Zahra Pazoki
To
find the origins of Iranian painting is not an easy task however it can
be tracked
all the way back to Cavemen era.
As
we can see from the paintings and earthenware that have been discovered
in the
caves of Lorestan province in ancient Iran, the ancient artists were
familiar
with painting skill. Few mural paintings have been discovered in the
northern
of Euphrates River. One of them shows the scene of hunting. The style
in which
the rider, the animals and big game hunting is engraved draws a
parallel to the
Iranian painting and Miniature art.
During
the Achaemenid dynasty (330-550 BC), painting grew considerably
widespread. Use
of colours became prevalent in this era. Balance and symmetry between
colours
of paintings of this period is remarkable but artists did not yet
utilize any
shades. Painters of this era started separating colours with the black
stripes.
Iranian
painting reached its peak in the last half 13th century to
16th
century, in Mongol and Timurid periods. Mongolian rulers brought in
great
number of Chinese artists and slowly began imposing the cult of Chinese
painting onto Iranian art. Approach to colours and attention to nature
in
Chinese painting merged with Iranian artists’ specific concepts
and ideas and
created Miniature Art.
Since
the 14th century with rising importance and numbers of hand
written
books demand for paintings of scenes of battlefields, hunting, feast,
and love significantly
increased. It was the time for indivisible marriage between Miniature
art and literature
and it made books more attractive for readers and fans.
One
that great literary work from that era is Baisongor’s Shahnameh
(Epic of Kings) which has been created by Ferdowsi at
the end of 10th
century. It consists of 50 thousand couplets partly mythical and partly
factual
stories. Shahnameh inspired the works of great artists for generations
to come.
The drawings of Shahnameh painted in 1444 AD in Shiraz is considered
one of the
best sources of Iranian Miniature art of that era. There was large
number of
painters who were fully dedicated to paintings for stories in
Shahnameh.
Another famous manuscript that illustrated with miniatures is
Khamseh Nezami which has 13 excellent illustrations.
It was composed in 12th century and had paintings by certain
famous painters
like Kamal Ud-Din Behzad, who lived in
15th-16th century.
In
the 13th century Saadi composed
the famous Bustan and Golestan manuscript. Golestan is a set of moralizing
parables and proverbs which are written in prose with a nice rhythm.
Bustan is versified
poem with lyrical tone and parable composition which is considered as
one of
the masterpieces in Persian literature. One manuscript of Bustan also
has
paintings by many famous painters including Kamal Ud-Din
Behzad.
The
14th century was time faceted with other romantic literature
works
from Amir Khosro Dehlavi, Khjoo Kermani,
Hafez and Kamal Khojandi among
others. All these great manuscripts
provoked the emergence of many miniature
schools with different styles. Three most authoritative of these
schools were
located in Shiraz, Tabriz, and Herat.
Kamal Ud-Din Behzad
(1450-1535) was one of the influential painters of that era. He lived
in Herat under
Timurid period, and later in Tabriz under the Safavid kingdom. Some of
works
which he left are pictures and miniatures in a manuscript of Bustan.
This book is
currently kept in Cairo library. There are also some paintings that are
attributed to him in Nezami manuscript of 1445-9 in the British Library.
The
way that he used colors and their shines, shows Kamal Ud-Din’s
deep emotions.
These paintings clearly show Kamal Ud-Din’s preference for cold
colors. But in
all his works with a use of strong warm colors he managed to achieve
the
perfect balance.
The
style that Kamal Ud-Din used in his works enormously influenced other
painters
in the following decades and centuries. Painters from Herat brought
Kamal Ud-Din’s
style to Bokhara and adopted it in courts of Sheybani family. Also
immigration
of some painters to India spread his style in that territory.
One
of Behzad’s art students is Soltan Mohammad
(16th century) who was a great Persian painter of the
Safavid
School at Tabriz. He was the leader of Shah
Tahmasb (Shah Ismail’s son) painting
workshop and had taught him Persian painting. Some masterpieces have
been
painted for Shah Tahmasb’s Shahname
and for Nezami’s manuscript by Soltan Mohammad.
Another
great Persian painter who lived in that era is Agha Mirak.
His style is from Tabriz school, also known as Safavid
style and he did most of his works in Tabriz, the capital of the
Safavid Empire.
The influence of Kamal-Ud-Din painting
style can be clearly observed in Agha Mirak’s work. He also
contributed to Shah
Tahmasb’s Shahname and Khamseh Nezami.