ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE AND ITS DECORATION - GREAT BUY!

This is a hard to find publication and a great opportunity to pick up a cheap copy.

Islamic Architecture and its Decoration A.D. 800-1500.

During a periodof some nine years, Derek Hill photograped nearly every important example of early Islamic architecture in Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan and Russian Central Asia, playing particular attention to their decorative features.  His interest was stimulated by the problem which was such a pre-dominant concern of the Islamic builders- how to bring to life a blank wall.  In our own time, in spite of the preoccupation with space and form, architects are again feeling the need for means to alleviate the deadness of flat surfaces. This presentation of early solutions to the problem can therefore contribute help and inspiration to modern architects and decorators.   As a painter, Mr Hill is concerned primarily with questionsof proportion and harmony - the proportion of decoration needed on the given blank space to ensure the maximum impact, and the degree of success in controlling over-elaboration.

This exceptional collection of photographs includes many buildings of which no photographs have previously been published; it is of special value that these should be adequately recorded before they suffer further from the erosion of time.

Professor Oleg Grabar, of the Department of the History of Art, University of Michigan, has provided a scholarly introduction to the plates, filling in the physical and historical setting of the geographical area and the period covered.  He has also described the various techniques - carved stone, decorated brickwork, stucco, mosaic faience and coloured tiles - used by the decorators, the themes of the decorations and their significance.  The monuments illustrated are identified city by city, dating is discussed and bibliographical references give.

Together the authors have produced a unique work that will appeal to orientalists, to all interested in medieval times, and to those concerned with architecture and decorative art.

This very large unpaginated hardcover is illustrated with black and white photographs.  There are 88 pages of text at the front followed by (approximately 250 - 300) pages of photographs.  There are 4 colour and 527 black and white plates in total.  This book is ex-library and as such has all the usual stamps and stickers.  The dustjacket has some creases, a tiny split and wear to edge and there is a little rubbing wear to spine.  Being ex-reference library this book has had light use only and internally there is a little light browning to page edges and some light creases to edge of first few pages, but it is otherwise in a good, tight, clean condition with none of the usual grubby finger marks so often associated with ex-library books.

This is a large heavy book weighing over 1.5kg and overseas customers should email me for a postage quote before bidding.

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