Illustration: T Clarke. Arabesque wallpaper design, 1849.
The arabesque style of pattern work is, as its name suggests, of Islamic heritage and origin. These floral based decorative compositions were often produced from a seemingly complex combination of meandering, overlapping and intertwining scrolling and spiralling continuous motifs. They were, in many respects a lesson in the intricacy of the natural world, but also due to the idea that the arabesque could theoretically continue in its convolutions indefinitely, were a contemplative statement as to the complexity and multi-faceted nature of the Creator.
By their very nature, arabesques could be played with as either simplistic pattern work or on a much more complex level playing with ideas of infinite balance and harmony. On a simplistic level, the arabesque can be used to both frame and fill a required space. It can be single focused or multi-layered and is adaptable enough to be used on both flat and 3-dimensional mediums. The more complex scenario is when a designer can use the arabesque to explore the features of the negative and positive, background and foreground and contrasting colour combinations. These can produce a level of sophisticated involvement and complication that can be almost optical in its ultimate play with illusion. A good example is the confusion that can be caused by complex and accomplished arabesque patterns as to whether the background or foreground is the more prominent of the two, causing confusion as to whether the two could even be interchangeable.
In this respect, arabesques became popular in Europe from about the sixteenth century onwards. The playfulness and the often mathematical precision which came from the Islamic origin of the decorative motif, as well as the seemingly infinite variety and novelty that played well with European sensibilities, gave the arabesque a winning combination within the decorative arts. In some respects, the decorative effect gave it the quality of a kaleidoscope, with simple changes transforming the emphasis and nature of the composition, with little in the way of complex manoeuverings.
Illustration: T Clarke. Arabesque wallpaper design (detail), 1849.
The arabesque has been popular in Europe since its introduction from the Islamic world, and is still very popular in our own contemporary world. It has proved to be consistently popular and fashionable with wallpaper designers and manufacturers in particular. The two examples illustrating this article are a case in point. Both are of the same wallpaper design, the larger black and white illustration giving an impression of the arabesque in its full glory, while the second illustration gives an example of a colour variation to the pattern, it is a close-up of the lower right hand corner of the larger illustration. It was produced in 1849 by the London wallpaper manufacturing company T Clarke. It is an excellent example of the endless variation that can be achieved from what seems at first to be a simple floral scroll.
Most pattern work, whatever its complexity and intricacy, can be traced relatively easily to a few simple rules or guiding motifs. It is the building blocks of the pattern work that often makes the ordinary seem extraordinary, and the simplistic intricate. Although much of the initial Islamic contemplative and expansive nature has been removed from the generations of European arabesques this does not limit or degrade the pattern ideal in its own right. The arabesque has added a seemingly unlimited decorative vocabulary to the European decorative arts and has been used consistently across most disciplines from textiles, to ceramics, metalwork, glass, bookbinding, illustration and graphics. This Islamic based decorative formula is an excellent example of the scale of maturity and wide-ranging skills base that is at the heart of Islamic pattern work. It is without doubt an effortless addition to the world vocabulary of pattern and will be with us in all its convolutions for generations to come.
Reference links:
Arabesques. Decorative Art in Morocco
Arabesque: Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia
Islamic Geometric Patterns (Book & CD Rom)
Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach
Symmetries of Islamic Geometrical Patterns
Islamic Art and Architecture: The System of Geometric Design
Pattern in Islamic Art
Geometric Patterns from Islamic Art & Architecture
The Majesty of Mughal Decoration: The Art and Architecture of Islamic India
The Language of Pattern: An Enquiry Inspired by Islamic Decoration (Icon Editions)
Islamic Designs for Artists and Craftspeople (Dover Pictorial Archive)
Islamic Designs (International Design Library)
Some Early Islamic Buildings and Their Decoration
Ornament and Decoration in Islamic Architecture
Islamic architecture and its decoration, A.D. 800-1500;: A photographic survey
Splendors of Islam: Architecture, Decoration and Design
Islamic Ornament
The Art of the Islamic Tile
