Persian Arts

Persian art and architecture reflects a 5,000-year-old cultural tradition shaped by the diverse cultures that have flourished on the vast Iranian plateau occupied by modern Iran and Afghanistan. The history of Persian art can be divided into two distinct eras whose demarcation is the mid-7th century AD, when invading Arab armies brought about the conversion of the Persian people to Islam. Whereas during the pre-Islamic centuries artistic expression was at the service of the kings and the worship of fire was preeminent, during the Islamic period the arts served Allah, and religious structures and artifacts were the focal points of artistic interest.
Despite this sharp break between the ancient and Islamic eras, Persian art throughout the centuries displays an underlying unity. Subject to many foreign invasions, the Persians were always ready to absorb artistic influences from abroad and to reexpress them with new meanings. Persian design almost invariably has stressed decorative forms rather than the human figure. These designs are both geometrical and floral, and very similar motifs appear in works produced hundreds of years apart. This continuity of forms--executed in such media as stone, plaster, brick, tiles, pottery, and textiles--is the most distinctive feature of Persian art. In addition, a continuing relationship has existed between design in different media, as evidenced by the fact that the designs of the great Persian carpets are also found in the glazed-tile patterns on the wall surfaces of mosques.

Topics:
Ancient Era
Early Kingdoms
Achaemenid Period
Sassanian Period
Islamic Period
Architecture
The Arts

Ancient Era
Recent archaeological excavations have shed new light on the earliest arts of the Iranian plateau. These newly discovered prehistoric sites date back to at least 5000 BC, and handsome decorated pottery, some of which is eggshell thin, has been found in great quantities at sites dated 3000 BC and later. Located in Luristan--a region of mountain valleys at the western edge of the Iranian plateau--were the settlements of a people who bred horses, served as mercenaries in the armies of Assyria, and employed smiths who made (c.2000 BC-c.700 BC) marvelous works in cast bronze, including bits and other horse trappings, weapons, religious totems, embossed shields and belts, and hosts of miniature animals. Countless bronzes have been recovered from the graves of this culture, whose precise ethnic origin is not known.

Early Kingdoms
About 2600 BC an Elamite kingdom was established in the low-lying plains of western Iran that slope toward the Persian Gulf. Excavations of the Elamite capital of Shush, or Susa, have yielded numerous art objects that reflect Mesopotamian influence. At the height of Elamite power, King Untash-napirisha (r. 1275-1240 BC) built a grandiose religious complex at Dur-Untash, to the southeast of Susa. Three massive walls surrounded the town, whose most striking feature is a well-preserved temple tower, or ziggurat, called Choga Zanbil. Measuring 105 m (344 ft) on each square side, Choga Zanbil originally rose in a series of stepped stages to a height of 52 m (171 ft). At both Dur-Untash and Susa, archaeological finds have included masses of cuneiform inscriptions and statuettes of gods, kings, and guardian animals.
Shortly after Ashurbanipal, an Assyrian ruler, took and burned (646 BC) Susa, thus bringing the Elamite kingdom to a sudden end, Assyria itself was ravaged by the Medes, who together with the Persians dominated the Iranian plateau in the 7th century BC. Only a few years ago the architecture of the Medes was unknown, but recent excavations at Nush-i Jan in northwest central Iran have uncovered several buildings, including an impressive fire temple (c.750 BC) whose walls still rise to a height of 8 m (26 ft).
In addition to the Aryan tribes of the Medes and the Persians, other ethnic groups who had settled on the plateau included the Urartians and the Mitanni. The kingdom of Urartu, which arose in the 9th century BC, was centered in northwestern Iran and extended into present-day Turkey and Armenia. To the west of the Urartians, the Mitanni, also known as the Mannai, established a kingdom that was overwhelmed by Urartu in about 800 BC. At one of the Mitanni settlements, a site now called Hasanlu, a large structure burned by the invaders was found to contain the skeleton of a man who had died while clasping a large gold bowl decorated in raised relief with scenes of religious worship. Another Mitanni site, the fortress known as Ziwiye, yielded a bronze basin filled with gold, silver, and ivory objects dating from the 8th-7th century BC.

Achaemenid Period
Under Cyrus the Great, a Persian who formed a lasting union of the Persians and the Medes, the entire plateau fell under the sway of the Achaemenid Empire (c.550 BC-330 BC), which eventually stretched from the Mediterranean to India and into Africa. Cyrus ordered construction undertaken at a valley site known to the Greeks as Pasargadae, where palaces, audience halls, and a towerlike structure with the folk name of Solomon's Prison were built. After Cyrus's death (529 BC), his body was placed within a limestone mausoleum built in imitation of a gabled wood house and set on a plinth composed of six very high steps.
Under one of Cyrus's successors, Darius I, work began (c.518 BC) at Persepolis, or Parsa, a royal complex located about 80 km (50 mi) south of Pasargadae that was completed by Xerxes I and Artaxerxes I. The entire complex was built atop a lofty terrace reached by a double stairway that led to the monumental Gate of Xerxes. To the south, across a vast open space, was the huge Apadana, or Audience Hall of Darius; east of the Audience Hall rose the massive Throne Hall--called by early archaeologists the Hall of One Hundred Columns--which was begun by Xerxes and completed by Artaxerxes. Many other structures lay to the south of these main buildings, including the palaces of Darius and Xerxes and the royal treasury. After the Persepolis terrace was looted and burned (330 BC) by the soldiers of Alexander the Great, only the columns and stone doorways and window jambs remained standing. Both Mesopotamian and Greek influences are apparent in the carved reliefs that decorate the double stairway of the Audience Hall, on which are depicted peoples from the 23 lands of the empire bringing tribute on New Year's Day.
The monumental style of the Achaemenid period was refined further at Naqsh-i Rustam, located about 10 km (6 mi) west of Persepolis, where the facades of the tombs of four Achaemenid rulers of the 5th century BC are carved into the face of a cliff. Relief scenes above these tomb-facades depict Ahura Mazda, god of fire and of the sun and moon, hovering in the air over a ruler who presents sacrificial offerings to a fire burning on an altar. In front of the tombs stands a towerlike fire temple known as the Shrine of Zoroaster. At Naqsh-i Rustam, as at Persepolis, Susa, and Hagmatana (modern Hamadan), excavations have unearthed a wide variety of elaborately decorated art objects, many of which were made by artisans brought to Persia from Greece and other distant lands. These well-executed pieces include silver and gold vessels, tableware in stone, statuettes in semiprecious materials, and jewelry.

Sassanian Period
After the death of Alexander the Great (323 BC), Iran fell under the sway of a Hellenistic kingdom founded by Seleucus, one of Alexander's generals. The Seleucid kingdom, in turn, was conquered (141 BC) by Iranian nomads who called themselves Parni and Aparni but who were known to the Greeks and the Romans as the Parthians. Parthian art and architecture reflects an uneasy and at times graceless combination of Achaemenid, Hellenistic, and Central Asian motifs. When the Parthians gave way (224) to the Sassanian dynasty, however, a new artistic spirit took hold.
The Sassanians thought of themselves as the heirs of the Achaemenids and carried on such early traditions as the worship of fire and the cult of Ahura Mazda. Although they concentrated much of their building activity in their homeland of Parsa, the Sassanians also erected monuments throughout the plateau and in territories to the west taken from the Romans. Surviving in ruin are several imposing Sassanian palaces, which consisted of large halls for ceremonial use and extensive private quarters, along with approximately 40 fire temples.
Whereas Achaemenid architecture had been of the trabeated, or post and lintel, style, the Sassanian architects used masonry vaults and domes, which had been introduced by the Parthians. The Sassanian fire temple was a square chamber crowned by a dome and punctuated by wide-arched openings in each wall. The transition from the square of the chamber to the circular base of the dome was achieved by means of squinches, Persian-invented corbeled supports that spanned each corner of the chamber. Some temples had corridors around the central chamber, and others had more complex plans. Within the temples burned local and regional fires and, at the very top, three great fires dedicated to the priests, the farmers, and the warriors.
The most important works of Sassanian sculpture are the nine rock-cut reliefs depicting Ahura Mazda holding out a beribboned diadem to a king, thereby recognizing his right to the throne. These huge outdoor sculptures usually are located close to a pool or to running water. Mithra, the sun god, and Anahita, the goddess of water and fertility, appear in a few of the reliefs; in others, Sassanian rulers are shown defeating foreign enemies. Among the minor arts of the period, the most striking objects are silver plates decorated with relief scenes depicting the rulers hunting and enjoying courtly pleasures.

Islamic Period
Following the Arab conquest (completed 651), Iran was at first ruled by Arab governors, but in time local dynasties appeared on the plateau. Through these groups Iranian culture was preserved. In the field of literature the so-called New Persian language found full expression in works sponsored by these native rulers. Mahmud of Ghazni was the patron of Abu'l Qasim Firdawsi, whose 60,000-couplet epic titled Shah Namah, or Books of Kings (c.1010), contains a series of episodes in the lives of legendary kings and heroes. In the following centuries the Shah Namah and other epic and poetic works were copied over and over again in manuscripts abundantly illustrated with exquisitely detailed miniature paintings.
Islamic art was encouraged under the Seljuks, a Turkish group that ruled Iran from 1038 until 1194, but widespread destruction and a cessation of most artistic activity followed the 13th-century invasion by the Mongols. The Mongol dynasty (1256-1336) gave way to the reign (1370-1502) of Timur and his descendants, who sponsored a great artistic revival that blossomed further under the Safavids (1502-1736), a true Iranian dynasty.

Architecture
According to Islamic precepts, mandatory daily prayer was best recited in a masjid, literally a "place of praying" called a mosque in the West. Each mosque had a mihrab, an arched niche that indicated the direction of Mecca, and a minar, or minaret, from which the believers were called to prayer. Throughout the Islamic world, which stretched from Spain to India, the structure of the mosque was influenced by local materials and architectural traditions, and within Iran a distinctive mosque type had been developed by the time of the Seljuks. Adopted from Sassanian architecture was the basic plan of a square sanctuary chamber surmounted by a dome; the mihrab usually appeared at the center of the sanctuary's rear wall. This sanctuary chamber was located on the axis of the structure, at one end of an open court.
Another mosque element derived from Sassanian architecture was the ivan, a large barrel-vaulted hall open at one end. In later Iranian mosques, an ivan comprised the main element of a towering entrance portal; in addition, ivans were located on both sides of the open court and in front of the domed sanctuary. The most renowned example of this type, the Masjid-i Shah at Isfahan, built (1612-30) for Shah Abbas I, is one of the world's architectural masterpieces. The mosque plan was also used in the construction of madrasahs, or religious schools, such as the so-called Madrasah-i Mader-i Shah (1706-14; Isfahan).
Among the great Iranian religious shrines, the most famous is the complex of structures that comprises the shrine of the Imam Reza at Mashhad. One of its major elements is the Masjid-i Gowhar Shad (completed 1418), a large-domed structure named for a Timurid queen who contributed her own wealth for its construction. The religious architecture of the Timurid period was most highly developed at Samarkand, the capital of the realm, where the supreme monuments include the Gur-i-Mir (completed 1405), Timur's mausoleum; the Masjid-i Jami', or Congregational Mosque (completed c.1404); the Madrasah of Ulugh Beg (1417-20); and the Shah-i Zinda Necropolis (completed 1405), in which more than a dozen domed tombs line a narrow hillside lane. The basic form of the domed chamber was favored for Iranian mausoleums, which featured soaring, tile-clad domes. In addition to the Gur-i-Mir, outstanding examples of tomb architecture include the Mausoleum of Sultan Sanjar at Merv (1304-17) and that of the Mongol ruler Oljeitu at Sultaniya (c.1310), which has an interior span of about 26 m (85 ft).
Secular architecture was far less important in Islamic countries than religious structures. Iranian palaces were often built of mud brick, rather than the baked brick employed for mosques and madrasahs, and they soon disappeared as a result of the onslaught of the elements.
The ancient Persian tradition of floral and geometric decoration found its fullest expression on the wall and dome surfaces of Iranian religious structures. Early mosques were adorned with brick bonding patterns, which were supplanted (12th century) by decorative patterns cut into wet plaster, or stucco.
Beginning in the Timurid period, glazed tiles of several colors were used to line entire wall surfaces, most stunningly in the so-called Blue Mosque at Tabriz (1437-68). Mosaic faience, in which large-scale patterns were formed out of myriad tiny pieces, reached a glowing climax in Safavid architecture of the 17th century.

The Arts
Calligraphy, manuscript illumination, miniature painting, ceramics, textiles, carpets, and metalwork all achieved great distinction in the Islamic art of Iran. Calligraphy enjoyed the status of a major art. Although most inscriptions, including the large-scale ones used in mosques, were written in Arabic rather than Persian, both languages employed the Arabic script, which had limitless decorative possibilities. Over the centuries a vast number of Korans were handwritten and illuminated in color, primarily in gold and blue. Illustrations in epics and works of poetry were peopled with kings and courtiers, men and women, without regard for the alleged Islamic prohibition against the portrayal of living beings. Lacking the perspective drawing familiar in the West, Persian miniature paintings offer views of the world that seem frozen in time and space, their exquisitely drawn figures statically posed against timeless azure skies.
The development of manuscript illumination was spurred by Baysunghur, who, while governor of Herat (1415-33), established a famed academy of book production. Baysunghur's interest was carried on by Husayn Bayqara, at whose court worked (after 1480) Kamal al-Din Bihzad, acknowledged to be the greatest of all Persian miniaturists. At the time of Shah Abbas I, the painter Riza-i-Abbasi achieved fame for miniatures and drawings that displayed a strong linear style and a refined palette.
Persian metalwork was executed in gold, silver, copper, and brass, which were used to fashion objects such as ewers, basins, salvers, cups, pen cases, and astronomical instruments. Many splendid pieces surviving from the Seljuk and later periods are engraved with bands of inscriptions and often contain such added features as the signs of the zodiac and scenes of hunting and of life at the courts.
The Safavid period is renowned for its vast output of rich textiles and magnificent carpets, which were produced by master designers in Isfahan, Kerman, Kashan, Herat, Tabriz, Shiraz, and other towns. The textile designs associated with these centers are often quite reminiscent of contemporary miniature paintings that portray figures in flowering gardens. Carpets were woven principally with silk but sometimes with wool pile, and many were of huge size. Several basic designs were employed, including arabesque scrolls covering the ground, central medallions set against floral backgrounds, scenes in gardens, and hunting scenes. The most famous Persian carpet, now in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, is more than 10 m (34 ft) long and 5 m (17 ft) wide; it was woven (1539) by Maqsud Kashan for the shrine of the Safavid family at Ardabil.

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