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Persia is one of the ancient cultural countries, known as the "country of poetry". In ancient times, the Persians created a wealth of poetic works. At the same time, miniature painting, popular in the 13th and 17th centuries, was also an important art form of Persian culture.
On December 3, the "Charm of Persia - Iranian Miniature Painting Art Exhibition" opened at the Shanghai Museum of Fine Arts, bringing together the Iranian Malik National Museum, the Forty Pillars Palace of Iran, the Iranian Reza Abbas Miniature Painting Museum and the Isfahan Museum of Modern Art in Iran.
It is worth mentioning that the "Chronicles of Kings", which represents the highest achievement of the "Tabriz School", one of the schools of miniature painting, uses Chinese landscape painting as the background of the picture, the image brushwork is vigorous, and the picture atmosphere contains Chinese flavor.
Exhibition scene Surging news map
Miniature painting begins with the fringing patterns of the Quran. It is a delicate small painting (manuscript illustration) that was popular in the influence of Persian culture in the 13th and 17th centuries to decorate books. The surviving Persian miniatures are illustrations and cover decorations of Persian and Indian fables, legends, and biographies of emperors and heroes, with less religious content. In addition to the classic manuscripts, miniature paintings were later used on title page badges, boxes, mirror frames and other objects, as decorative motifs on precious stones and ivory jewelry. The brush strokes of the miniature painting are delicate and neat, the colors are bright and magnificent, and the whole picture is characterized by bright and strong colors. After the 18th century, it almost died out due to the invasion of European colonists. The "Charm of Persia – Iranian Miniature Painting Art Exhibition" is divided into four chapters, including "Imperial Glimpses", "The Legend of the King's Book", "Collecting Customs and Customs" and "Poetic Painting", which will present the delicate paintings of Islamic art treasures spanning thousands of years of history to the audience.
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A video of miniature drawing played in the exhibition. The Paper's photo shoot (00:33)
"Wild Donkey" Bahram V in The Hunt (1141-1217)
As the world's first empire spanning Asia, Africa and Europe, Persia has established many dynasties in history, and its civilization has a wide range of influence and eclecticism. In medieval European high society and the court of the Persian Islamic caliphate, miniature paintings were treated as treasures and were given away, collected, and enjoyed. Some people say that miniature painting is an art that serves a small number of people, it is not popular in the folk, it is essentially aristocratic art, and the first chapter of the exhibition, "Imperial Sketches", shows miniature paintings with the theme of royal life.
Bahram V was a famous monarch of the Sassanid Dynasty, and legend has it that he was a chivalrous monarch who was passionate about maintaining fairness. But in real history, during the reign of Bahram V, he promoted the Zoroastrian (Zoroastrian) Mubaid to power and entrusted most of the internal power to Mikhel Narsi, the prime minister from the Surin family. In 438 AD, Bahram V died at the age of 38.
At the end of the 18th century, the Qajaga tribe of the Turkmen in northeastern Iraq unified Iran and established the Qajaga dynasty. During the Qajar dynasty, the territory of modern Iran was basically determined. Unlike other dynasties, the establishment of the Qajar dynasty heralded catastrophe from the beginning, and in the history of one and a half centuries, the attacks of Western powers, the signing of unequal treaties and the invasion of cultures have reduced this ancient nation to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.
Prince Alikuli Mirza of the Qajar dynasty and his retinue (courtesy of Malik National Museum)
The second part of the exhibition is titled "The Legend of the Book of Kings". The "Book of Kings" refers to the epic poem "The Book of Kings" written by the Persian poet Ferdosi. After the Arab invasion of Persia in the 6th century, nationalism arose in Persia, Ferdosi used Persian, collected folk tales, and wrote a book in the early 11th century, which had a major impact on the development of Persian, and Hafez's lyric poems, the complete works of Saddi, and the collection of mullavi narrative philosophical poems are the four pillars of Persian literature. The art of miniature painting was first the art of illustration, and it was a series of well-known Persian literary works such as the Book of Kings that pushed Persian miniature painting to the climax of creation.
The famous schools of miniature painting include the Tabriz school, the Shiraz school and the Herat school. Among them, the highest work of the "Tabriz" is Ferdosi's "Book of Kings". This school of painting, originated in the 13th century of the Ilkhan dynasty, the style of painting is to combine the vibrant animal image with the landscape with Chinese characteristics, the sense of space is strengthened, the colors are elegant, the lines are smooth, and some of the expressions of clouds and waves adopt Chinese pattern norms. In "The Chronicle of kings", the characters have delicate expressions, the background is a Chinese landscape painting, the brushwork is vigorous, and the atmosphere of the whole picture is purely Chinese.
Battle of Rustam and Suhrab in the Kings (Courtesy of the Reza Abbas Miniature Painting Museum, 1576)
Illustrated edition of the Great Mongol Chronicle of kings
Rustam and Suhrab is an excerpt from Feldhusi's epic book The Age of Kings. The Tragedy of Suhrab is one of four of them, telling the story of a major Persian hero among the warriors who defended the motherland against foreign enemies.
The illustration of the "Mongol Great Chronicle of Kings" is a representative work of Persian miniature painting during the Ilkhanid dynasty, and it is also a work that marks the maturity of Persian miniature painting, making it a wonderful flower in the Grand View Garden of World Art.
Coming to the third part of the exhibition, "Collecting Customs and Customs", the works are more light and rich. Persia has beautiful music, magnificent and fascinating stories, hospitable men and women... The magic and beauty of these folks and the charm displayed by the majestic royal family are different, but they show us the richness and splendor of Persian culture. The content of Persian miniature paintings is closely related to Persian folk culture, often depicting the most sincere and moving stories of folk.
Lovers (avzar Al-Husseini, 1501-1735)
The Youth who Read (Reza Abbas, 1625-1626)
Avzar Al-Husseini was a famous miniature artist of the Safavid period (1501-1735) under the tutelage of the master miniature, Reza Abbasi. It is a representative work of his creation, in which the focal point is a couple, while the decorative background is obscured by golden leaves. The woman left "burn marks" of love on her lover's arm, a sign of sincerity and loyalty between lovers during the Safavid dynasty.
Reza Abbas was an important Persian miniature artist of the Isfahan School in the late Safavid dynasty, and spent most of his career working for Abbas I (1587-1629). Abbas is considered the last master of Persian miniature painting, and is particularly famous for his murals or single paintings with young people as the main theme.
Persia is one of the world's famous ancient cultural countries, known as the "country of poetry". In ancient times, the Persians created a wealth of poetic works, but they have been lost for a long time. Written in the Avestan, written in the sixth to fifth centuries BC, some hymns are preserved. The eleventh to fifteenth centuries were the golden age of Persian poetry, with a large number of outstanding poets emerging, which western scholars called the "Renaissance" of Persia. The fourth chapter of the exhibition is entitled "Poetic Painting".
Chagatai (ancient Uyghur) Ode to Wine Poetry 16th century
"Calligraphy of Flower and Bird Decoration", an atlas from Shah Jahan, Mughal Emperor of India (16th century)
Most of the poems commonly seen in miniature paintings come from the eight famous Persian poets, namely: Hafez (the masterpiece "Hafiz Lyric Poems"), Rumi (the masterpiece "Masnas"), Sadie (the representative work "Rose Garden" and "Orchard"), Rudaki (the representative work "The Complete Works of Rudaki"), and Omar. Hayam (masterpiece "Rubai"), Ferdosi (masterpiece "The Chronicles of kings"), Nezami (masterpiece "Leili and Majenon"), Jami (representative work "Spring Garden").
Persian Princess (vintage) Surging news image
Angel Surging News Chart
The Sound of Music Surging News Chart
In addition, there are miniature paintings from the 18th-century collection of the Malik National Museum in Iran, some of the golden frescoes of iran's Forty-Pillar Palace, and the collection of the Miniature Painting Museum named after the great Iranian miniature artist Reza Abbas (some exclusively licensed high-definition reproductions) and so on for the first time with Chinese audiences.
The exhibition will be on view until February 27, 2022.
Venue: Shanghai Museum of Art (in Tianshan Park, 1731 Yan'an West Road, Shanghai)
Editor-in-Charge: Lu Linhan
Proofreader: Luan Meng