A fascinating study of Persia’s interactions and exchanges of influence with ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The founding of the first Persian Empire by the Achaemenid king Cyrus the Great in the sixth century BCE established one of the greatest world powers of antiquity. Extending from the borders of Greece to northern India, Persia was seen by the Greeks as a vastly wealthy and powerful rival and often as an existential threat. When the Macedonian king Alexander the Great finally conquered the Achaemenid Empire in 330 BCE, Greek culture spread throughout the Near East, but local dynasties—first the Parthian (247 BCE–224 CE) and then the Sasanian (224–651 CE)—reestablished themselves. The rise of the Roman Empire as a world power quickly brought it, too, into conflict with Persia, despite the common trade that flowed through their territories. Persia addresses the political, intellectual, religious, and artistic relations between Persia, Greece, and Rome from the seventh century BCE to the Arab conquest of 651 CE. Essays by international scholars trace interactions and exchanges of influence. With more than three hundred images, this richly illustrated volume features sculpture, jewelry, silver luxury vessels, coins, gems, and inscriptions that reflect the Persian ideology of empire and its impact throughout Persia’s own diverse lands and the Greek and Roman spheres. This volume is published to accompany a major international exhibition presented at the Getty Villa from April 6 to August 8, 2022.

Emphasis on architecture, though other forms are discussed - notably sculpture, painting, carpets, and the decorative arts.

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

"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.