Crossing Borders/Breaking Boundaries IV:
The Impact of Islamic Culture on the Arts of the Renaissance

July 19-26, 2004
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Title: Islamic Patterns and Textiles

Facilitator: Gloria D. Smith

School: Frederick Douglass High

Grades teaching: 9-12

Grades lesson plan appropriate for: 6-12, adults

Discipline: Visual Arts

Other discipline(s) lesson plan appropriate for: English, Language Arts and Social Studies

Time Allotment: 5 class periods (90 minutes)

Main Idea: The Silk Road

Abstract of lesson plan: The Silk Road relates to trade routes (two land routes – north and south, and a sea route) from East Asia (Japan and China) across Central Asia, south to India, west across the Iranian plateau and countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea in Europe and Africa. This trade took place between the second century BC and the sixteenth century in Italy. There was an exchange of horses, precious gems, pottery, glass, spices, tea, and textiles. This lesson will focus on the transfer of textile goods and the influence of Islamic patterns in Italy.

Essential Learner Outcome(s):

  • Outcome I: Perceiving, performing, and responding – The student will demonstrate the ability to perceive, interpret, and respond to ideas, experiences, and the environment through visual arts.
  • Outcome II: Historical, cultural, and social contexts - The student will demonstrate the understanding of visual arts as a basic aspect of history and human experience.
  • Outcome III: Creative expression – The student will demonstrate the ability to organize knowledge and ideas for expression in the expression of art.
  • Outcome IV: Aesthetic criticism – The student will demonstrate the ability to identify, analyze, and apply criteria for making visual aesthetic judgments.

Day One

Objective(s): Participants will:

  • define the history, cultural, and social contexts of The Silk Route in reference to the Islamic influences upon Europe;
  • define the types of textiles and Islamic influence of patterns used during The Silk Route
  • and create Islamic patterns using the craft of paper cutting.

Warm Up: Identify the following fabric samples numbered on your table:
brocade, cotton, damask, linen, satin, silk, tiraz, and velvet (samples of fabrics that are numbered on each table)

Materials:
Sketch paper
Origami paper and/or gift-wrapping paper
Scissors and/or x-acto knives
Glue

Handouts:
Map of the silk route
The Fabric of Prestige and Elegance, Imports and Imitations of Muslim Textiles
Paper Cutting by Kay Broadwater

Vocabulary: Islamic, Muslim, The Silk Road, Brocade, Cotton, Damask, Linen, Satin, Silk, Tiraz, Velvet

Direct Teaching Activity:

  • Facilitator will discuss and write participants’ response to the warm up.Facilitator will discuss the importance of The Silk Raod and the Islamic influence of textiles and patterns. Participants will take notes.
  • Facilitator will show slides identifying Islamic influences and patterns and influences. Participants will be instructed to sketch patterns.
  • Facilitator will demonstrate the paper cutting technique on origami paper using the basic shape of a sketch from the slides.

Independent Activity: Participants will create paper cuttings from five sheets of paper and paste them into a composition on paper.

Assessment: Facilitator will individually monitor each participant’s progress. Participants will answer questions on the back of their compositions:

  • What type of colors, forms, lines, shapes, space, textures and values are used in the Islamic patterns and textiles?
  • Where have you seen fabrics that are similar in design that appear in modern fabrics?
  • What did you learn from today lesson?

Closure: Next, class participants will learn about the Islamic influence of carpet weaving.

Days Two to Five

Objective(s): Participants will learn about the Islamic influence of carpet weaving and create a knot-weaving sample.

Warm Up: Cut 8 strips of construction paper ½” in width

Materials:
Cardboard (9 x12)
Ruler
Scissors
Yarn
Graph Paper
Books on Arabic Designs and Patterns

Handouts:
Carpet Weaving, The Islamic World to1600

Vocabulary: Weaving, Warp, Weft, Beater, Plain weave, Persian knot, Turkish knot

Direct Teaching Activity:

  • Using paper strips, the facilitator will demonstrate the plain weave technique. Facilitator will define weaving, warp, weft, and beating. Participants will create a plain weave with construction paper strips.
  • Facilitator will discuss the Islamic influences of carpet weaving with PowerPoint presentation.
    Participants will take notes.
  • Facilitator will show sample of carpet weaving and sketch of design.

Independent Activity:

  • Participants will create a sketch (can derive sketches from previous lesson) to be approved by the facilitator’s signature and suggestions.
  • Participants will follow instructions for preparing a cardboard loom.
  • Participants will observe demonstration for creating Persian and Turkish knots along with plain weave.
  • Participants will create their knot weaving of their transferred design.

Assessment: Facilitator will monitor the progress of each participant.

Evaluating artwork:
Describe – What kinds of elements of art did you use?
Analyze – What type of pattern did you use and why?
Interpret – What were you trying to express? Give your artwork a title.
Judge – Do you feel you were successful? If you were going to do it over, what would you change?

Rubric for weaving:

Elements/Principles of Art 4 3 2 1
Craftsmanship 4 3 2 1
Effort 4 3 2 1
Creativity 4 3 2 1
  4 3 2 1

Closure: Read a story from Kalili and Dimna

Sources:
Along the Silk Road: Asian Art and Culture
, Published by the Arthur M., Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C., The Silk Road Project, Inc., and the University of Washington Press, Seattle and London

Luxury Arts of the Silk Route Empires, (brochure) Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

The Emergence of Renaissance, Segment IV: The Visual Arts, The Fabric of Prestige and Elegance, Imports and Imitations of Muslim Textiles

The Washington Post, Food Section – June 26, 2002 – "The Flavor of the Silk Road"

Teaching About Islam & Muslims in the Public School Classroom a Handbook for Educators 3rd Edition, Council on Education

Palace and Mosque, Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum, (brochure) National Gallery of Art, Washington, July 18, 2004 to February 6, 2005

Palace and Mosque: Islamic Art from the Victoria and Albert Museum, by Tim Stanley, Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, 2004

Bazaar to Piazza: Islamic Trade and Italian Art, 1300 – 1600, Rosamond Mack, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002

http://www.cucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/islam/learning/carpet.html

http://www.koutayba.com/iarchitecture-org/ia/art/icarpets.html

http://www.bukhara-carpets.com/making/knots.html

http://www.hcs.ohiouniv.edu/faculty/ziff_m/hcia351/6

 

Sponsored by
the Center for Renaissance & Baroque Studies
and the Maryland State Department of Education