LONDON,
(CAIS) - by Shapour Suren-Pahlav -- The
recent discovery of Sasanian Murals,
particularly the floor-frescos from the shahr-e Gur
(Ardeshir-Khurra
"Glory of Ardeshir"), ascertain that the source
and origin of Islamic floor-paintings was Sasanian art, in
contrary to many previous claims by experts of Islamic
art, such as the late German scholar Richard
Ettinghausen.
Ettinghausen
in his book "Arab Painting" (p.33, paragraph 4)
have argued: "Certain details of their design [floor
painting], especially the abrupt changes from areas of
light to dark color, indicate that these frescoes imitate
mosaics, which took more time to apply", and he
concluded that although "such a copying in another
medium was not uncommon then or earlier, as the imitation
of marble incrustations from Roma times on indicate".
The discovery of Sasanian floor-frescos from Gur,
makes a strong case, to lay a claim that the Umayyad
floor-frescos were not an imitation of classical
floor-mosaics, but it was a deployment of a long
established decorative-medium in Iran, that they had
either learnt from Iranians or employed Iranian artisans
to execute their works in Umayyad palaces. The best
surviving example of Umayyad's floor-frescos can be
observed in Qasr
al-Hayr al-Gharbi in Syria, which was built by Umayyad caliph
al-Walid in 728 CE.
