Eliwa, M. (2025). اThe role of mural painting in beautifying religious buildings, (an applied study). International Design Journal, 15(1), 419-435. doi: 10.21608/idj.2025.395731
Mona Mostafa Eliwa. "اThe role of mural painting in beautifying religious buildings, (an applied study)". International Design Journal, 15, 1, 2025, 419-435. doi: 10.21608/idj.2025.395731
Eliwa, M. (2025). 'اThe role of mural painting in beautifying religious buildings, (an applied study)', International Design Journal, 15(1), pp. 419-435. doi: 10.21608/idj.2025.395731
Eliwa, M. اThe role of mural painting in beautifying religious buildings, (an applied study). International Design Journal, 2025; 15(1): 419-435. doi: 10.21608/idj.2025.395731
اThe role of mural painting in beautifying religious buildings, (an applied study)
Assistant Professor, Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria University
Abstract
Place of implementation of the work and the reason for choosing it: Islamic arts are a deep-rooted heritage and the use of Islamic decorations in mural works on religious buildings is a fertile artistic heritage, the formulation of which differs according to the artist's vision and experience, and the factors of the success of the mural work depend on it in terms of its expression of the function of the architectural building, and the extent of its integration with the surrounding environment on the one hand, and the extent of the recipient's interaction with it on the other hand, as the aesthetic experience will not be complete except with both sides of the equation, the artwork and the recipient. Therefore, this work was implemented on the facade of the mosque located in the garden of the Janaklis Palace, in the building of the Department of Painting, Faculty of Fine Arts, and the researcher chose this place specifically because it lacks any aesthetic touch that expresses the architectural function of the building. The researcher saw the necessity of implementing a mural work that carries the features of Islamic art, in order to work on enhancing the aesthetic value of the place, and confirming the identity of the architectural building. The researcher realizes that the success of this work depends on the aesthetic taste in that place, and the extent of artistic awareness among the recipient, as this work falls within an artistic field - the College of Fine Arts - which means that artistic culture is an essential and authentic part of every recipient of this work, so the researcher saw that this mural, with its distinguished and sensitive location, is a fertile field, and a good opportunity to develop thinking skills and engage in intellectual debates, which can be stimulated by the ethereal form language of traditional Islamic decorations, with its rich, flexible elements that can be modified and reformulated without limits. The relationship of the mural to the building on which it is implemented - which is the college mosque - is an integrative relationship, each of which clarifies the identity of the other, and confirms its characteristics. Therefore, the researcher used Islamic decorations as a basic formative element in the design, where she began to reshape those decorations and transform them into simplified forms, in different and varied ways, including the reduction of elements, where the researcher conducted many preparatory studies for the design and concluded that the relationship of the part to the whole and the relationship of integration and separation in one scene with the eloquence of influence through the balance and connection of the elements of the artwork as a whole, will give the general design an aesthetic significance in building the shape of the mural work, its movement and rhythm. The nature of the place does not require work full of details or complexities, whether in design or material. The simple, abbreviated forms that are at the same time indicative are the fastest forms to perceive and accept by the recipient. Man always looks forward to knowing the complete truth in the shortest time and with the least effort, without distracting his perception with subtopics and thus being more responsive to them. Therefore, the design came simple in its vocabulary, but it carries high visual values despite the intensity of its summary, as the squares, rectangles and circles were coordinated to create successive rhythms that achieve dimensions with a different vision that relied on organizing the units that fall in the recipient's visual field, so that these different design units are compatible and linked to each other. This connection would create a kind of dynamism in the mural work. When choosing the place, the researcher took into consideration the external components and influences through which the time factor is taken into account, which determines the period of absorbing the vision of the mural work, as that period depends on the location of this work, the surrounding space and the extent of the space that allows the recipient to see the work through it. The relatively narrow space in which the work is located, as the mosque is built in front of a corridor that does not exceed three meters in area, means that the time of viewing this work is limited to that space only until it is absorbed by the recipient. Therefore, the researcher took into account, when developing the design and its components, its effect on the psychology of the recipient's perception according to the time of viewing it, by focusing on the visual dimensions of the mural work with its rhythms and directions, such as studying color and line. The construction of the work depends on the combination of curved and straight lines in a structural composition in order to evoke the expressive value of the general form of Islamic art decorations.
Gharib, S. (1997). Inscriptions on Time. The Egyptian General Book Authority, p. 72.
Hussein, K. Y., and Kohler, J. (1995). Ancient Eastern Thought. The World of Knowledge, The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters in Kuwait, p. 9.
Myers, B. (n.d.). Fine Arts and How We Taste Them (translated by S. Al-Mansouri and M. Al-Qadi). Nahdet Misr Library, p315.
View on SCiNiTO
Top