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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

1400-1600: Renaissance architecture

Features of Renaissance Buildings:

  • Symmetrical arrangement of windows and doors
  • Extensive use of Classical columns and pilasters
  • Triangular pediments
  • Square lintels
  • Arches
  • Domes
  • Niches with sculptures

Phases of the Renaissance:

Artists in Northern Italy were exploring new ideas for centuries before the period we call the Renaissance. However, the 1400s and 1500s brought an explosion of talent and innovation. During the early 1400s, the painter and architect Filippo Brunelleschi designed the great Duomo (cathedral) dome. Brunelleschi also rediscovered the principles of linear perspective. During the 1500s, the great Renaissance painter Michelangelo Buonarroti painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and designed the dome for St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. A Classical approach to architecture spread through Europe, thanks to books by two important Renaissance architects:

As Renaissance approaches to building spread to France, Spain, Holland, Germany, Russia, and England, each country incorporated its own building traditions and created its own version of Classicism. By the 1600s, ornate Baroque architecture emerged and became the dominant style in Europe.
Long after the Renaissance period ended, however, architects were inspired by Renaissance ideas. At the turn of the twentieth century, American architects like Richard Morris Hunt designed grand Renaissance Revival style homes that resembled palaces and villas from Renaissance Italy.
Renaissance Buildings:
  • San Giorigo Maggiore in Venice, Italy
  • The Basilica in Vicenza, Italy
  • The Rotunda (Villa Capra) near Vicenza, Italy
  • The Redentore in Venice, Italy
  • St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican
  • The Louvre in Paris, France

INDIAN ARCHITECTURE (Mahabalipuram Temples)


Mahabalipuram is located at a distance of 58-km from Chennai. It is one of the most exciting and memorable destinations, with rich tradition, history, piety and western annals. It is one of the popular tourist places, known for great architecture much visible in its rock carvings and monolithic sculptures. It also has the famous shore temple, the only one to have survived the wrath of nature. Also known as the Seven Pagodas (temples), six of them now lie drowned in the sea. The architecture of the temples at Mahabalipuram are inspired by the Pallava Art and were built during the period 830 - 1100 AD.

At Mahabalipuram, there are two low hills of about 400m above the sea. There are about 11 excavated temples, called Mandapas on both sides of one of the hills. A 'cut-out' temple, called Ratha is carved out of a big rock standing nearby.

The other hill is much smaller and stands about 200m to the south. There are five more rathas, three big sculptures of a Nandi, a Loin and an Elephant carved out of it. On the top of the bigger hill there is a structural temple, and at a little distance there is the magnificent beginnings of a Vijayanagar Gopura which is also believed to be survivals of a so called palace.

Mahabalipuram also has about forty monuments known for their architecture including an "open air bas relief" which is the largest in the world. Since many centuries it has been a center of pilgrimage, and even today it pulls innumerable devotees and tourists.


¤ The Varaha Caves

The Varaha Cave is a small rock-cut mandapam (hall). Here one can find the incarnations of Vishnu-Varaha (boar) and Vamana (dwarf). The four panels of Pallava doorkeepers are the most important and famous. The Dharmaraja Cave, built in the early seventh century, consists three empty shrines. The Mahisasurmardini Cave (mid-seventh century) has fine bas-reliefs on its panels of imperishable beauty. The Somaskanda sculpture here represents peace, power, and wisdom. Here Lord Vishnu is shown in omniscient repose in a masterpiece of dhwani (the art of suggestion). There's also a huge theatrical panel showing, Goddess Durga's fight with the demon Mahishasura. The Tiger Cave is about 5 km north of Mahabalipuram, which is a rock-cut shrine, dating back to 7th century.


¤ Rathas

The Rathas are a group of structures placed at the southern extreme of Mahabalipuram. They are situated amidst Casuarina trees. There are Pancha Pandava Rathas, which are five in numbers. Among these five, four are carved out of a single rock, while the fifth on the west is scooped out from a small rock. The complex consists of square Draupadi and Arjuna Rathas, the linear Bhima Ratha, the taller Dharamraja Ratha and the niche Nakula-Sahadeva Ratha.


¤ Krishna Mandapam

The Krishna Temple is a rock-cut temple and is one of the first in Mahabalipuram. The walls of the temples describe scenes of reverend life, one of the pictures here shows Lord Krishna lifting the Govardhan Hill on his fingertips to protect his people from Indra.


ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE


Samani dynasty also known as the Samanid Empire, or        simply Samanids (819–999)
    =It was a Persian state and empire in Central Asia and Greater Iran.
    =founder Saman Khuda, who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility.
    =It was the first native Persian dynasty in Greater Iran and Central Asia after the collapse of the Sassanid Persian empire caused by the Arab conquest
 
Capital:Balkh, Bukhara
         Language(s): Persian
         Religion:Sunni Islam
         Government: Emirate Emir 
                   - 819-855 Yahya ibn Asad 
                   - 999 'Abd  al-Malik II
         Historical era:Medieval 
                   - Established819 
                   - Disestablished999
         Area : 928 est.2,850,000 km2        (1,100,391 sq mi)
 
first native Persian dynasty to arise after the Muslim Arab conquest
They defeat the Saffarids and Zaydids
Ismail l conquered many places, and a territory of his kingdom was wide spread all over today's Central Asia, Afghanistan, and eastern Iran 
 
 
Cultural and religious efforts
 
revived Persian culture but they also determinedly propagated Sunni Islam
Samanids patronized science, especially mathematics, astronomy, medicine as well as the humanities, including historiography and philosophy. Literature also flourished
Another lasting contribution of the Samanids to the history of Islamic art is the pottery known as Samanid Epigraphic Ware: plates, bowls, and pitchers
 
 
Architecture in the Samanid period
 
The Samanids contribution to Islamic architecture indeed is very significant .
Capital of the Samanids, Bukhara,became the cultural, political, and economic centre of Central Asia for the centuries.
Historico -architectural memorials: the mausoleum of the Samanids in Bukhara, the mausoleum of Arabato in Tim, the mosque Nuh Gunbad in Balkh
 
 
Ismail Samani Mausoleum
resting-place of Ismail Samani - a powerful and influential amir of the Samanid dynasty, one of the Persian dynasty to rule in Central Asia, which held the city in the 9th and 10th centuries.
Architectural style:Sassanides
Town:Bukhara
Country: Uzbekistan
Started:892 CE
Completed:943 CE
 
 

Monday, June 13, 2011

About Umayyah architecture style of buildings

Great Mosque of Damascus



v   Location : Damascus, Syria

v   Construction Materials : Stone, marble, tile, mosaic

v   Year of Completion: 715 A.D.

v   Interiors : Fine Mosaic

v   Considered the 4th holiest place in Islam.

v   Holds a shrine which still today may contain the head of John the Baptist(Yahya),honored as a prophet by both Christians and Muslims.

v   Construction of the mosque was based on the house of Muhammad in Medina.

v   It was a place for personal and collective prayer,
        -religious education,
-Political meetings,
-Administration of justice, and
-Relief of the ill and homeless.

v   The prayer hall consists of three aisles, supported by columns in the Corinthian order.



Great Mosque of Kairouan

v   Location: Kairouan, Tunisia
Tower_of_the_Great_Mosque_of_Kairouan.JPG
v   Year of completion: 670 A.D

v   Also known as Mosque of Uqba.

v   Surface area - 9000 sq. metres, containing

-Hypostyle prayer hall,
-a huge marble-paved courtyard, and
-a massive square minaret.

v   It had 6 entrances, and only 1 leads to the main courtyard.

v   Surrounded on all its four sides by a portico with double rows of arches.

v   Has a Huge Minaret on the Northern side which is the oldest and the still standing minaret in the Muslim World.

v   Had a Masqura along one side of the prayer Hall which is a private enclosure that allows the sovereign and his senior officials to follow the solemn prayer of Friday without mingling with the faithful.




Samanid Dynasty


the Samanid Empire was the first native dynasty to arise in Iran after the Muslim Arab conquest. It was renowned for the impulse that it gave to Iranian national sentiment and learning. For the first time after the Arab Invasion, Persian becomes the official langue of the court and replaces Arabic.

The four grandsons of the dynasty's founder, Saman-Khoda, had been rewarded with provinces for their faithful service to the Abbasid caliph al-Mamun: Nuh obtained Samarkand; Ahmad, Fergana; Yahya, Shash; and Elyas, Herat. Ahmad's son Nasr became governor of Transoxania in 875 CE, but it was his brother and successor, Ismail I (892-907 CE), who overthrew the Saffarids in Khorasan (900 CE) and the Zaydites of Tabaristan, thus establishing a semiautonomous rule over Transoxania and Khorasan, with Bukhara as his capital.

Ismail conquered many places, and a territory of his kingdom was wide spread all over today's Central Asia, Afghanistan, and eastern Iran, however in the time of his successors we can observe the autonomy of the regions. The image of Ismail came in the history of Central Asia not only as a strong and capable politician, but also as an equitable ruler, who changed the heavy tax weights, and confiscated the possessions of some landowners. Due to the strong political regime of Ismail, Transoxiana, and his capital Bukhara was so safe, from the nomadic Turks that the walls around of some cities were neglected, although later on these walls were necessary.

The successors of Ismail could not continue his policy, and they left under the influence of their Turkish guard, who became dominant in the court (Alp-Takin and later established by him Ghaznavid dynasty), and alongside with the Qarakhanids ended the rule of the Samanids in 999 CE. However, in some aspects the time of Ismail's successors was more important that his own. For instance the time of Nasr ibn Ahmad (914 - 943 CE) is described by many authors as the golden age of the Samanid rule, because of flowering of literature and culture. The main role in this process was played by the Samanid vazirs, the primer ministers, who themselves were the scholars of their time. Here we should mention the names of two important primer ministers Abu Abdellah Jayhani, and Abul Fazl Mohammad Balami. They gathered many intelligent people in their court and made Bukhara the cultural centre of Iranian civilisation. According to R. Frye the well-known process of Iranian renaissance began in Central Asia rather then in Iran, and he sees the reason for that in the difference of the social groups in these two parts of Muslim world. The mercantile, trade society of Central Asia was much more suitable for the development of an egalitarian Islamic society than a hierarchical caste society of Iran. Therefore the Samanids, who were the real rulers of Transoxian could be seen as a pioneers of Iranian renaissance. Indeed the changes, which took place under that process, occupied every sphere of life: cultural, linguistic, social, art, economy, politics, and scientific.

The changes, which came with the emerge of the Samanids in the agriculture, commerce, architecture, city building, coinage, textiles, and metalwork, were due in many respects to the stability and safety political situation of the country. The merchants had good opportunities to enter into commercial relations not only with their nearest neighbours, but also with the far countries as well, like the Khazars of Volga, through whom an active traffic developed, with the Vikings of Scandinavia. Due to them the textiles and metalwork of Samanids were exchanged for the furs and amber of the Baltic lands.

The Samanid amirs had control over the most important silver producing veins of Central Asia in Badakhshan and Farghana, which made possible the development of the coinage system. The Samanids coinage, due to its vast quantity, was popular not only in the Islamic world, but also outside it in Russia, Scandinavia, the Baltic lands, and even in British Isles.

The Samanids contribution to Islamic architecture indeed is very significant. Examples of this could be observed in the growth of the cities in ninth and tenth centuries. Here we can code the to capital of the Samanids, Bukhara, which became the cultural, political, and economic centre of Central Asia for the centuries, until the Bolshevik revolution when in 1920 the Soviets ended the rule of the Bukhara Emirate. The Registan of Bukhara - a large square, where the ten divans (ministries) were located, is still the most beautiful part of the city, and a tourist attraction. There are also some other historico-architectural memorials remaining from that time, like the mausoleum of the Samanids in Bukhara, the mausoleum of Arabato in Tim, the mosque Nuh Gunbad in Balkh, and so on. Along with Bukhara many other cities in the Samanid Empire began to develop such as Samarqand, Balkh, Usturusha, Panjacant, Shash, Marv, Nishapour, Herat. The cities in many respects were the signs of new Persian civilisation represented by the name of Islam, because mostly the development of literature, language, art, architecture, trade, took place in the cities.

INDIAN ARCHITECTURE (Mahabalipuram Temples)

Mahabalipuram is located at a distance of 58-km from Chennai. It is one of the most exciting and memorable destinations, with rich tradition, history, piety and western annals. It is one of the popular tourist places, known for great architecture much visible in its rock carvings and monolithic sculptures. It also has the famous shore temple, the only one to have survived the wrath of nature. Also known as the Seven Pagodas (temples), six of them now lie drowned in the sea. The architecture of the temples at Mahabalipuram are inspired by the Pallava Art and were built during the period 830 - 1100 AD.

At Mahabalipuram, there are two low hills of about 400m above the sea. There are about 11 excavated temples, called Mandapas on both sides of one of the hills. A 'cut-out' temple, called Ratha is carved out of a big rock standing nearby.

The other hill is much smaller and stands about 200m to the south. There are five more rathas, three big sculptures of a Nandi, a Loin and an Elephant carved out of it. On the top of the bigger hill there is a structural temple, and at a little distance there is the magnificent beginnings of a Vijayanagar Gopura which is also believed to be survivals of a so called palace.

Mahabalipuram also has about forty monuments known for their architecture including an "open air bas relief" which is the largest in the world. Since many centuries it has been a center of pilgrimage, and even today it pulls innumerable devotees and tourists.


¤ The Varaha Caves

The Varaha Cave is a small rock-cut mandapam (hall). Here one can find the incarnations of Vishnu-Varaha (boar) and Vamana (dwarf). The four panels of Pallava doorkeepers are the most important and famous. The Dharmaraja Cave, built in the early seventh century, consists three empty shrines. The Mahisasurmardini Cave (mid-seventh century) has fine bas-reliefs on its panels of imperishable beauty. The Somaskanda sculpture here represents peace, power, and wisdom. Here Lord Vishnu is shown in omniscient repose in a masterpiece of dhwani (the art of suggestion). There's also a huge theatrical panel showing, Goddess Durga's fight with the demon Mahishasura. The Tiger Cave is about 5 km north of Mahabalipuram, which is a rock-cut shrine, dating back to 7th century.


¤ Rathas

The Rathas are a group of structures placed at the southern extreme of Mahabalipuram. They are situated amidst Casuarina trees. There are Pancha Pandava Rathas, which are five in numbers. Among these five, four are carved out of a single rock, while the fifth on the west is scooped out from a small rock. The complex consists of square Draupadi and Arjuna Rathas, the linear Bhima Ratha, the taller Dharamraja Ratha and the niche Nakula-Sahadeva Ratha.


¤ Krishna Mandapam

The Krishna Temple is a rock-cut temple and is one of the first in Mahabalipuram. The walls of the temples describe scenes of reverend life, one of the pictures here shows Lord Krishna lifting the Govardhan Hill on his fingertips to protect his people from Indra.


¤ Shore Temple

The Shore Temple, beside the sea shore is a lovely temple, caressed by the sea water and the wind. There is three-in-one abode of God, containing a Vishnu temple and two Shiva temples. It is a visual delight, having wonderful architectural masterpieces. There is sea on either side, having no limits to its extent. Within the compound wall of this temple lies the pleasing sculptures of Nandi the bull while the figure of Vishnu is present in the sanctum sanctorum.

Vaikunta Perumal Temple, Kanchipuram

Kanchipuram is one of the very few places in India where both Vaishnavite (followers of Lord Vishnu) and Shaivite (followers of Lord Shiva) temples are located. These are two of the four sects of Hinduism. Here in Kanchipuram we got the opportunity to visit the temples of two different sects. This temple, the Vaikunta Perumal temple is dedicated to Lord Vishnu. It was built shortly after the construction of Kailasanatha Temple in mid-eighth century, by Pallava King Nandivarman.



The most impressive and unique feature of the temple were the pillars, each one had a lion carved on it. They support the enclosed passage inside the temple. This architectural style, that of pillars in rows, led to a distinctive style followed by the later temples. It led to the evolution of the architectural style of 1000 pillared halls in later temples.



The walls too are carved depicting the stories of war scenes between the Pallavas and Chalukyas. One panel describes the history of the temple in eighth century script. The religious sculptures found on the inner walls of the verandah running around the four sides of this temple are very unique and important.

The information here is not found in any other temples of India. The numerous inscriptions of the Pallava dynasty of the Vaikuntha Perumal temple have helped the historians of South India to write about all the events of ancient Pallava history and to fix the chronology of this dynasty.


It would be wise to take the help of a guide here, I found them quite eager to explain and knowledgeable too.

Tulunid architecture

Nothing much remains of the Abbasid center of al-Askar (situated in the quarter now known as Sayyida Zeinab). Although most Tulunid buildings of al-Qata'i are also gone (the stone was taken to build the Fatimid quarter al-Qahira) the

original Mosque of Ibn Tulun still stands and is arguably the most beautiful of all Cairo's Islamic monuments. The construction of this mosque was ordered after Fustat residents complained of cramped conditions at Friday prayers in the Mosque of Amr and was carried out from 879

to 880. Its architectural style is largely of Iraqi origin and is unique in Egypt: fired brick walls, stucco decoration and the three ziyada or external courtyards are also found in the early mosques of Samarra, Iraq. The architect is thought to have been a Christian from Mesopotamia called Ibn Katib al-Farghani, who built false columns into larger brick pillars to avoid the common practice of taking capitals from existing churches.

The square minaret is also unique in Egypt and provides a wonderful view of the city. This mosque was used as a military hospital, a salt warehouse and a beggars' prison in the nineteenth century, before being carefully restored in 1918. Visitors to this building should also stop at the Gayer-Anderson House next door; actually two sixteenth-century houses joined together, this museum contains a wonderful collection of medieval art.

Some may recognize the interior, which was used in a James Bond film. These two attractions should be a top priority for anyone interested in Islamic art and architecture, but visitors should bear in mind that appropriate dress is required for all mosques.