Egypt painted and described (1902) (14576511649)

Identifier: egyptpainteddesc00kell (find matches)
Title: Egypt painted and described
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Kelly, Robert Talbot, 1861-1934
Subjects: Egypt -- Description and travel
Publisher: London, A. & C. Black
Contributing Library: New York University, Institute of Fine Arts Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



Text Appearing Before Image:
hough Arabic or the earlier Cufic characters lend them-selves more easily to decorative treatment, I often thinkthat even European architects might make more use oflettering in their decoration, thus serving the doublepurpose of ornament and information. I should mentionthat the alternate red and white stripes on the outer wallsare not always part of the original scheme, but in manycases have their origin in the fact that, when carrying outthe illuminations ordered to celebrate Mohammed AlisSyrian conquests, it was found very difficult to adequatelytreat the vast expanse of wall presented by the mosquesof the city, and consequently the distemper colouring ofthe alternate courses was resorted to as a substitute forother forms of decoration. This colouration was almostinvariably in red and yellow, and the darker banding ofblack and green found in so many buildings may betaken as being part of the original design. It is not only as architecture that these buildings 48 THE HOUSE OF PRAYER
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Mosques and Public Buildings should be studied, however. Forbidden by his religionto reproduce human or animal forms, as savouring ofidolatry, ordinary pictorial representation was deniedthe Moslem artist, who was therefore obliged to seeksome other means of expression.-^ This has resulted inthe development of a form of applied art, rich in itselaboration, most suitable to its purpose, and in everyway original and artistic. Two dominant features will at once strike the be-holder : first, the pendentive form of carving or plaster-work which embellishes corbels and brackets, and lendssuch an air of grace and lightness to canopy or arch ;and secondly, that curiously involved geometric designwhich characterises almost all their schemes of decora-tion. Both forms are almost universally applied, andare found alike in buildings and furniture. The best examples of the pendentive are to be foundin the corbelling which supports the stages of minarets,or in the cornices and doorways of such mosq