The
art of fine writing was prized in east Asia where the ideographic alphabet
limited literacy to an elite few. In China and Japan, brushwork and image
took on the same aesthetic. In the Islamic world, where the word was more
highly valued than the image, calligraphy played a special role in the making
of the Qur'an. And before the advent of printing in medieval europe, scribes
copied religious and secular documents, often embellishing them with illustrations
and fanciful letters. In all of these societies, the scribe and calligrapher
enjoyed high status.
|
|