The end of the Ottoman empire<span> unleashed a renaissance in literature and the arts. Traditional arts had suffered under ailing economies and the transfer of patronage from urban regional centers to the Ottoman court. By World War I, artists had turned to Western art as a representative form of modern expression. As a result, a new separation emerged between traditional art in all its forms and what came to be known as the fine art of easel painting. Traditional arts such as painting on glass and leather, woodwork, </span>glassmaking<span>, metalwork, textiles, and wall frescoes were considered naive and repetitive, relying less on intellect and more on archaic traditions. </span>Painting on glass<span> is one example of a dying tradition that ended with the passing of the last Syrian painter in this genre (</span><span>Abou Subhi al-Tinawi, <span>Muhammad ‘Ali fi al-Sham</span></span>
