Colours and geometries
Decorations and mathematical proportions in the Mosque of the Shah or Imam
Abstract
During the Safavid period in Isfahan, in the organisation of the mosques, one can identify the principles that guided the designers' choices to define and realise the decorative motifs. In this article, we attempt to explain how the Shiite religion influenced the design of decorative devices in the Safavid period mosques in Isfahan, as in the one, for example, called Shah's or Imam's mosque, by verifying the degree of correspondence and synergy between design and decoration. The many architectures built during the Safavid period from the 16th to the 18th century show the extensive activity that characterised the reign of Shah Abbas. During this period, the ancient and traditional Iranian architectural style was decisively renewed; most of the Safavid buildings, such as mosques, schools and caravanserais, were built following a plan layout that provided for the development of construction around the four sides of a central entrance. One of the most striking features of the decorations attributable to this period is the observance of the rules of symmetry, specular doubling, repetition and geometric order.
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