Slide 1
A Persian manuscript page need not use one fixed viewpoint
Persian manuscript painting can arrange figures, architecture and landscape across a richly structured page. Its space need not follow one fixed viewpoint.
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Different surfaces can be made visible to serve the scene. Understanding that choice means asking what the composition reveals, rather than judging it only against linear perspective.
Slide 2
The Shahnama supplies a world of stories
Illustrated Persian manuscripts often accompany literary works. The Shahnama, or Book of Kings, supplied artists with an extensive world of narrative.
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Shah Tahmasp's celebrated manuscript brought together paintings made over many years. A single book could therefore contain the contributions of several artists and stages of production.
Slide 3
Patterns on textiles and buildings also organize the page
Painted textiles and buildings can carry elaborate colour and pattern. Those surfaces help organise the page as well as furnish the depicted world.
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The Met identifies different artistic traditions within Tahmasp's Shahnama, including lively colour and more restrained compositions. A manuscript does not necessarily have one uniform visual style.
Slide 4
Age can change the appearance of metallic pigments
A manuscript painting can contain metallic pigments as well as colours. Ageing may alter a passage that once reflected light differently.
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A Met study describes painted pool water whose silver has darkened. A dark area seen today may therefore be a material change, rather than the exact colour effect the painter first intended.
Slide 5
An isolated folio has lost its original neighbours
A manuscript painting displayed alone was originally part of a larger object. Text and adjacent pages helped shape its first encounter.
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The order of illustrations connects the visual scene to the progress of a narrative. Recovering that sequence can add meaning that an isolated framed page cannot provide by itself.
Sources
- The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp
Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Islamic Painting: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, volume 36, number 2
Metropolitan Museum of Art