Monday, October 13, 2008

L'Art Arabe

mosquée cathédrale de Qous - décoration en faïence (XVIe. siècle)


panneau ovoïde de faïence


parallèle de dômes


Arabesques - double frontispice d'un Qorân mauresque (XVIIIe. siècle)


Arabesques - fragments d'ornementation d'un Qoran du tombeau de soultan el-Ghoury (XVIe. siècle)


Arabesques - fragments d'ornementation d'un Qoran du tombeau de soultan el-Ghoury (XVIe. siècle) a


Arabesques - fragments d'ornementation d'un Qoran du tombeau de soultan el-Ghoury (XVIe. siècle) b


incrustations en stuc sur pierre (du XVIe. au XVIIIe. siècle)


mihrab de la mosquée de Cheykhoun - faïences murales


mosquée d'El-Bordeyny - frises et bordures des petites chambres (XVIIe. siècle)


mosquée d'El Nesfy-Qeyçoun - détails des boiseries du mihrab (XIVe. siècle)


mosquée de Thelay Abou-Rézyq - détails du mimbar (XVe. siècle)



mosquée de Thelay Abou-Rézyq - détails du mimbar (XVe. siècle) a


Gâmá el-Seydeh Zeynab - chemsah ou vitrail en plâtre ajouré (XIVe. siècle)


vase en cuivre étamé - détails d'ornementation


étoffe de tenture (XIIe. siècle)


études de feuilles & de fleurons peints sur faïence (grandeur d'exécution)


armes de Toman-Bay - ensembles et détails (XVe. siècle)


'L'Art Arabe d'après les Monuments du Kaire Depuis le VIIe Siècle jusqu'à la fin du XVIIIe', 1877 by Émile Prisse d'Avennes at NYPL. More than two hundred plates. Sublime.


"'L'art Arabe', a rare collection of breathtaking set of plates (wood engraving, heliogravures and color lithographs) of the famous Islamic-Arab designs and ornaments published by the French art historian Prisse d'Avennes sometime during 1869 after buying them from the sixty or so French artists who accompanied Napoleon Bonaparte on his compaign against Egypt in 1798. Those selective group of artists were assigned by the Emperor to illustrate the art treasures of rare architectural ornament (tiles, wood carvings, paintings on walls and ceilings, woven hangings), carpets, paper appliques and illuminated books.

After the failure of the Emperor's campaign, those artist dispersed in the Arab land, each to his devices, depicting in overwhelming illustrations the riches of the Islamic Arab east. It took Prisse d'Avennes more than twenty years to collect those masterpieces and then to publish them in exquisite plates with incredible accuracy, stating that his principal goal was to furnish exciting visual ideas to decorative artists of his own day.

Prisse d'Avennes published the collection in three volumes, which constituted a grammar of Islamic decorative art in its authentic color unmatched except on the walls of Alhambra palace in Granada and some of the mosques of Cairo and Damascus." [source]

This post comes circuitously via Archivalia who advised of the efforts of the Cardiff Heritage Friends in Wales to prevent the fire-sale of the Cardiff Public Library's rare book collection. The latest news is encouraging. {Prisse is mentioned as one the authors}

UPDATE: The International School of Information Science has the whole of 'L'art Arabe' available in a flash website [info. about the project]. Nb. I couldn't get this site to work in FFox with the Flashblock plugin, but I got it to work in Chrome. {thanks Sonia!}

10 comments :

Anonymous said...

Pretty cool.Thx for the pictures.Great blog.

PIGNOUF said...

trés beau message ! les couleurs sont fantastiques. Vous arrivez à me surprendre à chaque message. Merci et à bientôt...:)

peacay said...

Thanks! It's a beautiful series for sure.

notimetoeat said: "yup it is pretty nice.Thank you for posting!"
(comment deleted because of dubious link)

Kittybriton said...

"his principal goal was to furnish exciting visual ideas to decorative artists of his own day."
And generations to come! These are magnificent.

Jess Haskins said...

Kittybriton stole my comment! I was going to say the exact same thing.

Excellent find.

Lisa Gonzales-Barnes said...

Gorgeous! Thanks.

Unknown said...

You can find the whole book at lartarabe.bibalex.org

peacay said...

Thanks Sonia although I can't make that site work - I upgraded flash but no idea what's preventing it loading (I gather it's either my flashblock plugin that I can't override on this site or it's intended for Internet Explorer).
The 'info about' page is here.

peacay said...

Oh well........it worked with the Chrome browser anyway.

Unknown said...

I bought a copy of L'Art Arabe in a second hand bookshop for ten pounds which is a bargain for such a beautiful book. Thanks for the information as my french is not that good.
jim.connor@ng-london.org.uk

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