The Bases of Design

by Walter Crane

Spring in Persia must be a much more sudden burst of life and efflorescence than we can realize from our own timid and coy climate. Even in Italy the spring generally comes all at once with a burst of bloom and a profusion of blossoms and flowers, and in its strength the sun straightway leads on into summer before one is aware. This gives one an idea what it must be in a country like Persia—the country of the rose and the nightingale as well as of the vine, of which Omar the poet is eloquent.

Then, too, it is an agricultural country. "He who guides a plough does a pious deed" is one of the precepts of the early Parsee religion, which also, as its main conception, presents the constant strife of good against evil, light against darkness, personified by the contest of Ormuzd and Ahriman.

The sturdy and honest peasant was the backbone of the country in ancient times, and furnished those sturdy warriors who built the power of the ancient kings. And in the political changes or conquests to which Persia has been subject in the course of her history, her people would always appear to have had a recuperative power, or a power of absorbing their conquerors, or perhaps a certain tenacity of purpose, or a conservation of the vital part in old beliefs and traditions which have been favourable to art.

How far that art was original, in the time of Persia's ancient greatness as a conquering power, in the time of Darius, when the palace at Susa was built—how far it was influenced from other sources, or contributed to by artists of other nations, must always be more or less a matter of conjecture; but in the Susa work we are reminded of Assyrian decoration, and even of Greek and Egyptian influence.

The Persian art, however, which has had the most influence upon the neighbouring Asiatic countries, and upon Europe, has been produced since the Arabian conquest in the seventh century, and the conversion of the country to the Mohammedan faith. Even then, however, although in Mohammedan art the representation of animals is forbidden, the Persians were neutral and independent; in Persian design animals have been freely introduced, and with charming decorative effect. It is supposed, indeed, that Persian art is really the source of invention of many forms commonly called Arabian and Indian, and these forms have travelled both east and west, and have been modified in the countries of their adoption. The Persians seem to have been in Asia much what the Greeks were in Europe—both great adaptors and great originators in design.

One might trace elements and influences and types of form and treatment from other countries and races in Persian art, but one traces Persian influence to a far greater extent in the art of other countries.

In India, which was also invaded by Islam, and was colonized by Persians, the Arabic type of art also became naturalized in architecture and decoration. Here again we have a country of the sun. Here again we find tile decoration in great beauty, and the use of bright colours and intricate design. Intricacy both of colour and pattern is perhaps the chief characteristic of Indian design.

One feature in Indian, as in Arabic dwellings, may be noticed as a direct result of the persistent sunshine turned to decorative account—one common to eastern countries—the pierced screen or lattice window, which tempers the fierce light of the sun and breaks it into small stars of light.

The rich carved timber overhanging windows, with its lattice screen so characteristic of old Cairo and Arabian life, is repeated with variations in India, and not only in wood but in stone and faïence. We find small ogee-pointed windows with perforated lattices cut in sandstone of intricate design and delightful ornamental effect. There are some in the India Museum from Agra. But the loveliest of all are those in the mosque of the Palace at Ahmedabad, consisting of most delicate and intricate designs of trees cut in stone, which fill the arched openings. One of these windows is here illustrated. There is nothing more delicate or beautiful in the whole range of architectural ornament.