My French Easel: Beautiful symmetries – Islamic art at the V&A

Saturday 19 July 2014

Beautiful symmetries – Islamic art at the V&A

There is something about symmetry... The neuro-scientist Ramachandran suggests that “symmetry is a marker, or flag, for good health, which in turn is an indicator of desirability”. (See my article Ramachandran’s nine laws of aesthetics http://myfrencheasel.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/ramachandrans-nine-laws-of-aesthetics.html).

And when it comes to inventive symmetry, Islamic art has no match.

I took the photographs below at the V&A in London, in the Jameel Gallery of Islamic Middle East art.

Lustre tiles

This panel of 15 star and cross tiles from the shrine of Imamzadeh Yahya in Varamin (south of Tehran), fritware with lustre decoration, made by the potter Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Tahir in Kashan, Iran, 1262, Museum no. 1837-1876.

The Screens below are made carved and pierced sandstone. They came from Agra and are 19^th century copies from late 16^th century models