Mediaeval Persian Painting

"This book is a survey of the historical evolution of Persian painting, and the factors, internal as well as external, which shaped its development and brought significant changes in the subject matter and forms of representation. As these forms changed, so did their status and the hierarchies of values they embodied, coming to reflect changing views on the status of images and the nature of painterly skill. Thus, an age when monumental painting largely determined the character of the representational arts gave way to a period when books and book painting defined artistic taste, while subsequently a fashion for paintings and drawings on single sheets created a taste for painting in oils on canvas. The final chapter of the book is an attempt to reconstruct one of the most famous albums, the so-called St. Petersburg Muraqqa."--BOOK JACKET.

Focusing on 5 objects found in the main media from the 10th to the 16th century - ceramics, metalware, painting, architecture and textiles - Sheila S. Blair shows how Greater Iranian artisans played with form, material and decoration to engage their audiences.

This volume is a pioneer study focused on a corpus of 89 fragments of exquisitely illuminated manuscripts that were produced under the patronage of the Turkic-speaking Uygurs in the Turfan region of East Central Asia between the 8th and 11th centuries CE. Through detailed analyses and interpretations aided by precise computer drawings, the author introduces an important group of primary sources for future comparative research in Central Asian art, mediaeval book illumination, and Manichaean studies.

Focusing on 5 objects found in the main media from the 10th to the 16th century - ceramics, metalware, painting, architecture and textiles - Sheila S. Blair shows how Greater Iranian artisans played with form, material and decoration to engage their audiences.

The medieval period of Persia's remarkably continuous, history began with its conquest by the Muslim Arabs in the seventh century AD and gave way to the modern period at the end of the eighteenth century when the influence of the West became pervasive. Without an understanding of the confused legacy of these centuries, no-one can hope to understand the complexities and dynamism of modern Iran. Concise, clear and colourful, David Morgan's book is the best and most up-to-date short account of its subject in the English language.

Mediaeval Manichaean Book Art focuses on a corpus of 89 fragments of exquisitely illuminated manuscripts that were produced under the patronage of the Turkic-speaking Uygurs in the Turfan region of East Central Asia between the 8th and 11th centuries C.E., and used in service of the local Manichaean church. By applying a codicological approach to the analysis of these sources, this study casts light onto a lost episode of Central Asian art history and religious book culture. Mediaeval Manichaean Book Art represents a pioneer study in its subject, research methodology, and illustrations. It extracts codicological and art historical data from torn remains of lavishly decorated Middle-Persian, Sogdian, and Uygur language manuscripts in codex, scroll, and 'palm-leaf' formats. Through detailed analyses and carefully argued interpretations aided by precise computer drawings, the author introduces an important group of primary sources for future comparative research in Central Asian art, mediaeval book illumination, and Manichaean studies.

"The publication of this book commemorates the one thousandth anniversary of the completion of the Shahnama, the Persian national epic, which was written down in more than 50,000 couplets by the poet Firdausi. It also celebrates the most lavishly illustrated version of this text, a manuscript produced for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, who ruled Iran from 1524 to 1576"--Director's Foreword, p. 7.

In the complex and varied world of Islamic art ceramics play an important role. Medieval Persian ceramics, in particular, were extraordinary for their technical invention and imaginative, refined iconography achieving artistic results that would be difficult to surpass in the art of pottery. Compared with early Islamic art, works of art from medieval times make much greater use of figural decoration and forms. Alongside celebrated examples from some of the world's most prestigious museum collections, this volume includes a series of hitherto unseen works. The impressive and technically sophisticated pieces include plates, bowls, ewers, jugs, jars, beakers, and spouted and shaped vessels. The book provides an exhaustive panorama of Persian ceramics, striking a perfect balance between technical, stylistic, and aesthetic analysis, which brings the reader closer to this art of exceptional quality and beauty.

The two-volume Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture bridges the gap between monograph and survey text by providing a new level of access and interpretation to Islamic art. The more than 50 newly commissioned essays revisit canonical topics, and include original approaches and scholarship on neglected aspects of the field. This two-volume Companion showcases more than 50 specially commissioned essays and an introduction that survey Islamic art and architecture in all its traditional grandeur Essays are organized according to a new chronological-geographical paradigm that remaps the unprecedented expansion of the field and reflects the nuances of major artistic and political developments during the 1400-year span The Companion represents recent developments in the field, and encourages future horizons by commissioning innovative essays that provide fresh perspectives on canonical subjects, such as early Islamic art, sacred spaces, palaces, urbanism, ornament, arts of the book, and the portable arts while introducing others that have been previously neglected, including unexplored geographies and periods, transregional connectivities, talismans and magic, consumption and networks of portability, museums and collecting, and contemporary art worlds; the essays entail strong comparative and historiographic dimensions The volumes are accompanied by a map, and each subsection is preceded by a brief outline of the main cultural and historical developments during the period in question The volumes include periods and regions typically excluded from survey books including modern and contemporary art-architecture; China, Indonesia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sicily, the New World (Americas)

Archaeologists work with broken fragments to build pictures of life in past societies. In many excavations, the most abundant fragments we work with are broken pieces of ceramic vessels and objects (we call them "sherds"), which we find by the thousands in a typical dig. These sherds can tell us quite remarkable things about the past: when a site was occupied in history, what trade contacts it had, and what kinds of everyday activities people were doing there. We can also learn about technologies and how artisans learned and adopted technologies across large areas. The finest ceramics, of course, are true works of art that convey an aesthetic sense that we can appreciate hundreds or thousands of years later. Daily Life Ornamented: The Medieval Persian City of Rayy shows how archaeologists work with sherds at the same time that it portrays aspects of life along the Silk Road during the ninth - fourteenth centuries. It must be said that although the catalogue is based largely on sherds, they are not only interesting as documents of medieval Islamic civilization, but they are also among the most beautiful sherds in the collections of the Oriental Institute. This catalogue, published in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name, also represents an opportunity to re-examine the pioneering work of Erich Schmidt, who excavated the ancient site of Rayy during the mid-1930s.