Beauty and Islam : aesthetics in Islamic art and architecture / Valérie Gonzalez.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gonzalez, Valérie.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Islamic art.

Aesthetics, Arab.

Islamic architecture.

Physical Description:

xv, 134 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : I.B. Tauris ; London : The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2001.

Summary:

Five essays explore aspects of aesthetics in classical Islamic thought in light of contemporary theories, offering new perspectives on Islamic art and architecture with examples ranging from the Qur'an and the Alhambra to the works of present day artists and philosophers. Tracing the roots of Islamic aesthetics back to the works of the philosophers of the Middle Ages such as Avicenna and Averroes, Valerie Gonzalez finds that aesthetic theory in Islam must be seen within the much wider context of parallel thinking on theology, ethics, physics, and metaphysics. She balances her analysis of this philosophy (moral, logical, and scientific) of beauty with the equally important analysis of the perceptual experience of beauty.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1860646913

OCLC:

48254175