Aporia in Umayyad Art or the Degree Zero of the Visual Forms' Meaning in Early Islam

Abstract This article re-examines the established findings about Umayyad art as a transitional production essentially anchored in the Western and Eastern Late Antique traditions that have inspired it. It argues instead that the Umayyads brought about an aesthetic revolution laying out the foundation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Material Cultures in the Muslim World 2021-02, Vol.1 (1-2), p.6-33
Main Author: Gonzalez, Valerie
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Abstract This article re-examines the established findings about Umayyad art as a transitional production essentially anchored in the Western and Eastern Late Antique traditions that have inspired it. It argues instead that the Umayyads brought about an aesthetic revolution laying out the foundations of what has become known as "Islamic ornament," a predominantly aniconic art form. An epistemological shift from art history to critical inquiry allows us to show that, beyond the adaptive borrowing of pre-existing forms, the Umayyads redefined the art's condition of meaning based on an unprecedented attitude to images and visual discourse informed by Islamic ontotheology and logocentric metaphysics.
ISSN:2666-6278
2666-6286
2666-6278
DOI:10.1163/26666286-12340002