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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the
16th–17th Centuries
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies,
and legendary creatures | Markers: schools and workshops | Papers,
manuscripts, illuminations | Relations with the West and the Far East |
Bibliography
One of the specific characteristics of classical Persian painting is the
accumulation of picturesque details. Viewers can thus admire a scene as a
whole, or allow their gaze to wander inside it, from one detail to another.
Moreover, this wealth of detail—stemming from the meticulous observation of
nature—is often rich in literary allusions.
© E. Lessing
Anyone observing a Persian painting should bear in mind that such works were
most often intended to illustrate manuscripts—usually literary texts; indeed,
many of these images have come down to us from dismembered manuscripts.
But it is clear at first glance that the image contains much more than the
depiction of a given episode, and includes a wealth of strange or picturesque
little details. Persian miniatures have sometimes been compared to stage
settings, arranged on various levels and composed around an architectural
scene or mountainous landscape. A host of small actors, all equal in size, bustle
about on the different levels of the stage. This abundance allowed the painter to
depict the content of a particular text while adding numerous references to other
famous literary episodes. Finally, the accumulation of realistic detail is one of the
mechanisms of a multi-faceted aesthetic. These elegant paintings find an echo
in the various modes of music or in lyric poetry, in which variations also play an
essential role. The picturesque thus corresponds to a need for expression in
artistic creation.
Author(s)
Francis Richard, former head of the
Department of Islamic Art, Scientific
Director of the BULAC (University Library
for Language and Civilization Studies)
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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the 16th–17th
Centuries
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies, and
legendary creatures | Markers: schools and workshops | Papers, manuscripts, illuminations
| Relations with the West and the Far East | Bibliography
Genre painting and court scenes
Festive scenes
© Photo RMN/H. Lewandowski
Royal audiences, banquets, and other festivities are among the most common themes in
Persian painting, which traditionally contrasts "festivals" and "battles"—the two principal
subjects of Persian epics. The court scenes depict the etiquette surrounding the
ceremonial of royal receptions in meticulous detail, with each dignitary shown standing or
kneeling and placed according to his rank and responsibilities. The royal throne is a kind of
platform, placed on a magnificent carpet in a palace or tent. The king receives the petitions
of his subjects, and pronounces judgment.
Once the official guests have been received, literary jousting takes place before the king or
noble who is holding audience; music is played and a banquet is served. The food, wine,
and fruit are presented in beautiful vessels, evidently made of the finest ceramics or most
precious metals. The palace usually opens onto a garden with bird-filled trees in full bloom.
Although stylized, its architecture is comparable to that of palaces built in the period when
the manuscript was copied. Some of these festive scenes evoke Persian New Year
celebrations in the early spring—a pleasant time to sit beside the streams that run through
the palace gardens.
Hunting, sport, and board games
In addition to these festive images, other scenes depict various aspects of royal life in the
traditional Persian world. They represent the various activities enjoyed by the sultans and
their courts, and often feature hunting scenes in which the prince has a central role and
performs extraordinary feats. His companions also hunt, while beaters ensure that a
multitude of animals surrounds them.
Polo was a popular sport in the medieval Iranian world, and was a feature of the
educational program for young aristocrats. As a result, many paintings show noble youths
skillfully playing this sport—often on the large town square (maydan) where military reviews
were held. Persian literary texts include many references to polo.
Chess and backgammon were also among the favorite pastimes of the Iranian princes,
and these games are sometimes represented in paintings, to illustrate the famous texts in
which they are mentioned.
Garden scenes
The illustrations of literary or historical manuscripts invite the viewer into a world of
elegance. Many scenes are set in gardens which sometimes contain palace pavilions.
Illustrated luxury manuscripts, made for the king or the royal entourage, served to glorify the
monarch and the monarchy.
However, there are also many genre scenes of a more intimate nature—love scenes in
particular. The latter were all the more popular in that they corresponded to the central
themes of Persian lyric poetry: the lover's search for the beloved in spite of all the obstacles
in their path. The lovers' union was the epilogue the poet ardently desired. Many of these
scenes show a cup bearer, pouring the wine of intoxication or oblivion. Works such as
these are further confirmation of the link between Persian painting and literature.
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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the 16th–17th
Centuries
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies, and legendary
creatures | Markers: schools and workshops | Papers, manuscripts, illuminations |
Relations with the West and the Far East | Bibliography
Portraits
Typology
Shah Abbas I and his Page
1627
© Musée du Louvre/A. Meyer
The Iranian world boasts a tradition of portraiture. Official portraits were conserved, notably
in works containing royal genealogies. The ruling monarch was quite often depicted in
manuscripts, and lent his features to the "just king" in the images accompanying the text.
Certain portraits were associated with character types such as warriors, men of religion, or
dervishes.
From the 16th century on, an increasing number of isolated portraits were kept in collectors'
albums together with calligraphies, drawings, and paintings. The portraiture of the Indian
Mughals—who were much given to speculation about the link between character and facial
features—may also have had a certain influence at this time.
Imperial portraits
Royal portraits followed a number of conventions in the Iranian world. The prince's face is
represented in such a way that his gaze is directed above that of his companions, who
lower their eyes in his presence. Images of the Buddha also had a certain influence.
Everything was designed to exalt the majesty of the king. The detailed splendor of the
clothing, the variety of fabrics, and the graceful attitudes and postures were all part of the
portrait aesthetic. From the 19th century on, under the Qajars, portrait painting reached its
peak—as it did in Europe—and there was a growing movement to synthesize European
and traditional Persian art.
Physiognomy: character reflected in the face
In the 15th century, historical works often contained dynastic charts in which the physical
particularities of each figure were associated with character traits. Portraiture does not
seem to have followed this trend, although there was a certain amount of caricature in
Persian painting. Ridiculous, threatening, or grotesque figures sometimes appear, often to
depict the inhabitants of the far-flung regions of the world (of which Iran was the center). The
model of female beauty was "Chinese"—or more exactly, Central Asian.
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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the 16th–17th
Centuries
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies, and
legendary creatures | Markers: schools and workshops | Papers, manuscripts,
illuminations | Relations with the West and the Far East | Bibliography
Monsters, fairies, and legendary creatures
Iranian mythology and folklore
© Photo RMN/H. Lewandowski
Persian folklore was rich in extraordinary creatures. Peris are fairy-like beings resembling
angels, usually shown with female faces and colorful wings. They bewitched and deceived
mortals, and played a major role in the later Persian epics and romances.
Many images feature other creatures from Persian mythology, such as the dragon or the
phoenix-like Simurgh bird. Certain fantastic creatures were interpretations of ancient
images that were no longer understood, such as Gorgons.
Images of Chinese or Indian deities provided models for the representation of evil
mythological creatures called Daevas.
Narrative texts
Another mythological repertory was inspired by episodes from the Alexander Romance by
Pseudo-Callisthenes. Its stories featured the Indian Waq Waq or Talking Tree, dog-faced
creatures, and many other strange beings that sailors claimed to have encountered in the
Chinese and Indian seas. These immensely popular stories enriched the traditional
Persian bestiary with many (often hybrid) species that took their place in medieval
cosmographies such as Qazvini's Wonders of Creation, which continued to be copied and
illustrated until the 19th century.
A distant world, disturbing creatures
The far reaches of the inhabited world, near the Ocean surrounding the earth, were
generally believed to be frequented by monsters and strange creatures of all kinds. Legend
had it that Mount Qaf, at the edge of the world, was the Simurgh's nesting-place and home
to djinns and other mythical creatures. Daevas and other malevolent beings often guarded
the tombs of the great figures of pre-Islamic antiquity. The legend of Gog and Magog—two
peoples who devastated the earth until Alexander built a wall with brass gates to protect the
world from their invasions—was perpetuated in the poetry of Ferdowsi and Nizami.
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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the 16th–17th
Centuries
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies, and legendary
creatures | Markers: schools and workshops | Papers, manuscripts, illuminations |
Relations with the West and the Far East | Bibliography
Schools and workshops
Tabriz, Herat, and Shiraz in the first half of the 16th
century
© RMN/H. Lewandowski
At the close of the 15th century and the dawn of the Safavid reign (1502), magnificent
illuminated manuscripts were produced by outstanding artists at two major centers in the
Iranian world: the Turkmen court of Tabriz in the west, where Sultan Muhammad was one of
the principal artists, and the city of Herat in the east, home to the famous painter Bihzad.
During the Safavid era, splendid manuscripts such as the poet Ferdowsi's Book of Kings
were produced by a large royal workshop in Tabriz, of which Bihzad was appointed head.
Tabriz, Herat, and Shiraz were the principal centers of painting and manuscript copying;
their schools produced a great number of works for a wide public.
The second half of the 16th century
Artistic patronage declined in Tabriz after 1550, but a royal workshop was founded in the
new capital, Qazvin. A plethora of workshops sprang up in the vicinity of Mashad and Herat
in the northeastern province of Khurasan from 1570 onward, and benefited from the
influential patronage of Prince Ibrahim Mirza. Khurasan neighbors the Uzbek city of
Bukhara, where a prolific school (under the protection of the Shaibanids) developed a style
of its own in the Timurid tradition of Herat.
Styles changed considerably during the 16th century, with a growing taste for genre scenes
and individual works, and a shift in techniques and sources of inspiration.
The 17th century
In 1598, Shah Abbas I the Great (1587–1629) transferred his capital from Qazvin to
Isfahan, an ancient city at the crossroads of trade routes and the heart of the kingdom.
Trade and crafts developed, the kingdom opened to Europe, and Iran entered a period of
profound change.
The traditional art of manuscript illustration was somewhat eclipsed by the painting of
portraits and genre scenes for albums. The royal workshops, formerly directed by the
painter Sadiqi, were taken over by others such as the famous Riza Abbasi, who headed
the new Isfahan workshops from 1603; aspects of European engraving—which often
reached Iran via India—began to be incorporated into traditional Iranian drawing and
painting.
Although provincial centers such as Shiraz (which was in decline) and Herat were fairly
active in the 17th century—as was the school of Bukhara in Uzbekistan—it was essentially
the age of the "Isfahan School," famous for a number of significant painters including Riza,
Muin, Shafi, Ali-Quli Jabbadar, and Muhammad Zaman, whose work shows the greatest
European influence. It is important to note the exchanges between the artists of this school
and those who painted palace frescoes—some artists were active in both fields—or
decorated textiles and ceramics.
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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the 16th–17th
Centuries
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies, and legendary
creatures | Markers: schools and workshops | Papers, manuscripts, illuminations |
Relations with the West and the Far East | Bibliography
Papers, manuscripts, illuminations
Calligraphy and illuminations
The art of the book developed considerably in the Iranian world, where calligraphy was
widely practiced. Magnificent copies of scientific, literary, and historical texts were
embellished with illuminated decoration (frontispieces, rosettes, title bands, frames,
ornamented margins, etc.) which also adorned luxury Korans. Rather than using gold leaf,
the illuminator (mozahheb in Persian, meaning “he who adds gold”) worked with powdered
gold, which could be applied with a brush when mixed with a binder such as egg white, and
used a rich palette of colors. Many of the numerous illumination motifs (scrolls, volutes,
geometric and floral designs, interlacing patterns, etc.) recall the decorations used in other
art forms such as architecture, textiles, and ceramics; illuminations dating from the 14th
century onward are often of extraordinary delicacy. Especially during the 16th century, the
margins were also filled with decorative designs that were generally added in gold with a
brush.
Paintings
The paintings accompanying many of these splendid manuscripts were done in gouache
with a very fine brush. Sizing and smoothing were essential aspects of the artist's
preliminary work; preparatory drawing was often done in red ink, and a stencil was
sometimes used to make copies. Painters, like craftsmen, relatively rarely signed their
work. Moreover, manuscripts were often made in a library-workshop (kitabkhana in
Persian) over a period of several months, and a painting could be a collaborative work by a
number of artists (including an illuminator). The luxurious palette used for the manuscripts
that were produced in royal workshops was essentially composed of mineral pigments,
with considerable use of gold. Text and illustration were usually closely linked. Although
each period and school cultivated an individual style, imitation of the ancients was every
artist’s ideal. Painted manuscripts were kept in the libraries of kings or wealthy individuals,
and rarely seen by the public. Owning a library—and painted manuscripts—was the mark
of an enlightened king, and went hand in hand with artistic patronage.
Paper
Painting was done on paper—a material used from the 8th century onward in the Iranian
world, where the paper mills of Samarkand were highly reputed. The preparation of the
paper was a very delicate process. Once it had been removed from the mold and dried, it
was sized and smoothed with an agate stone. It had to have the translucence of parchment
and not be brittle.
Although European paper began to be used by the Ottomans from the late 15th century and
in Iran from the late 18th, it was prepared in the same way for use by calligraphers,
illuminators, and painters. Paper was a very precious commodity.
Before reaching the hands of the copyist or artist, the sheets of paper were usually
prepared in bifolio format to fit into the pages of a volume. Slightly raised lines were traced
with the help of a tool called a mistara, to determine the position of the text or paintings. In
the case of illustrated manuscripts—where many of the Louvre's Persian paintings come
from—the text was almost always copied before painting began. Luxury manuscripts from
the 16th century onward featured two new techniques: the sprinkling of gold to add shine to
the page, and the insertion of a usually decorated paper border over the center of the
sheet, with a strip border to mask the join.
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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the 16th–17th
Centuries
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies, and legendary
creatures | Markers: schools and workshops | Papers, manuscripts, illuminations |
Relations with the West and the Far East | Bibliography
Relations with the West and the Far East
Borrowings from Chinese art
© Photo RMN / H. Lewandowski
It is a well-known fact that many Islamic (and particularly Persian) motifs were borrowed
from Chinese art. The latter was known and admired in Iran, where it was willingly imitated
and emulated by artists. The constant exchanges with the Chinese world were largely due
to the importance of the contacts created by the Silk Road, either overland through Central
Asia or by sea via India.
Diplomatic relations existed between the Iranian world and the Chinese empire to the east.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, to find animal figures and representations of trees, rocks,
or landscapes that were directly inspired by Chinese models. Iranian collections included
may examples of Chinese artwork in the form of textiles, ceramics, graphic arts, etc. In the
early 15th century, a Persian painter from Herat is known to have visited China as an
artistic ambassador, on the lookout for inspirational examples of Chinese art.
Debate arose concerning the superiority of Chinese over Byzantine painters, with the
preference going to the former. For Persian poets, “the idol” (bot in Persian, the Buddha)
was an image of perfect human beauty. Yet these Far Eastern images were not slavishly
copied, but reinterpreted and incorporated into new compositions to illustrate authentically
Iranian scenes.
Reinterpretation of foreign models
The geographical situation of Iran—at the crossroads of the age-old trade routes linking
Central Asia, India, and China to the Near East, Europe, the Arab Peninsula, and
Egypt—made it a meeting-place of diverse influences. Unsurprisingly, the art of Japan
shares elements with that of Persia, and Manichaean art (of Mesopotamian origin)
flourished in the eastern Iranian world—to such an extent that the Iranians considered Mani
the greatest of painters.
In book illustration, these various influences formed an extremely rich iconographic
repertory which was often diverted from its original object and put to the service of the great
literary or historical themes that inhabited the Persian imagination. Many borrowings were
made from Indian or Greco-Roman statuary, and from ancient Egyptian or Near Eastern art.
Periods of political harmony in Iran, which fostered exchange, were followed by periods of
division and schism; consequently, the various foreign influences were adopted on a
regional level and used in very different contexts, thereby acquiring a profoundly Iranian
identity.
Contacts with Europe
It is not always easy to measure the European and Western impact on Persian painting.
Nonetheless, Byzantine and Near Eastern Christian iconography had a considerable
influence on book illustration under the Mongols (late 13th–early 14th century), especially
through the Arab painting of Syria and Mesopotamia.
Copies of images from a Latin manuscript dating to around 1310 were also found in Tabriz,
a hub of exchange and home to Italian merchants, which still enjoyed regular contact with
Europe and European art in the 15th century. From 1570 on, under the Safavids, exchange
with Europe was resumed and developed; regular diplomatic and religious missions
visited Iran, and the development of Armenian trade (from 1600 on) brought objects and art
works to Iran from the "land of the Franks."
In the field of painting, the Jesuits circulated Jérôme Nadal's gospel illustrations throughout
India, sparking a revolution in drawing. These European prints and their copies—already
known and admired in Iran prior to 1600 and the transfer of the capital to Isfahan
—prompted a change in aesthetics: a new delicacy of line, a change in the treatment of
perspective, a taste for Christian subjects. Artists such as Sadiqi, Riza, Ali-Quli, and
Muhammad Zaman were among the promoters of "Europeanized" art.
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In-Depth Studies : The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the
16th–17th Centuries
Large panel-stamp binding for a Koran
Mid-16th century
© Musée du Louvre/A. Meyer
Introduction | Genre painting and court scenes | Portraits | Monsters, fairies, and legendary creatures | Markers: schools and
workshops | Papers, manuscripts, illuminations | Relations with the West and the Far East | Bibliography
Bibliography—The Picturesque in Persian Painting of the 16th–17th Centuries
- L'Étrange et le Merveilleux en terres d'Islam, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 2001
- GRABAR, Oleg, La Peinture persane : une introduction, Paris, PUF, 1999
- HILLENBRAND, Robert, Imperial Images in Persian Paintings, Edimbourg, Scottish Arts Council, 1977
- RICHARD, Francis, Splendeurs persanes, Manuscrits du XIIe au XVIIe siècle, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1997
- SIMS, Eleanor, Peerless Images, Persian Painting and its Sources, New Haven et Londres, Yale University Press, 2002
- STCHOUKINE, Ivan, Musée National du Louvre, Les Miniatures persanes, Paris, Musées nationaux, 1932
- STCHOUKINE, Ivan, Les Peintures des manuscrits safavis de 1502 à 1587, Paris, Paul Geuthner, 1959
- STCHOUKINE, Ivan, Les Peintures des manuscrits de Shah 'Abbas Ier à la fin des Safavis, Paris, Paul Geuthne
Bibliography
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