THE PRINCE’S SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL ARTS
A lecture presented on the occasion of the visit of
H.R.H. The Prince of Wales to Seville, March 2011

The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts forms part of a group of charities which reflect HRH The Prince of Wales’ profound interest in a wide range of issues such as education; the arts; architecture; urban planning; alternative medicine; responsible business and the preservation of the natural environment. These issues have proven to be some of the most relevant and pressing challenges facing the world we live in today.

The School is based in London where it runs the core education programmes but also exists through its Outreach projects which spread to many different regions of the world. We have been involved in projects in a range of European countries as well as in Nigeria; Egypt; Saudi Arabia; AbuDhabi; Pakistan; India; Malaysia; Jamaica; Brunei and China.

We also welcome students from all over the world to our centre in London; where students from the USA, Russia, Ghana, Colombia, Pakistan and the Arab world amongst many others are drawn to the unique educational experience of the PSTA.

The Prince’s School has, for a number of years now, pioneered practical post-graduate degrees (at Masters and Doctoral levels) in the traditional arts of the great civilisations of the world. The School emphasises the importance of integrating the theoretical study of the traditional arts with their practical application. One of the main objectives of the programme is to encourage an awareness of the wholistic nature of the traditional artist whose inspiration derived from the highest sources and whose skill and dedication created masterpieces which we all recognise as part of our world heritage.

The process of instilling this awareness in the student is achieved through a series of complimentary courses which form the core of the School’s educational programme.

These courses, which form the basis of the School’s educational programme, on the one hand act as an intensive form of initiation in the craft tradition while on the other, are a means of acquiring a wide range of transferable vocational skills.

Through learning the practical skills of these arts and crafts and simultaneously learning their significance as part of the universal language underpinning the sacred and traditional arts of the world, the student is offered the opportunity to participate in the contemplative nature of these arts, and to realise, through activity rather than observation, that the subtle patterns and forms they interact with transcend the purely decorative realm and embody a more profound order of beauty.

One of the main disciplines we teach as a tool for the appreciation of this order of beauty is the science of geometry which we practice as a means for our students to understand God’s creative principle and its manifestation in the order of nature. I can give a brief but moving example of this understanding: we know of no two snowflakes that ever fell to the ground that are the same; yet all snowflakes originate and are held together by the order of six-fold geometry.

The visual expression of this order of being is best represented through the discipline of geometry. This discipline is usually confused as an artistic style, which it is not – it is the crystalline analysis of the working order of nature. Geometry is both quantitative and qualitative. Its quantitative dimension regulates the form and construction of the arts and architecture. Its qualitative nature sets their proportion and form and represents an expression of the order of the universe which regulates the cycle of manifestation. All the proportions of this sacred geometry derive from the division of a circle (which is a symbol of the unity of being) by inscribed regular figures and therefore the proportions of sacred architecture have their root in the symbolic source which contains all the possibilities of existence. Not only are the forms of geometry related to heaven and earth respectively, but the instruments that are used to draw them, that is the compass and the square, have the same significance. The craftsman, by using his traditional tools, participates in a ritual which is symbolic of heaven and earth coming together.

The school teaches geometry, not only as an objective language informing the traditional arts of the world, but also as an essentially sacred language. Students learn that the patterns of traditional art reflect nature and are underpinned by the same geometry that is the basis of the natural world. Thus geometry is seen as a reflection of a universal order, taught by the ancient Greeks and recognized by the great Arab architects and scientists, as well as the cathedral builders of the Middle Ages.

I would also like to stress the importance of this discipline of geometry by quoting from the Rasail of Ikhwan el Safa - who were fundamental in the transfer of platonic thought to the Islamic world in the 11th century:
‘Know oh brother that the study of sensible geometry leads to skill in all practical arts while the study of intelligible geometry leads to skill in the intellectual arts because this science is one of the gates through which we move to the knowledge of the essence of the soul and that is the root of knowledge.’

One of the principle aims of the School is to encourage an appreciation of the timeless values that are fundamental to the arts of the great traditions of the world. In order to understand these values it is essential for the student to realise what is meant by the term “Tradition”. The word itself, as it is commonly used today, generally refers to “customs” or “mannerism” of a particular society, but true Tradition has its source in the Divine realm and is the inspiring principal within each culture. Through studying the art of a traditional society, whether it is the art of Islam, of the North American Indians or of the Christians of the Middle Ages, the aim of the course is to inspire students to understand the meaning of this art, to examine the inspiration and the intentions of those who made it, and thereby to understand and appreciate the sacred and timeless values that it represents.

I have been making constant reference in my explanation of our work to a particular term which express the fundamental concepts which underlie the educational principles of the Prince’s School – this term is “Tradition”, a word we carry in the name of the School.

I will try to explain these through the definitions that we have reached with our students and which I believe to be closest to their original and true meaning. It is important to understand these terms in their full significance – a point we stress and adhere to strictly in our education programmes. During the first term of the academic year all the students are encouraged to define the terminology that will be used throughout the period of their study. This is essential since it enables everyone to debate and understand what is being said in the light of the true meaning of the words they are using. Modern language has radically distorted the meaning of certain words, especially those used in reference to the arts. For instance, we go through art school under the impression that for our art to be original it has to be different from everyone else and not that this art might have an origin which we all share, draw inspiration from but also interpret differently. Furthermore, we constantly see the term ‘cosmetic‘ (mainly in the context of decoration) as meaning something which is superficial and not ”to make cosmic-like”.

Returning to the meaning of the term ‘Tradition’:
TRADITION: essentially, the word means the handing down from one generation to another especially as part of an oral tradition (from the Latin tradere meaning ‘to hand over‘). This could mean the handing down of knowledge, forms and disciplines – not solely religious rituals – it also extends into the transmission of fundamental ideas to all aspects of life.

Furthermore, tradition can be expressed as 'the right way of living'; this right way is always of its moment and of its age. Thus it is always contemporary, a state which is much more relevant than simply being modern.

The universal message of any traditional art draws its inspiration from both a physical and a metaphysical order both of which have their origin in the Truth of the Absolute.

On the level of the physical traditional art seeks its fundamental principles from the laws of the natural world. These are the laws of the natural order of being which man has experienced on a daily basis since the beginning of time. We have to realise that Man is not the measure of all things and that the traditional artist acknowledges by his submission to the Divine will, that God is the Supreme Artist. Thus the relationship between the artist and his surrounding space is one that is based on reverence and not arrogance. If he has to leave an imprint on this physical space then it must be done with humility and with no sense of defiance to the natural order of being.

On the level of metaphysics, traditional art aspires to the highest principles. It acts as a bridge or vehicle to transmit the realm of heaven into our physical world. This metaphysical inspiration, however, cannot be fully explained in rational terms but has to be read and understood through the language of symbolism.

Traditional art is a reminder of a higher state of being; it is an essential support for contemplation and all traditional art forms should be perceived as symbols on earth of the archetypes which are in heaven. It is this contemplative nature of traditional art which removes it from the constraints of time and place. It is through the understanding of this fact that the contemporary artists can draw not only physical but also spiritual inspiration to form a basis for their art. These timeless values will truly provide the freedom from social constraints and psychological pre-occupation which every artist searches for in his work.

We try to guide our students to realise that the proper understanding of art and architecture should be structured on the belief that the traditional arts are the product of a fulfilled human being. This can only be achieved by finding the right harmony between the hand, the heart and the mind. It is because of this understanding that we stress that an intellectual appreciation of the arts, or the individual expression of the artist is not enough. The true identity of the artist can only be realised when he fulfils his role as a craftsman, and his means of expression can only be truly valid when it derives from the principle of unity which underlies every aspect of the artist’s life.

Due to the essence of man’s nature any activity he undertakes will have to contain an aspect which conveys the realm of the Spirit. The term ritual can express secular activities which we perform every day. But there is also a sense of ritual containing a sacred dimension which links man’s activities to heaven. The traditional mind always saw the world as a reflection of heaven. It realised that everything that exists in this world, even in the realm of ideas and imagination, is a reflection of a divine archetype. In this sense the ritual of craftsmanship signifies the re-enactment on earth of a divine prototype.

The understanding that the craftsmen had of the higher reality of these arts and the constant reference to the world of heavenly archetypes for inspiration, instils in their work a sense of timeless beauty. The tiles of The Alhambra or the stained glass windows of the cathedral of Chartres still speak to us today in such a direct and striking manner – they penetrate our being to the depth of our soul and transport us to a higher realm. (One has to say that the same is true in the case of any truly traditional building whether it is a mosque or a Hindu temple.) The experience of this art clearly educates us that beauty based on the sacred is universal and is the symbolic language of the soul.

In fact the message of the traditional arts is synonymous with every aspect of man’s life which has a physical reality as well as a metaphysical principle which underlies this reality. This is reflected in Islamic spirituality by the Divine names Al- Batin and Al-Zahir (The Hidden and the Revealed). It is these two Divine characteristics / principles which maintain the equilibrium of the hidden and revealed character of Islamic art which by extension has an impact on our physical and spiritual levels of being. The language of Islamic art is a contemplative one and by nature contemplation is a spiritual activity.

The spiritual life has to begin with submission and the Islamic tradition teaches that without submission there can be no true understanding and without discipline there can be no flowering of the spirit which leads to true and essential knowledge. This is most evident in the relationship between the fundamental aspects of Islamic art which are geometry, biomorphic form (or arabesque) and calligraphy. Geometry is an objective manifestation of the principles of creation and forms the underlying framework for the visual expression of the path which leads from unity to multiplicity. Arabesque or biomorphic forms, which symbolise virgin nature, and which interlace with and balance the geometric patterns would be meaningless and formless without the structure of the underlying geometry. Furthermore, both these art forms are the setting for the word of God and the calligraphy of the Koran.

This balance and hierarchy also extends to the discipline of architecture. Architecture is widely acknowledged to be the setting for the different disciplines of the arts and crafts, it is the evidence that these arts and crafts do not exist for their own sake, but to embellish our everyday lives and environment.

However, architecture is more than just an aesthetic or spatial experience; it represents a symbolic vision of a higher reality. For instance, architecture can be understood as the art of ordering space. Yet when an architecture has its roots in a sacred tradition, it extends this sense of order from physical space to an expression of a metaphysical order

The decoration of architecture with calligraphy, geometric patterns and biomorphic forms must not be perceived simply as surface decoration or the superficial application of patterns. This decoration must be seen as a fundamental element in the overall composition of the architecture. It is a manifestation of a higher order of being - it is cosmetic in the true sense of the word that I referred to earlier; "to make cosmic-like." The architect consciously reflects the forms, patterns and rhythms he sees around him in nature, thus confirming that his work does not stand separately but as part of God’s creation on earth.

CONCLUSION

I have based my talk today on giving a presentation of the work of the PSTA, but also thought it essential to delve in the world of principles and philosophy that we adhere to. I can only conclude by reaffirming the ethos of our understanding of education which brings forth these principles into action.

We base our teaching at the Prince’s School on the root meaning of the term ‘educate’ which literally means to ‘draw out’ rather than ‘push in’ knowledge. What we draw out from our students is part of their inherent nature – we draw out their memory which is so fundamental to the collective consciousness of the family of humanity. This in principle is intrinsically linked to the concept of Tradition which I referred to earlier.

In this context, Tradition can also be understood as ancestral memories, but these memories transcend merely the customs and mannerism of our forefathers. These memories relate to where we came from, what is our origin, what we were in essence and what we are today. This memory also has an extension in the future, since having traced where we came from it also gives us the direction of the path to follow and where we should be going. It is therefore a timeless and universal memory.

Through both practical and philosophical education a student is helped towards an understanding of not only the physical realities of this world, but also the language of symbolism which leads to a more profound understanding of art and life. It is this language and consciousness which guide us towards seeing the transparency of phenomena or realising the eternal in the present moment.

The “Universal Principles” that sustain the sacred and traditional art of the world has been called the “Philosophia Perennis” or the “Universal and Unanimous Tradition” of which St. Augustine spoke as a “wisdom that was not made, but is now what it always was and ever shall be”. The art that concerns itself with this wisdom is the concern of the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts.