_
107/x
[numbers continue from Part Two]
_ _
108/x

For "PART TWO" of this "Contra – Islamesque" thread, click the quoted tweet below — that’s the tail-end tweet of Part Two, i.e. where we left off and will resume from here now continuing…
_

https://x.com/RogerBlumberg/status/1892021882695844349?t=G1h0LjS3pxV5lcb1fjQU3w&s=19

_
58/x
[numbers continue from Part One]
_ _
59/x

For "PART ONE" of this "Contra – Islamesque" thread, click the quoted tweet below...

https://x.com/RogerBlumberg/status/1862746976171040796?t=snxTfkhBbVuhv15A-KnE0A&s=19

_
1/x
native Anglo-Saxon “zigzags”:

Zigzags in England pre Norman conquest (pre any possible Islamic influence, thus NOT #Islamesque — contrary to Diana Darke’s* fever-dream “revelations”. Plenty of native English precedence for zigzag ornament and “taste” used in temporally adjacent (later) Norman-Romanesque architecture and decoration. 

[re Diana Darke’s upcoming book “Islamesque”, founded upon her inane 2023 “zigzag theory”.]
====================

First, zigzag decoration on exteriors of two Anglo-Saxon English churches, both 10th century *pre-Norman*:

• St. Peter’s Church 
Barton-upon-Humber, Lincolnshire
Anglo-Saxon, c.970 ad pre-Norman [first 2 pics, top row below]

• All Saints, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, Anglo-Saxon, 10th cent (pre-Norman)
England's finest Saxon tower no less. [second 2 pics, lower row below]
_


_
2/x
native Anglo-Saxon “zigzags” continuing....

Bayeux Tapestry, 11th cent, 1070's AD [NEAR FULL ZIGZAG BORDERS, top and bottum]

(single most important historical/cultural icon in England !? )

Commissioned by a Norman patron from English artists working in the *traditional Anglo-Saxon style*. 

Depicts the events leading up to the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, led by William, Duke of Normandy challenging Harold II, King of England, and culminating in the Battle of Hastings. 
_

_
1/x
'Intersecting arches' come Norman-Romanesque 'blind arcading', come 'pointed arch intersects' are NOT an "Islamic" innovation — they are of _Roman_ origin, Roman mosaic ornament/motif.

#MosaicMonday
Roman Mosaic, 2nd C AD, House of Tetrastyle Atrium, Nora, Sardinia Italy
_

2/x
Three earliest Islamic architecture examples of 'intersecting arches' come 'blind arcading' used as decorative ornament — all Spain, 10th-11th cent AD.

• Toledo: Mezquita Bab-al-Mardum, Mosque of Cristo de la Luz

• Cordoba: Great Mosque

• Saragossa: Jafiriyya Palace
_

_
OMG, there it is, hidden in plain sight. The "2nd source", explicitly Christian source of Medieval Christian AFFINITY for pointed arch (independent of Islam) + ubiquitous medieval Mandorla & blind arcading. Not Euclid's proof 'Vesica Piscis' but Quadrivium MUSIC, Octaves & 5ths
_
you have to understand/appreciate that the musical Octave + 5th is THE #1 Christian theoligical "mystery" & 'secret'. The Octave interval is how you get "Father and Son" as _One_. The P-5th too is functionally & literally "One" (insuppressible heart) with any Tonic/Root/Octave

_
1/20-ish  #MosaicMonday
We may have (poorly reported) proof available that 'pointed arches' were _not_ an Islamic 'innovation' (at minimum there is dual origin Christian & Islamic). Pointed arches were present & known in late antiquity, in Roman/Byzantine Christian vocabulary.
_
2/x
Recent new proof of this can be found the basement of the Great Mosque of Cordoba Spain — first revealed to the public in 2005 — but art/architecture historians have thusfar declined to declare it.

CC 📸 credit: Martin Stone
First pic here is as I found them a few days ago

1/x Rarely are musical instrument iconography hunters gifted a wholly NEW, never before seen, just unearthed specimen and major 'missing link' artifact. But that's exactly what happened in 2004 — in the field of early vihuela and viola da gamba history & research, organology. 2/x In 2004, restoration was underway on the baroque era domed ceiling of the [medieval] Cathedral-Basilica of Valencia, in Spain. The baroque ceiling turned out to be a false drop-ceiling addition,...