Artistic Transfers from Islamic to Christian Art: A Study with Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present the main aspects of the methodology employed in my research concerning artistic transfers in the late medieval Mediterranean from Islamic to Christian art, with a special focus on the Iberian Peninsula. The starting point of the research was the selection of certain artistic elements incorporated into western Islamic art during the Almoravid period (in particular, the muqarnaṣ and the pointed-horseshoe arches), to analyse their spread in western Islamic art and beyond. A Geographic Information System (GIS) was applied to create two databases and assess the distribution of these elements in the Mediterranean framework between the 12th and 15th centuries. As a result, different analyses and cartographic material developed with the GIS are thus included in this work. The GIS made it possible to analyse not only geographic aspects of the distribution of these elements but also other complex phenomena related to the muqarnaṣ and the pointed-horseshoe arches in a quantitative way, which allowed me to raise some preliminary hypotheses concerning the use and distribution of both elements in the Mediterranean framework.