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Muqarnas (Arabic: مقرنص), also known in Iberian architecture as Mocárabe (from Arabic: مقربص, romanized: muqarbaṣ), is a form of three-dimensional decoration in Islamic architecture in which rows or tiers of niche-like elements are projected over others below. [1]
Islamic and Mujédar stucco decoration followed the main types of ornamentation in Islamic art: geometric, arabesque or vegetal, and calligraphic motifs. [ 3 ] [ 2 ] Three-dimensional muqarnas was often also carved in stucco, [ 24 ] [ 7 ] most typically found as transitional elements on vaults, domes, capitals, friezes, and doorways.
Islamic ornament is the use of decorative forms and patterns in Islamic art and Islamic architecture. Its elements can be broadly divided into the arabesque , using curving plant-based elements, geometric patterns with straight lines or regular curves, and calligraphy , consisting of religious texts with stylized appearance, used both ...
Their architectural style was also distinguished by increasingly elaborate decoration, which began with pre-existing traditions like stucco and glass mosaics but eventually favoured carved stone and marble mosaic paneling. Among the most distinguished achievements of Mamluk architecture were their ornate minarets and the carved stone domes of ...
The patterns cut into the stucco surface at an angle. This is the first and purest example of the arabesque. [20] It may represent a deliberate attempt to make an abstract form of decoration that avoids depiction of living things, and this may explain its rapid adoption throughout the Muslim world. [22]
Example of carved stucco with calligraphic decoration in the Bou Inania Madrasa of Fes Close-up of the 12th-century bronze overlays on Bab al-Gna'iz, one of the doorways of the Qarawiyyin Mosque. A very prominent and distinctive element of Moroccan and Moorish architecture is its heavy use of carved stucco for decoration across walls and ceilings.
The relatively abundant survivals of stucco reliefs from the walls of palaces (but not mosques) in Abbasid Samarra, the Islamic capital between 836 and 892, provide examples of three styles, Styles A, B, and C, though more than one of these may appear on the same wall, and their chronological sequence is not certain. [10]
Islamic decoration and craftsmanship had a significant influence on Western art when Venetian merchants brought goods of many types back to Italy from the 14th century onwards. [37] The tessellations of zellij tilework in the Alhambra of Granada were also an important source of inspiration for the work of 20th-century Dutch artist M. C. Escher.