From monumental architecture to miniature paintings, sumptuous carpets, and ceramics: the decorative profusion of the arts of Persia captured in glorious detail through hundreds of color photographs

Overview of Iranian and Persian manuscript painting, manuscript illumination, calligraphy and drawing, from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century

While the impact of the Persian style is undeniably reflected in most aspects of the art and architecture of Islamic Central Asia, this Perso-Central Asian connection was chiefly formed and articulated by the Euro-American movement of collecting and interpreting the art and material culture of the Persian Islamic world in modern times. This had an enormous impact on the formation of scholarship and connoisseurship in Persian art, for instance, with an attempt to define the characteristics of how the Islamic art of Iran and Central Asia should be viewed and displayed at museums, and how these subjects should be researched in academia. This important historical fact, which has attracted scholarly interest only in recent years, should be treated as a serious subject of research, accepting that the abstract image of Persian art was not a pure creation of Persian civilization, but that it can be the manifestation of particular historical times and charismatic individuals. Attention should therefore be given to various factors that resulted in the shaping of “Persian” imagery across the globe, not only in terms of national ideologies, but also within the context of several protagonists, such as scholars, collectors and dealers, as well as of the objects themselves. This volume brings together Islamic Iranian and Central Asian art experts from diverse disciplinary and professional backgrounds, and intends to offer a novel insight into what is collectively known as Persian art.

In the seventeenth century, the Persian city of Isfahan was a crossroads of international trade and diplomacy. Manuscript paintings produced within the city’s various cultural, religious, and ethnic groups reveal the vibrant artistic legacy of the Safavid Empire. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Getty Museum, Book Arts of Isfahan offers a fascinating account of the ways in which the artists of Isfahan used their art to record the life around them and at the same time define their own identities within a complex society.

In this illustrated book, nine contributors explore multifaceted aspects of art, architecture and material culture of the Persian cultural realm, encompassing West Asia, Anatolia, Central Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Europe. Each chapter examines the historical, religious or scientific role of visual culture in the shaping, influencing and transforming of distinctive 'Persian' aesthetics across the various historical periods, ranging from pre-Islamic, medieval and early modern Islamic to modern times.

The golden age of Persian art was the era of the Safavid dynasty. In this time of dynamic religious and political developments, painting and textiles achieved new heights of brilliance and opulence, and architecture flourished with the growth of cities. This resplendent volume provides a chronological history of the reign of each successive Safavid shah, including that of Shah 'Abbas I, who came to the throne in 1588. He not only built grand mosques and palaces, but also welcomed foreign travelers -- and their artistic influences -- to his court. The superb illustrations complement a much-needed text by a leading scholar in the field. This volume is sure to become a standard reference on this sublime period in Persian painting, architecture, illuminated manuscripts, ceramics, metalwork, and other decorative arts.

Housed in the Hermitage Museum along with other institutes, libraries, and museums in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union are some of the most magnif icent treasures of Persian Art. For the most part, many of these works have been lost, but have been catalogued and published here for the first time with an unsurpassed selection of colour plates. In a comprehensive introduction, Vladimir Loukonine, Director of the Oriental Art section of the Hermitage Museum, and his colleague Anatoli Ivanov have broadly documented the major developments of Persian Art: from the first signs of civilisation on the plains of Iran around the 10th-century BCE through the early 20thcentury. Persian Art demonstrates a common theme which runs through the art of the region over the past three millennia. Despite many religious and political upheavals, Persian Art – whether in its architecture, sculpture, frescoes, miniatures, porcelain, fabrics, or rugs; whether in the work of the humble craftsmen or the high art of court painters – displays the delicate touch and subtle refinement which has had a profound influence on art throughout the world.

"Published in conjunction with the exhibition In The Fields of Empty Days: The Intersection of Past and Present in Iranian Art, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, May 6-September 9, 2018"--Colophon.

A stunning catalog of Persian miniature paintings and manuscripts from The al-Sabah Collection, placed in their historical and artistic context