of Samarra.
The second style is distinguished by the stylization of the motifs which
were removed from reality and by the reduction of the depth.
The third style consists in exaggeration of motifs and complete absence
of background . Here the narrow channels were reduced into sunken single
lines separating one motif from another.
It seems that this modern artistic trend satisfied the purpose because
it was executed both on stone and wood.
We have some wooden fragments in the Hall of ar-Raqqah which represent
the second and the third style of Samarra. The third century A.H. = the
9th century A.D.
The Fatimid artist did not follow the Iraqis, but began to transform the
motifs in his own way until they went to the of being unrealistic
however, he left the background of the motifs deep, He began also to
incline towards softness, precision and diversification of
the decorative subjects.
The Syrian artists of the fourth and fifth centuries A.H. = 10th - 11
A.D. assimilated the Iraqi style of Samarra and that of the Fatimid of
Egypt We have two examples of this synthesis, the wooden panels
displayed in the glass case of this Hall and the wooden partition dated
497 A.H. which we will touch upon in detail soon.
During the 6 - 7 A.H. = 12 - 13 A.D., the Syrian artist devoted himself
to transformation of the decorative elements, sharply realized and
exaggerated details, softness and filling all the gaps with motifs which
he distributed among the zones in the background . He also used the
Arabic calligraphy, the thuluth and the involved Kufic script. A case in
point is the tomb of Khalid b. al-Walid dated 664 A.H.
In this period the artist continued to use the geometrical motifs and
from the involved lines he formed stars and various geometrical shapes.
He adorned the interior with beautiful floral motifs thereof. He
profited by the progress of carpentry notably the tenoning, dovetailing
and hollowing .... then by painting these motifs with colors and gold.
An example of this tendency: the tomb of Princess Bakhti Khatun which
dates back to 648 A.H.
In the Mamluk Period ( 8 - 9 A.H. = 14 - 15 A.D.) the artist abused the
precision and began to use the inlaid work and incrusting of ivory and
shell. An example in this connection ( without
inlaid work or incrusting ) is the stand of the Koran displayed in the
Hall of Manuscripts.
During the Ottoman Period, the Syrian artists maintained the acquired
old traditions, but they once more began to draw near to the
naturalistic style in the floral motifs, They also exaggerated in using
the golden colors and gilding as in the decors of the Damascene Hall and
in certain pieces in this very Hall.
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