Читать книгу Art of Islam - Gaston Migeon - Страница 15

The Hassan Tower in Rabat is simple. It was unfortunately denied its crown, which was supposed to be a series of blind arcades surmounted by a row of serrated melons on top of which arose a small dome-carrying lantern on a platform, a regular feature in Maghrebian minarets. The small marble columns that supported the three arcades of advanced beam filling have disappeared. An examination of the casing of the large blind window of the second floor and the three serrated arcades below reveals that these forms are enhanced by a kind of border which, unlike the relief moulding in 14th-century Cairo monuments, is an area bounded by a deep line of engraving. Many interlaced arches, in a row or two, border the archivolt. The arches’ tympanums are decorated with symmetrical rinceaus based on a model that became conventional.