COMUNICACIÓN Y PRENSA

Raquejo, Tonia
Charles Darwin y la evolución de las especies ornamentales en la Alhambra de Owen Jones (Charles Darwin and the evolution of ornamental species in the Alhambra of Owen Jones) / Tonia Raquejo.
In: Norba: revista de arte.– Cáceres : Universidad de Extremadura. — Vol. 32-33 (2012-2013), p. 107-124
Jones, Owen (1809-1874)
Darwin, Charles.
Islamic ornamentation and decoration.
7.033.3(460.357)
 
“Norba: revista de arte”, an art journal published by the University of Extremadura and received by library exchange has been part of the Alhambra’s periodicals collection since 1980. The latest edition contains this fascinating article by Tonia Raquejo.
It is divided into various sections:
– Architecture, science and modernity
– The scientific methods of art
– Ornamental species and the underlying patterns in their shapes
– Conclusion: visualized forms of knowledge
 
The author introduces us to the complex world of the “truly beautiful” form defined by Owen Jones in his Grammar of Ornament (1856), establishing parallels between the patterns of evolution and development of species proposed by Darwin three years later in “The Origin of Species” (1859)
“Jones places his aesthetic discourse at one of the most interesting crossroads in the history of artistic thought, in that he talks of a mimesis that could be defined as “profound” compared to the similarity between that which is represented by the artist and the subject of reference. Ever since its origins, mimesis has been a question of reproducing nature as exactly as possible. But this exactness should not be sought in the similarity between things, but in the way things behave in their environment, the way in which they develop, flow and grow. Jones’s contribution lies in his approach to mimesis, as he emphasizes that art must imitate the principles governing nature rather than its purely external aspects”.