Contains all the major articles on Persian art and architecture published by O'Kane between 1976 and 1994

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.

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.

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 Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century marked a new phase in the development of Islamic art. Trans-Eurasian exchanges of goods, people and ideas were encouraged on a large scale under the auspices of the Pax Mongolica. With the fascination of portable objects brought from China and Central Asia, a distinctive, hitherto unknown style - Islamic chinoiserie - was born in the art of Iran.Highly illustrated, Islamic Chinoiserie offers a fascinating glimpse into the artistic interaction between Iran and China under the Mongols. By using rich visual materials from various media of decorative and pictorial arts - textiles, ceramics, metalwork and manuscript painting - the book illustrates the process of adoption and adaptation of Chinese themes in the art of Mongol-ruled Iran in a visually compelling way. The observation of this unique artistic phenomenon serves to promote the understanding of the artistic diversity of Islamic art in the Middle Ages.Key Features*Covers various media of decorative and pictorial arts from Iran, Central Asia and China*Deals with a diverse range of issues related to the East-West artistic relationship in the Middle Ages*Features in-depth studies of style, technique and iconography in Iranian art under the Mongols*Includes 125 illustrations, 24 in colour

Over the last forty years, Basil Robinson has established a reputation as a leading authority on the art of Persia. His work on Persian manuscript illumination represents one of the most important contributions made in this century to the study of the development of this pivotal branch of Islamic art, which absorbed the influence of Arab and Chinese painting, and influenced in turn the miniature painting of Mughal India. This first volume concentrates on Persian painting. Seven papers examine the general evolution of painting in Persia from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries, "mostly preserved in manuscript illumination, with emphasis on that most characteristic of Persian manuscripts, "the Shah-Nameh, the national epic. Particular attention is paid to the Timurid period and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Four reviews of exhibitions of Persian art follow. Thirteen studies are devoted to a later period, the school of painting that arose under the Qajar rulers, when Persian art flourished in such new and diverse media as oil painting and painted enamels. Vol I Contents: Preface A Survey of Persian Painting 1350-1896 Persian Painting and the National Epic Persian Miniatures and Manuscripts Persian Miniatures of the 16th and 17th Centuries Shah Abbas and the Mughal Ambassador Khan Alam: the Pictorial Record Areas of Controversy in Islamic Painting Book Illustration in Transoxiana: the Timurid Period Some Modern Persian Miniatures Persian Miniatures at the British Museum Persian Painting: A Loan Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum Persian Miniature Painting from Collections in the British Isles Qajar Art: An Introduction The Court Painters of Fath Ali Shah The Amery Collection of Persian Oil Paintings Persian Royal Portraiture and the Qajars Some Thoughts on Qajar Lacquer Qajar Lacquer Persian Lacquer in the Bern Historical Museum Persian Lacquer and the Bern Historical Museum Casket A Pair of Royal Book-Covers A Lacquer Mirror Case of 1854 Qajar Painted Enamels A Royal Qajar Enamel The Tehran Nizami of 1848 and other Qajar Illustrated Books Inde.