In Morocco (1920) (14782244445)

Identifier: inmorocco00wharuoft (find matches)
Title: In Morocco
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Wharton, Edith, 1862-1937
Subjects: Morocco -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York Scribner
Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN



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yidea of a direct artistic tradition. The most prob-able explanation seems to be that the architect ofthe mausoleum was familiar with European Renais-sance architecture, and saw the beauty to be de-rived from using precious marbles not merely asornament, but in the Roman and Italian way, as astructural element. Panels and fountain-basins areornament, and ornament changes nothing essentialin architecture; but when, for instance, heavysquare piers are replaced by detached columns, anew style results. It is not only the novelty of its plan that makesthe Saadian mausoleum singular among Moroccanmonuments. The details of its ornament are ofthe most intricate refinement: it seems as thoughthe last graces of the expiring Merinid art had beengathered up into this rare blossom. And the slantof sunlight on lustrous columns, the depths offretted gold, the dusky ivory of the walls and thepure white of the cenotaphs, so classic in sparenessof ornament and simplicity of design—this subtle ( 156 1
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Friitii a phnlojrajih by M. Atnlrc i hirnUon Marrakech—Mausuleuiii i>f i\w Saadian Sultans (sixteenth century) showing t!if tombs MARRAKECH harmony of form and color gives to the dim richchapel an air of dream-hkc unreahty. And how can it seem other than a dream ? \Miocan have conceived, in the heart of a savage Saha-ran camp, the serenity and balance of this hiddenplace? And how came such fragile loveliness tosurvive, preserving, behind a screen of tumblingwalls, of nettles and offal and dead beasts, everycurve of its traceries and every cell of its honey-combing ? Such questions inevitably bring one back to thecentral riddle of the mysterious North African civ-ilization : the perpetual flux and the immovable sta-bility, the barbarous customs and sensuous refine-ments, the absence of artistic originality and thegift for regrouping borrowed motives, the patientand exquisite workmanship and the immediate neg-lect and degradation of the thing once made. Revering the dead and campin