A suburb of eastern cities with private buildings, craft workshops and others. In Muslim Spain, a district of the city where no military crew was stationed. Rabad first developed in the cities of Central Asia, in the twelfth century AD., however, the term mostly refers to a suburb of the city in the Arab countries of North Africa. There ‘rabad’ is mostly regarded as the periphery “and ‘non-elite’ quarters or neighborhoods” (Ennahid, UCLA Global 2008) as it has always been situated further away from the urban center than the so-called ‘elite’ quarters, clustered around it.
Therefore, the contemporary ‘rabad’ “designates a residential neighborhood located at the periphery of cities, [reserved for crafts], and occupied by the marginalized [or poorest citizens]” (Ennahid, UCLA Global 2008).
Ennahid S., UCLA Global (2008). “From Rabad to Habitat Social: An Urban-Cultural History of the Suburbs of Fez”. Abstract of paper to be presented by Said Ennahid, Al-Akhawayn University at the conference: “Fez, Morocco, Crossroads of Knowledge and Power: Celebrating 1,200 Years of Urban Life” In: UCLA Global. International Institute. Available at <https://bit.ly/3dDycPk>. [Accessed 23rd February, 2021].
PWN (1997-2021). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 341. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN
PWN (2007). “Rabad”. In: Encyclopedia PWN: Literatura i sztuka. Available at <https://bit.ly/37FRHTT>. [Accessed 23rd February, 2021].
The term has derived from Greek. Plural: stoas, stoai, or stoae.
It is hall structure, commonly designed for public use. “Early stoas were open at the entrance with columns, usually of the Doric order, lining the side of the building” (“Stoa” 2021). Simultaneously, they had a wall at the back, often with doors leading to added warehouses. As such, “they created a safe, enveloping [and] protective atmosphere” (Ibid.). In the architecture of ancient Greek cities, stoa had been in existence since the fifth century BC.
“Later examples were built as two stories, and incorporated inner colonnades usually in the Ionic style, where shops or sometimes offices were located. These buildings were open to the public; merchants could sell their goods, artists could display their artwork, and religious gatherings could take place” (“Stoa” 2021).
In Hellenistic times, stoas ran around the four sides of the market, creating a kind of peristyle with a shady roofed portico. “Stoas usuallysurrounded the […] agora of large cities and were used as a framing device” (“Stoa” 2021). They were usually erected in the courtyards of gymnasiums and palaestras. They also surrounded port pools, closed a pier or ran as covered walkways along roads. Other examples were designed to create safe, protective atmospheres which combined useful inside and outside space.
The most famous is the stoa of Poikile (Stoa Poecile), situated on the north side of the Ancient Agora of Athens. It was covered with famous paintings, and therefore it was also called the ‘Painted Stoa’. It is mostly famous of the philosopher Zeno of Citium (335-263 BC.), who met his followers there and taught, He was a Hellenistic thinker who founded the Stoic school of philosophy. Consequently, “[the] name of the Stoic school of philosophy [has derived] from ‘stoa'” (“Stoa” 2021).
“Stoa” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3urJqMz>. [Accessed on 7th May, 2021].
“Stoa Poikile” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3enNJ62>. [Accessed on 7th May, 2021].
“Stoa of Attalos” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2Rv8VxS>. [Accessed on 7th May, 2021].
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy IEP (2021). “The Stoa”. In: Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy IEP. Fieser J., Dowden B. eds. Available at <https://iep.utm.edu/stoa/>. [Accessed on 7th May, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 389. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
French: fise; Spanish: frizo; from frizar ‘furrow’.
A long, sequential, horizontal and usually narrow panel or band used for decorative purposes, delimiting or dividing flat planes of colour. It consists of repeating or various geometric motifs or figural scenes, stretching along the horizontal band.
The frieze has widely been used in architecture, usually as a horizontal panel in the top, and sometimes in the bottom part of the wall, including, among others, painted, bas-relief, ceramic, mosaic and tiling techniques. Frieze has been also applied in other fine arts such as painting, arts and crafts. and graphics.
The decoration of the friezes has varied throughout centuries, depending on the style of a given epoch. For example, in Romanism, geometric motifs were predominant, including an arcaded and dental frieze, in Gothic, floral and figural motifs were common, and in the Renaissance there were often antique motifs used. Friezes were used to divide and decorate both the exterior facades and interior walls of buildings, as well as to decorate individual architectural elements, painting and graphic compositions, as well as appliances, furniture and dishes.
Sequential frieze. The Fermor Palace in Kwidzyń, Poland. Photo by Pko, own work (2006). CC BY-SA 3.0. Photo and caption source: “Fryz” (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia.
Featured image: The so-called “Frieze of Griffins”; the motif represents a winged lion with ram’s head and griffin’s hind legs; it composes an enameled tile frieze from the west courtyard of the palace of Darius I at Susa, Apadana, in Iran; circa 510 BC. Now exhibited in the Louvre Museum, Paris. (2015). By Yann. This image was originally posted to Flickr by Following Hadrian (2013). CC-by-sa-2.0. Colours intensified. In: Wikimedia Commons.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Fryz” (2019). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3eTag9J>. [Accessed on 4th May, 2021].
Koch W. (2009) Style w architekturze. Arcydzieła budownictwa europejskiego od antyku po czasy współczesne. [Baustilkunde], p. 440. Baraniewski W., Kunkel R., Omilanowska M., Sito J., Zięba A., Żak K. trans. Warszawa: Świat Książki.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica (2021). “Frieze. Architecture” (2021). In: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Available at <https://bit.ly/2RpBEnA>. [Accessed on 4th May, 2021].
Photo: “Frieze of Griffins” (2015). Uploading files from Flickr per request by Yann. This image was originally posted to Flickr by Following Hadrian (2013). CC-by-sa-2.0. In: Wikimedia Commons. Available at <https://bit.ly/3eUQD1a>. [Accessed on 4th May, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 125. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
A mosaic consists in arranging a pattern composed of small, various shapes of coloured stones, glass and ceramics on a properly prepared substrate, for example, of fresh lime mortar, cement or mastic. The individual mosaic tiles are called tesserae. The mosaic gives an effect similar to painting and it is distinguished by remarkable durability. Due to such a characteristic, it has been used mainly as an architectural decoration. On the other side, the mosaic has also been widely used in products of decorating handicraft, such as in the case of ancient Mesopotamian artifacts, where a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli was inlaid in bitumen applied on wooden hollow boxes (e.g. the Standard of Ur and lyres from the Royal Tombs of Ur, circa 2600 BC.). A technique similar to a mosaic is a marble inlay, known as the Florentine mosaic.
The mosaic was known in ancient times, mainly in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean Basin but was fully developed and flourished in the first century AD., in Rome, where its three techniques were usually applied. Opus barbaricum was composed of natural, coloured stones of various shapes, used to create various patterns, mainly geometric or floral, depending to a large extent on the shape of the stones. Opus tesselatum was, in turn, made either of stones, or faience or glass, where cubes (1 cm3) were cut out, then precisely ground and arranged in patterns. The third technique was known as opus vermiculatum, which consisted of a variety of materials in terms of colour and shape (triangles, hexagons, cylinders, etc.), selected depending on the theme of a given composition.
Mosaic patterns were usually laid in the artist’s workshop, then transferred to their final destination and applied to the base, usually consisting of limestone, fine quartz sand, clay and oil.
Coloured mosaics are also known to pre-Columbian cultures, used, for example, in decorating funerary masks (e.g. burial mask of jadeite belonging to the Mayan king, Pakal, and to the Red Queen from the Temple XIII). In Europe, the mosaic technique was adopted from ancient Rome by early Christian art to decorate the exterior and interior of sacred buildings. The second reviving period of the mosaic art took place in Byzantine art, in the sixth century AD. The most famous example from this period is the so-called Madaba Mosaic Map in the early Byzantine church of Saint George in Madaba, Jordan. Then the technique reached Russia, where it developed in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In other European countries, apart from Italy, the mosaic did not play a major role. However, it was often used in architecture by Islamic art, especially in Persia.
The renewed interest in mosaic dates back to the nineteenth century, and in the twentieth century monumental mosaics, mainly of ceramic, were used in the decoration of representative buildings.
Featured image: Roman mosaic of Ulysses, from Carthage, 2nd century AD, now in the Bardo Museum, Tunisia. Photo by Giorces derivative work: Habib M’henni and Dyolf77 (2010). Public domain. {{PD-US}}. Colours intensified. Photo and caption source: “Mosaic” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Mosaic” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3weVNfL>. [Accessed 10th June, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 267. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
In ancient times, the name given to holy places, sacred district or underground, usually Greek temple buildings, or a sacred grove, accessible only to priests and so restricted to common people. Sometimes, it was accessible to the faithful who have submitted to ritual cleansing. In Greek, the definition described ‘untrodden place’, as only priests were allowed to set foot in most of them.
The term stands either for an inaccessible religious building, such as a monastery or part of a sacred building and its enclosure. In ancient Greece, abaton was also meant as a bedroom for patients expecting miraculous healing while sleeping and it was usually built as a long stoa.
Among others, abaton is mostly used in reference to an enclosure or a temple of Asclepius, in Epidaurus (sixth century BC.-fourth century AD., Peloponnese, Greece), a temple on the island of Bigeh, in the Nile river situated in historic Nubia, where ancient Egyptians venerated the burial of Osiris (The Middle Kingdom, 2055–1650 BC.), and finally a monument on the island of Rhodes, erected by Artemisia the Second of Caria to celebrate her conquest of the island (the fourth century BC.).
Featured image: View of the Island of Philae with Isis Temple and Trajan’s Kiosk, in the Nile, Nubia. Island of Bigeh and its ruins in foreground. 1838 painting by David Roberts. Painting by David Roberts (1838). Public domain. Image cropped. Photo and caption source: “Bigeh” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
“Bigeh” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3kjpuYy>. [Accessed 21st August, 2021].
“Abaton (disambiguation)” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3D4SWdg>. [Accessed 21st August, 2021].
“Epidaurus” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3sD1VgI>. [Accessed 21st August, 2021].
“Artemisia II of Caria” (2021). In: Wikipedia. The Free Encyclopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/2XL5Htj>. [Accessed 21st August, 2021].
“Abaton” (2018). In: Wikipedia. Wolna Encyklopedia. Available at <https://bit.ly/3B08ehr>. [Accessed 21st August, 2021].
“Abaton” (2021). In: Powered by Oxford Lexicon. Available at <https://bit.ly/3D3rnkt>. [Accessed 21st August, 2021].
PWN (2007). Słownik terminologiczny sztuk pięknych, p. 1. Kubalska-Sulkiewicz K., Bielska-Łach M., Manteuffel-Szarota A. eds. Wydanie piąte. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
