HALL
OF WOOD WORK
Wood
is a soft material that man has used for
numerous purposes. Wood, in fact, serves
for the construction of houses,
manufacture of doors, windows and
partitions, decorations of buildings by
covering the walls and ceilings and for
making furniture. Wood is also seen in
the houses, mosques, schools and tombs.
The
artist has decorated wood in different
manners: in sculpture to display the
decorative elements and in carving to
produce profound designs. To obtain
various effects, the artist used it for
softening, interlacing, dovetailing,
turning, piercing and chiseling.
Sometime he had inlaid it with precious
wood of another color, or by incrusting
it with ivory and shell...
The
Arab artist of Syria has been
undoubtedly inspired by the
works of his predecessors, but at
the same time ,he has not imitated them
blindly. He rather chose from the known
elements what suited his taste and
belief. He began by using the floral
motifs and representing them in
naturalistic shape. Since the Umayyad
period, the artist has used the carving
for setting in relief the decorative
elements within a large background.
After the carving, he adorned the wood
with paint and gold. ( See the carved
wood and paints of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi
which we have already indicated
).
During
the First Abbasid Period, the woodwork
maintained the traditions of the Umayyad
Period, but the artist also benefited by
the Sasanid art. An evolution then, took
place in the forms of motifs, not
directly on the woodwork but on the
garniture of the stucco. This is because
when the artists wanted to decorate the
buildings of Samarra , they found that
the old methods (carving in stucco )
takes a longer time, so they tried to
cast the stucco
motifs in moulds. They made the surfaces
of these motifs convex so as to
facilitate the extract of these motifs
from the moulds. Here they maintained
the old shapes of the decorative
elements and this was the first style of
Samarra.
The
second style is distinguished by the
stylization of the motifs which were
removed from reality and by the
reduction of the depth.
The
third style consists in exaggeration of
motifs and complete absence of
background . Here the narrow channels
were reduced into sunken single lines
separating one motif from another.
It
seems that this modern artistic trend
satisfied the purpose because it was
executed both on stone and wood.
We
have some wooden fragments in the Hall
of ar-Raqqah which represent the second
and the third style of Samarra. The
third century A.H. = the 9th century A.D.
The
Fatimid artist did not follow the
Iraqis, but began to transform the
motifs in his own way until they went to
the of being unrealistic however, he
left the background of the motifs deep,
He began also to incline towards
softness, precision and diversification
of the decorative
subjects.
The
Syrian artists of the fourth and fifth
centuries A.H. = 10th - 11 A.D.
assimilated the Iraqi style of Samarra
and that of the Fatimid of Egypt We have
two examples of this synthesis, the
wooden panels displayed in the glass
case of this Hall and the wooden
partition dated 497 A.H. which we will
touch upon in detail soon.
During
the 6 - 7 A.H. = 12 - 13 A.D., the
Syrian artist devoted himself to
transformation of the decorative
elements, sharply realized and
exaggerated details, softness and
filling all the gaps with motifs which
he distributed among the zones in the
background . He also used the Arabic
calligraphy, the thuluth and the
involved Kufic script. A case in point
is the tomb of Khalid b. al-Walid dated
664 A.H.
In
this period the artist continued to use
the geometrical motifs and from the
involved lines he formed stars and
various geometrical shapes. He adorned
the interior with beautiful floral
motifs thereof. He profited by the
progress of carpentry notably the
tenoning, dovetailing and hollowing ....
then by painting these motifs with
colors and gold. An example of this
tendency: the tomb of Princess Bakhti
Khatun which dates back to 648 A.H.
In
the Mamluk Period ( 8 - 9 A.H. = 14 - 15
A.D.) the artist abused the precision
and began to use the inlaid work and
incrusting of ivory and shell. An
example in this connection ( without
inlaid work or incrusting ) is
the stand of the Koran displayed in the
Hall of Manuscripts.
During
the Ottoman Period, the Syrian artists
maintained the acquired old traditions,
but they once more began to draw near to
the naturalistic style in the floral
motifs, They also exaggerated in using
the golden colors and gilding as in the
decors of the Damascene Hall and in
certain pieces in this very Hall.
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