Zagirova, Guzel I. The Lotus in Central Asia: A Sassanian Motif in the Islamic Stucco Decoration

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2212-06-48
Title The Lotus in Central Asia: A Sassanian Motif in the Islamic Stucco Decoration
Author email naratan59@gmail.com
About author Zagirova, Guzel I. — Ph. D. student. State Institute for Art Studies, Kozitskii per. 5, 125009, Moscow, Russian Federation. ORCID: 0000-0001-8852-1414
In the section Oriental Art DOI10.18688/aa2212-06-48
Year 2022 Volume 12 Pages 608–621
Type of article RAR Index UDK 7.033.3 Index BBK 85.12
Abstract

This publication aims to review the history of Lotus images as reproduced in the stucco décor of pre-Mongolian Islamic Central Asia and to trace its evolution between the 9th and 12th century. The Lotus motif originates in Achaemenid Iran and is sequentially re-interpreted in the stucco of Sassanid Iran, Central Asian Sogdia, and the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates. There are many studies dedicated to succession between Sassanid and Islamic ornamentation; however, such reviews either have a limited coverage of the stucco ornament of Central Asia or overlook it altogether. The publication is focused on the Central Asian iconography of the Lotus that embodies all the above influences. The study follows a descriptive and historic approach. The Lotus images in stucco are selected chronologically and on a regional basis: monuments of Sassanid Iran and Central Asian Sogdia, and Islamic monuments of Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. Regional versions of the motif are identified and compared with those classified previously. I analysed the formal characteristics of ornament on thirty monuments: composition, scale, proportions, location, symmetry type, rhythm, and technique. Five vectors of the development in 9th to 12th century Central Asia were identified: Sassanian motif re-scaled and relocated in the overall arrangement; the motif incorporated into new ornamental designs; plant morphology altered; and both symmetry and carving techniques becoming more complicated. This research not only provides a brief review of Lotus in the Islamic art of Central Asia for architectural conservation projects, but also serves as a starting point for studying other ornamental motifs along the same lines.
Keywords
Reference Zagirova, Guzel I. The Lotus in Central Asia: A Sassanian Motif in the Islamic Stucco Decoration. Actual Problems of Theory and History of Art: Collection of articles. Vol. 12. Eds A. V. Zakharova, S. V. Maltseva, E. Iu. Staniukovich-Denisova. — St. Petersburg: St. Petersburg Univ. Press, 2022, pp. 608–621. ISSN 2312-2129. http://dx.doi.org/10.18688/aa2212-06-48
Publication Article language english
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