Illuminated Manuscript Project Beginnings
For my first real post, I thought I’d talk about a project I’m working on for a nonwestern art history class. This one has a studio component as part of the final research paper. For the research paper, we had to pick a nonwestern country/culture and one art medium, and discuss that. I have always loved Islamic art, with its many intricate patterns and designs. I wrote a paper a couple terms ago about a Pictish sarcophagus and compared/contrasted it to the façade of an early Islamic palace called Mshatta from about the same time (~700-ish C.E.). The façade had an intricate vegetal pattern with fantastical animals all over it. It was really cool. Although a lot of what we think of in regards to Islamic art is actually architecture, or at least building related (mosaics inside mosques and so on), but they also have a rich tradition of creating…