Persian Painting

Includes 80 reproductions in full-color. Running parallel to the evolution of Christian art in the West, the art of book illumination in Iran took its rise under the Sassanians in the 4th century of our era and developed uninterruptedly under the 15th. Book illumination ranked second only to architecture, while wall painting, metalwork, ceramics and textiles fulfilled a decorative function. Easel painting was unknown in the East and sculpture was confined to ornamentation. Under these circumstances miniature painting and calligraphy emerged as one of the most characteristic art forms of as one of the most characteristic art forms of Islamic Persia, where they played a more important role than they did in the West. After an introductory survey of the earliest surviving vestiges of Persian painting, Basil Gray discusses and illustrates the paradoxical fact that the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, while devastating the leading centers of Persian civilization, opened the country to artistic influences from Central Asia and China which stimulated the rise of a new art. Thereafter the arts of the book steadily evolved towards the perfection attained in the 15th century. Asiatic in conception, European in its sense of form and color. Essentially an art of manuscript illumination, Persian painting is seldom to be seen in the original; the leading works are widely scattered in museums and libraries all over the world, and only in the 20trh century has it begun to arouse the interest its unique qualities deserve. In the past 20 years or so the field of art-historical research has been greatly broadened; yet this book is the first general study illustrated in full color to be made of Persian Painting, of masterpieces whose exquisite design and imaginative coloring give them a place apart in Oriental art.