Illustration: Jules Bourgoin. Porte d'un Mosquee, au Caire, from Les Arts Arabes, 1873.
Jules Bourgoin was a French architect who was also a lecturer at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the latter half of the nineteenth century. He specifically covered in his lectures the history and theory of decoration, ornamentation and pattern, particularly in regard, though not exclusive to, the Islamic world. It was this interest that was to produce a number of books dealing with theories regarding decoration and ornament that Bourgoin published over a thirty year period from 1867 to 1905. However it was perhaps the combination of his interests in both mathematics and Islamic decoration, that has given us part of a lasting legacy.
Illustration: Jules Bourgoin. Porte de la Mosquee Sultan el Moyed, au Caire, from Les Arts Arabes, 1873.
In 1867 Bourgoin published Les Arts Arabes which was directly influenced by his first trip to Egypt where he had been involved in an architectural project in Alexandria. The introduction to this first of Bourgoin's publications, was written by no less a celebrity than Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, the foremost nineteenth century French medievalist. The book itself was very much in the mould of earlier published works by the likes of Owen Jones for example. Generalisations between many of these nineteenth century decorative histories have been commonly drawn. However, many of the publications during the latter half of the nineteenth century concentrated on decoration and ornament for its own sake and often divorced the pattern work from the practical parameters of their original setting. Bourgoin's book was much more tailored to the practicalities of the decorative arts as seen by an architect. Therefore, rather than dealing directly with pattern work, Bourgoin's book was split into subject headings that dealt with decoration and ornament as seen through architecture, woodwork, ceiling, wall, marble, floor, window and door design.
Illustration: Jules Bourgoin. Porte de la Mosquee Sultan Daahir Bibars, au Caire, from Les Arts Arabes, 1873.
It is the decorative door chapter, and more specifically bronze doors, that the five illustrations of this article are drawn. All five doors were situated in Cairo, as were many of the illustrations in this first volume, although they were not exclusively so as a number of the book's coloured and black and white illustrations also dealt with interior and exterior features that could be found in Alexandria, Rosetta and Jerusalem.
The bronze door illustrations are masterpieces in accurately mathematical pattern work. They were specifically used by Bourgoin to help demonstrate how both geometry and mathematics could be used both within the decorative arts and more specifically within domestic and religious interiors. That the Islamic world had for centuries successfully used complex theories that encompassed a wide range of non-representational pattern work, in both religious and domestic interiors, was born out by a number of publications that highlighted the decorative work found in this region, particularly during the nineteenth century. Where Bourgoin's work differed was his passionate need to convey the complexity behind the pattern work and not just the visual styling.
Illustration: Jules Bourgoin. Porte de la Mosquee d'el Gaoury, au Caire, from Les Arts Arabes, 1873.
Bourgoin reissued and revised Les Arts Arabes in 1873. It was republished along with a new publication, Theorie de l'Ornement. This book broke all pretence that Bourgoin was producing generalised work that reflected the history of decoration and ornament, along the lines of Owen Jones. Theorie de l'Ornement concentrated on the mathematical procedures of historical decoration. Although there was much emphasis on Islamic work, he also expanded his theories to include the Classical world as well as that of Chinese and Japanese styling. To Bourgoin the theory that lay at the very foundation of the practicality of decoration was the most important element of historical pattern work. In this regard he was to publish regularly concerning his theories, intertwining ornament, decoration, mathematics and geometry.
Illustration: Jules Bourgoin. Porte de la Mosquee de Qalaoum, au Caire, from Les Arts Arabes, 1873.
Les Arts Arabes was not a pattern book to be used as inspiration, or more often to be plagiarised, in the production of nineteenth century contemporary interior products for an increasingly insatiable market searching for distractions that could be both innovative and novel. Bourgoin's book was an introduction to the life's work of a man who saw a decorative explanation that was beyond fashion or novelty. His serious introduction to the world of Islamic decoration allowed for the future exploration of the mathematical and geometrical uncovering of non-representational decoration, ornament and pattern work. Bourgoin's books and lectures over a thirty year period gave an impetus to the study of Islamic decoration as a supremely theoretical achievement, rather than that of mere cultural styling.
Reference links:
Islamic Decoration and Ornament as seen by Owen Jones
Études Architectoniques Et Graphiques: Mathématiques, Arts D'industrie, Architecture, Arts D'ornement, Beaux-Arts, Volume 1 (French Edition)
Théorie De L'ornement (French Edition)
Grammaire Élémentaire De L'Ornement: Pour Servir À L'Histoire, À La Théorie Et À La Pratique Des Arts Et À L'Enseignement (French Edition)
THE DECORATIVE ART OF ARABIA -PRISSE D'AVENNES
Arabic Geometrical Pattern and Design (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Islamic Designs for Cornice, Balcony and Mashrabiyah Decoration, from "Art and Industry" Giclee Poster Print by Jean Francois Albanis De Beaumont, 24x32
Islamic Designs for Artists and Craftspeople (Dover Pictorial Archive)
Islamic Designs in Color (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Splendors of Islam: Architecture, Decoration and Design
Islamic Design (Dover Pictura)
Islamic Designs (International Design Library)
Some Early Islamic Buildings and Their Decoration
Islamic architecture and its decoration, A.D. 800-1500;: A photographic survey
The Language of Pattern: An Enquiry Inspired by Islamic Decoration (Icon Editions)
Islamic Ornament
Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach
Geometric Patterns from Islamic Art & Architecture
Pattern in Islamic Art
