Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: April 21, 2021 at 5:48:38 PM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Material-Culture]: Brey on Graves, 'Arts of > Allusion: Object, Ornament, and Architecture in Medieval Islam' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Margaret S. Graves. Arts of Allusion: Object, Ornament, and > Architecture in Medieval Islam. Oxford Oxford University Press, > 2018. 352 pp. $90.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-19-069591-0. > > Reviewed by Alexander Brey (Wellesley College) > Published on H-Material-Culture (April, 2021) > Commissioned by Colin Fanning > > At the time of writing, the accolades that have been heaped upon > _Arts of Allusion_ include the International Congress of Medieval Art > Annual Book Prize (2019) and the Medieval Academy of America's Karen > Gould Prize in Art History (2021). Beyond the field of medieval art, > however, the book deserves to be better known, particularly among > those interested in material culture. Much as Jonathan Hay's > _Sensuous Surfaces: The Decorative Object in Early Modern China_ > (2010) offered a new theoretical vocabulary for the applied arts in > the guise of a study about Ming and Qing decorative works, attracting > readers from diverse fields, Graves's _Arts of Allusion_ articulates > an innovative framework for understanding ornamental effects that > cuts across specializations in the field of material culture. > > The compelling phenomenon that animates _Arts of Allusion_ and holds > together diverse medieval objects from the Islamic world is > architectonic ornament: how medieval craftspeople embellished > functional objects like inkpots, incense burners, storage jars, and > jar stands to underscore implicit architectural parallels without > seeking to obscure or disguise their intended uses. Works throughout > the book reflect key communities of makers active between Egypt and > Iran during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but Graves often > incorporates objects from beyond these borders as comparative > examples. In tackling a phenomenon that crosses geographical, > dynastic, and material boundaries, _Arts of Allusion_ recalls > groundbreaking thematic studies such as Oleg Grabar's _The Mediation > of Ornament_ (1992), even as its narrower scope reflects a > disciplinary turn toward deeper historical context. > > The book grows out of Graves's dissertation, completed in 2010, and > incorporates conceptual refinements that emerged as she co-curated > the 2011 exhibition _Architecture in Islamic Arts: Treasures of the > Aga Khan Museum_ with Benoît Junod. Her accompanying catalog essay > surveyed the use of architectonic elements as graphic framing devices > in manuscripts and visual conventions for representing > three-dimensional buildings in a variety of two-dimensional media. In > _Arts of Allusion_, by contrast, Graves draws attention to less > literal design choices in the manufacture of three-dimensional > objects, which emphasize loose resemblances to parts of buildings. > > As Graves points out, specialists of ornament employ terms like > zoomorphic and anthropomorphic for decorations that evoke animal and > human forms, yet there is no widespread English term for the more > general material practice of "making something functional resemble > something else" (p. 60). Nor does such a term appear to have existed > in medieval Arabic or Persian. She coins the phrase "architecturally > allusive objects" to refer to her subjects, and goes on to identify > the intellectual theorization of craft that coincided with their > making, the phenomenological effects that they set into motion, and > the playful systems of meaning in which they operated. > > Chapter 1, "The Intellect of the Hand," reconstructs the cultural > contours of craft attested in extant medieval Arabic sources. To > understand the medieval contours of design thinking, Graves assembles > the scarce references to architects and craftspeople in surviving > texts. The most eloquent of these sources is a tenth-century > philosophical treatise from the neo-platonic Epistles of the Brethren > of Purity, understood to have been composed in Iraq, which deemed > "making" (_al-ṣāniʿa_) a fundamental cognitive faculty comparable > to imagination and memory. Although some medieval elites disdained > craft as mere manual labor, Graves excavates a strand of thought that > recognized making as a kind of embodied thought and conceptualized > God as "the artisan of the universe" (p. 44). > > Subsequent chapters are grounded in specific groups of motifs or > objects. Chapter 2, "Building Ornament," traces the shifting interest > in miniature doors and arcades, which structure the surfaces of a > variety of medieval Islamic objects and buildings, culminating in a > group of twelfth-century molded storage jars produced in Syria and > Iraq. Chapter 3, "Occupied Objects," analyzes the power of the human > form to transform the sense of spatial perception that users bring to > their interactions with objects. Focusing on ceramic stands and metal > inkwells from Iran that evoked buildings and tents, the chapter > constitutes a master class in how a whole category of medieval > Islamic objects was experienced. Graves notes the sensory bifurcation > that users undergo when rotating, opening, and imaginatively > exploring objects that simultaneously elicit two distinct scales of > user engagement, and concludes the chapter by showing how designers > also used textual inscriptions to orient users within the virtual > spaces that decorated objects. > > Chapter 4, "Material Metaphors," identifies a set of medieval Arabic > and Persian rhetorical devices such as metaphor and analogy that > Graves sees "embodied" in allusive objects. Turning her attention to > incense burners and lanterns that echo the forms of domed, centrally > planned buildings, Graves proposes poetic verbal substitution > (_istiʿāra_) as the closest conceptual parallel attested in > medieval rhetorical treatises to these miniature "mobile monuments." > Chapter 5, "The Poetics of Ornament," argues that twelfth-century > marble jar stands produced in Egypt evoked full-scale fountains found > in elite residences and palaces throughout the Islamic Mediterranean. > Graves juxtaposes the process of transferring elements from buildings > to jar stands with the fragmentation of architecture that > characterizes verbal ekphrasis. The book closes with the tantalizing > observation that the emphasis on plastic allusion represented by > medieval objects gives way to an early modern interest in finished > surfaces and two-dimensional images, hinting at another study on the > horizon. > > As a whole, _Arts of Allusion_ faces problems common to studies of > early medieval craft: the sources that survive are few, and many > touch only indirectly on the topic. Graves deftly weaves together an > interpretive framework from extant documents, but scholars accustomed > to more robust archives may find her conclusions strained. Readers > may also be left wondering how the cognitive, symbolic, and > rhetorical mechanisms of architecturally allusive plastic arts differ > from those of full-scale architecture. As Graves herself acknowledges > (p. 198), her emphasis on metaphor and allusion as privileged modes > of meaning offers an alternative framework to Richard Krautheimer's > "iconography of architecture," with implications that fall outside > her goals for the book. The 125 illustrations that illustrate the > book are essential, but their quality is compromised by the decision > of the press to cut costs with uncoated paper and mediocre inkjet > printing (compare to the comparably priced e-book). > > The strengths of the project outweigh any weaknesses. Graves has > managed to assemble fragmented and disparate evidence into plausible > arguments that suggest compelling new trajectories for the study of > medieval material culture. Her nuanced readings of particular > objects, informed by phenomenological insights about how > miniaturization transforms spatial cognition and temporal experience, > will give many readers their first glimpse of the sophisticated > sensory manipulations effected by medieval craftspeople. Art > historians have tended to elide the role of these nameless makers, > attributing agency to better-documented patrons and consumers. By > highlighting the creative choices of artisans, _Arts of Allusion_ > provides a medieval counterpart to recent works that center modern > and contemporary craft practices in the Islamic world, such as Marcus > Milwright's _Islamic Arts and Crafts: An Anthology_ (2017). > > Graves deserves all of the recognition that she has received for > bringing such insightful analysis to a largely unrecognized trend. > Her argument that art history and material studies lack a discursive > framework for understanding the role of metaphor in design choices > represents an opportunity for future interdisciplinary research. > Given the remote geographic and temporal scope of this book, some > readers may be inclined to pass over it. They will miss an exciting > study of how medieval craftspeople used evocative ornament to delight > the viewers of their works. > > Citation: Alexander Brey. Review of Graves, Margaret S., _Arts of > Allusion: Object, Ornament, and Architecture in Medieval Islam_. > H-Material-Culture, H-Net Reviews. April, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56280 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#8149): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/8149 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/82275932/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
