A study in importance and operation of the illustration of history in Safavid era

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ROYAN SAMIRA; SAMANIAN SAMAD

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Journal: JOURNAL OF VISUAL AND APPLIED ARTS Year:2017 | Volume:9 | Issue:18 Page(s): 81-100

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Information Journal Paper

Title

A study in importance and operation of the illustration of history in Safavid era

Author(s)

ROYAN SAMIRA | SAMANIAN SAMAD | Issue Writer Certificate

Keywords

IllustratingQ1

historyQ2

SafavidQ2

chronicleQ1

manuscriptQ1

Abstract

The number of illustrated historical manuscripts which survived from Safavid time, are very few in comparison with other illustrated literary works of this era and also the illustrated historical texts of their Muslim neighbors-Ottoman and Mughal of India. So, Scholars believe that Safavids were not interested in the illustration of their history, and that it shows a break from Iranian tradition of Illustrating history which came back at least to Sasanids. Scholars consider this unwillingness to the Illustrating of history as a result of the qualities of Safavid painting, such as following common models and avoiding realism, which separated their painting from their counterparts. In respect, the scholarly writings on picturing history in Safavid era are also rare in comparison with the surveys on other artistic products of Safavid history, and the importance and function of Safavid historical pictures are almost unstudied. So, this article besides introducing scholars’ approaches to the Illustrating of history in Safavid time, and evaluating their comments on this issue, tries to give a better vision to Illustrating history in Safavid Persia by surveying where and why they illustrated their history. Through the written and visual collected data and with a descriptive-analytic method, we will prove that, contrary to the common approach, Safavids were not reluctant to picturing their history, but they had so many ways for doing this. Illustrating Nonhistorical manuscripts (especially Shahnama), wall painting and single page painting are the mostly used grounds for Safavids to illustrate their history. To some extent, Wall paintings and single page paintings by historical themes, in the second half of Safavid era, replaced the illustrated historical manuscripts in earlier times, which may cause the fewer number of survived illustrated historical manuscripts. By the way we will show that the number of remained illustrated manuscripts cannot show that Safavids hadn’ t illustrated their histories, because many environmental or human factors may Couse damage or loss of these products. In fact what made Safavid illustration of history different, was not the number of illustrated historical manuscripts or even the number of miniatures in the whole manuscript, but were the aim and operation of these pictures in their visual system. They didn’ t show historical details and were totally ignorant about the facts. They didn’ t show the real face of real individuals, but the ideal portrait of ideal heroes. Safavid historical illustrations, unlike those of Ottomans and Mughals of India, were not the exact visual documents of history which show everything in the way it looks, instead, they were visual representations of the glory and might of the court or anyone who supported the Illustrating project. So they were really important in showing of prestige and dignity and also projecting the visual ideals of visible things, such as the king or things related to him.

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APA: Copy

ROYAN, SAMIRA, & SAMANIAN, SAMAD. (2017). A study in importance and operation of the illustration of history in Safavid era. JOURNAL OF VISUAL AND APPLIED ARTS, 9(18 ), 81-100. SID. https://sid.ir/paper/242694/en

Vancouver: Copy

ROYAN SAMIRA, SAMANIAN SAMAD. A study in importance and operation of the illustration of history in Safavid era. JOURNAL OF VISUAL AND APPLIED ARTS[Internet]. 2017;9(18 ):81-100. Available from: https://sid.ir/paper/242694/en

IEEE: Copy

SAMIRA ROYAN, and SAMAD SAMANIAN, “A study in importance and operation of the illustration of history in Safavid era,” JOURNAL OF VISUAL AND APPLIED ARTS, vol. 9, no. 18 , pp. 81–100, 2017, [Online]. Available: https://sid.ir/paper/242694/en

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