#arabesques

Photo by Sergio Larraín

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“Graceful, spiritual, with the gentleness of arabesques our life is similar to the existence of fairies that spin in soft cadence around nothingness to which we sacrifice the here and now

Dreams of beauty, youthful joy like a breath in pure harmony with the depth of your young surface where sparkles the longing for the night for blood and barbarity

In the emptiness, spinning, without aims or needs dance free our lives always ready for the game yet, secretly, we thirst for reality for the conceiving, for the birth we are thirst for sorrows and death.”

–Hermann Hesse, "In Secret We Thirst" from The Glass Bead Game (1943)

                                                   Arabesques (Series 1)

1.  Front A set of six ornament prints representing, respectively, Air, Fire, Water, Earth, Venus and Mars, each of them symbolized by a symmetrical composition combining various figures, animals, plants, grotesques, medallions and objects. 1782 Etching (British Museum)

2. Earth, After Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Flemish Published by Philips Galle Netherlandish

3. Fire, After Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Flemish, Published by Philips Galle Netherlandish

4. Mars, God of War, After Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Flemish Published by Philips Galle Netherlandish

5. Africa, After Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Flemish Published by Philips Galle Netherlandish

6. Asia, After Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Flemish, Published by Philips Galle Netherlandish

7. Europe, After Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder Flemish, Published by Philips Galle Netherlandish

Typography Tuesday

GRANJON ARABESQUES

Last week we presented “Typographic Interpretations” from The Pentagram Press Commonplace Book. This week we present more typographic explorations from the Pentagram Press, this time from their 1990 publication An Exploration of the Granjon Arabesques, arranged by Michael Tarachow and Merce Dostale and printed in Minneapolis by Tarachow in an edition of 312 copies. Our copy is one of 40 copies hand-bound in quarter cloth with printed paper over boards at the Campbell-Logan Bindery, and is signed by both Tarachow and Dostale.

This set of type ornaments was originally designed in the 1550s by French type designer and printer Robert Granjon (1513-1590). The arabesques used here were revived and redesigned for the Monotype Corporation in the 20th century. Of this production, Tarachow and Dostale write:

Mysterious, vibrant, quirky, confident, noble, opulent: the patterns that these Granjon Arabesques form are as diverse as your possible interpretation, We enjoyed the work & play that this booklet entailed, and hope that you have enjoyed this journey to the Land of Granjon.

View other posts with work by the Pentagram Press.

View other posts with Arabesques.

Manuscript Monday!

A Palace in Sicily

A Masterpiece Restored

Jean-Louis Remilleux , Photographs by Mattia Aquila

ACC Art Books, London 2021, 229 pages, 23,30 x 30,60 cm., ISBN  9781788841399

euro 52,00 **

email if you want to buy: [email protected]

With its sun-drenched sands and Mediterranean waters, Sicily has been a favoured destination of travellers for centuries. History is alive on this island, from ancient accounts of the Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Normans; to the journals of wealthy young European men embarking on the Grand Tour. This book captures the sun-steeped aesthetic of the island, while detailing the restoration of one of its finest attractions: the Di Lorenzo del Castelluccio palace. Marquis del Castelluccio was one of the last "servals" or "leopards" of Sicily - wealthy aristocrats who flooded the island with luxury. Following his death, his home fell to ruin. A half-century later, Jean-Louis Remilleux fell in love with this dilapidated 18th-century palace and made it his mission to restore it. Unveiled for the first time in this beautifully illustrated book, the Di Lorenzo del Castelluccio palazzo is one of the finest testaments to Sicilian architecture and art. Today, lush green palm trees welcome you to the palace's imposing front facade. Frescoes, arabesques, masks, imitation marble, ceilings and wainscoting have all restored to their former glory, over decades of elaborate work. This book charts the restoration process and celebrates the astonishing end results. It contains an album's worth of photographs that capture the beauty of this palace beneath the Mediterranean sun.

26/10/21

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Enamelled Mamluk Glass Beaker, Eastern Mediterranean, 14th Century A.D

Glass, H:11.5cm

Hand blown to take a conical form, this beautiful Mamluk beaker has a clear glass body with enamel and gilt decoration applied to the surface in classic arabesque designs. The top band of decoration consists of an inscription reading- "al-'izz al-maqim al-da'im wa al-'umr al-salim wa al-jadd (sic) al-?a'id wa [a]l-ta[mm]a" "Forever lasting glory and safe life and rising fortune and abundance". 

The main body has 4 panels created from gold bands outlined in a red enamel. Most interestingly is the use of raised dot work, which is not a common decorative technique often employed by Mamluk artists. 

The base is thickened as often seen in Mamluk vessels, where a double layer of glass creates a doughnut appearance, the central pontil mark shows that the body was hand blown. 

The production of such glass was the specialty of the regions controlled by the Ayyubids and the Mamluks (present-day Egypt and Syria) in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. 

There are similarities in the fine work of the Venetians, but Islamic artists focussed on the use of Arabic inscriptions and vegetal designs as decoration. This decorative technique involved gold and/or coloured enamels created from powdered opaque glass, being applied to the surface, and the fixed by heating the whole piece in a kiln. 

The large number of existing fragments with decorative surfaces suggests that these items were made for popular commercial use, not just the wealthy. Enamelled and gilded glass developed in the twelfth century in the Syrian area and flourished during the final decades of Ayyubid power and the first of Mamluk domination in the thirteenth century. As Cairo became the capital of the empire in the fourteenth century, most enamelled and gilded glass from that time may be attributed to Egyptian, rather than Syrian, workshops. 

The late fourteenth century saw a decline in production; by the early fifteenth century, dwindling patronage eventually caused workshops to close. By the late fifteenth century, the production of most enamelled glass had shifted to Europe.