Art safavide

Name art safavide gathers the artistic production which took place in Perse during the dynasty éponyme, between 1501 and 1722. It marks an apogee in the art of the delivers and of the Persan Architecture whereas the minor arts such as the Céramique, the art of metal or glass have tendency to péricliter more or less. Although nourished culture Persian, art safavide is strongly influenced by the cultures Chinese turkmene (have regard to the origins of the dynasty), , Othoman and Western.

Historical context

The dynasty safavide is resulting from a brotherhood called Safavieh which appears in Azerbaïdjan towards 1301, with the Shaykh Safi Aldine, which gives him its name. Safavides largely contributed to the diffusion of the Chiisme duodécimain which regards to it twelfth Imam hidden as its leader.

It is however only in 1447 that the dynasty safavide starts to show political ambitions, with the takeover of Shaykh Djunayd. A system of fights and alliances with the tribes turkmenes are established, involving the extinction the dynasty of the Qara Qoyunlu reigning until there on the area of Tabriz, opposed to that of the Aq Qoyunlu installed in Anatolia. Haydari, the successor of Djunayd, being quickly killed, Shah Ismail, then twelve years old, takes the head of the movement in 1499. A vigorous propaganda is set up soon making it possible to recruit an army. In 1500, its 7000 soldiers demolish the Turkmènes troops, strong of 30 000 men, and in 1501, Shah Ismaïl enters to Tabriz to the North-West of Iran, proclaims the rite imâmite religion of State and makes strike the first currencies with its name.

The territorial expansion accelerates towards Baghdad and the Ottoman Empire, but the arrival of Selim I {{er}} with the head of the Ottoman Empire which prohibits the Shiism, as well as the battles of Çaldiran (August 22nd 1514) mark a crushing argument. The army safavide not knowing the use of the firearms, undergoes a demolished cuisante. Selim Ier enters Tabriz - of which it is withdrawn a few months later because of internal quarrels -, and appendix most of the territory safavide. Shah Ismaïl, whose divine ascent is strongly called into question, withdraws political life while the relations with Turkmènes Qizilbash are degraded. In 1515, the installation of the Portuguese with Ormuz starts a flourishing trade towards Europe.

After the death of Shah Ismaïl, his ten year old son Shah Tahmasp arrives at the capacity. Little shining on the military level, it yields the town of Baghdad to Soliman the Magnificent the, transfers its capital to Qazvin in 1548 and finally signs in 1555 the treaty of Amaziya, which ensures a durable peace. Its reign, longest of all the history of Persia, is marked by the signature around its twenty years of a “edict of repentance” which founds an authoritative religion, prohibiting the music, the dance, alcoholic drinks or the Haschich.

Twelve years of confusion follow the death of Tahmasp in 1576, and it is necessary to await the arrival of Shah Abbas to find a relative calm. This one very quickly signs a very unfavourable peace with the Othomans, to give time to set up an army of ghulams (Caucasian, Armenian mercenaries and géorgiens). Ghulams are also integrated into a centralized administration, occupying the places of Turkmènes too considered stirring up. These various measurements make it possible to the Shah to beat the troops ouzbèkes and to take again Herat in 1598, then Baghdad in 1624. This reign, more opened out dynasty, gives place to a flourishing trade and an art, in particular with the construction of the new capital of Isfahan.

The period following the death of Abbas Shah is a long decline, due partly to the “system of the harem”, which supports the intrigues and handling. The reign of Shah Safi (R. 1629-1642) is pointed out for its arbitrary violence and its territorial retreats; that of Shah Abbas II mark the beginning of religious intolerance towards the Dhimmi S and in particular the Jews, state which remains under Shah Sulayman and Shah Husayn. A rebellion of the Afghans in 1709 finally leads to the extinction of the empire in 1722.

Structure and town planning

Under Ismail Shah

If the first Shah safavide continues a rather intensive policy of restoration and conservation in the great places of the Chiisme, like Kerbala (1508), Najaf (1508) and Samarra in Iraq and Mashhad (1514) in the east of Iran, etc, thus perpetuating the traditions timurides and turkmenes, its architectural patronage as manufacturer is almost null, this undoubtedly because the conquest safavide was carried out without major destruction. Thus, for Tabriz, the new capital, all the monuments remaining turkmenes provide largely for the needs for the Shah and the court. It is nevertheless well Ismail which makes town of Ardabil (northern of Iran) a dynastic center and a place of pilgrimage, by embellishing the complex located around the tomb of Shaykh Safi and by burying there the remainders of his/her father in 1509. One owes him in particular the construction of Dar Al-Hadith, a hall dedicated to the study of the Hadith S , making during the old man dar Al-Huffaz, who was used to recite the Coran. It is undoubtedly also him which planned its own tomb, even if this one were perhaps carried out shortly after its death. One can also credit Ismail with the restoration of the masjed-e Jāmeh of Saveh, in 1520, of which decoration external disappeared, but where the mihrab combines a use of the Stuc archaïsante and a delicate decoration of arabesques in ceramics mosaic. Another mosque of Saveh, the masjed-e meydān, received a similar Mihrab, dated by two inscriptions between 1510 and 1518.

Durmish Khan Shamlu, brother-in-law of Ismail, mitigates partially this lack of constructions as from 1503. Indeed, this governor of Isfahan, which more often resides at the court of Tabriz than in its city, leaves of them the reins to Mirza Shah Hussein Isfahani, more the great architect of the time, which builds there in particular fall it from Harun-e Vilayat in 1512-1513. Announced by a Western traveller like a great place of “pilgrimage the Persan ones” (as well Moslem as Jewish and Christian), this monument consists of a square room under a cupola, a completely traditional plan. The cupola rests on a high drum, Muqarnas filling up the octagonal zone of passage. Two currently disappeared minarets magnifiaient the large porch while the decoration of Hazerbaf and ceramics mosaic, concentrated on the frontage, remained in the tradition timuride. The frontage, rythmée by blind arcs, is thus unified thanks to the basic decoration, as was already the case with the mosque of Yazd. One must add to this tomb the mosque masjed-e very close Ali, completed in 1522 on order of the same silent partner.

Under Tahmasp Shah

Like its predecessor, Shah Tahmasp, at the beginning of its reign (1524 - 1555) remains rather not very active with regard to the architectural patronage, being satisfied with restorations and embellishments, always in the line of the great preceding dynasties. They are in particular the large mosques of Kerman, Shiraz and Isfahan, and the sanctuaries of Mashhad and Ardabil which profits from its care. In this last place, one can quote the funerary tower of Shah Ismail, perhaps ordered by this one, but which was undoubtedly carried out in the first years of the reign of Tahmasp Shah, although no date is mentioned. It is located just beside the funerary tower of the founder of the dynasty and, because of this proximity, has restricted an enough diameter. It thus seems crushed a little by the close monument. Inordinately high, it contains three small superimposed cupolas, and plays on a ceramics decoration divided into many registers to avoid monotony. The yellow color of decorative ceramics is, on the other hand, a completely new element. Always to Ardabil, one also allots to Shah Tahmasp Jannat Sara, an octagonal building with dependences and gardens very degraded at the 18th century (and very restored). Located at the North-East of the tomb, it would date, according to Morton, of the years 1536 - 1540. Its use first is still discussed, because it is mentioned like a mosque in the European sources, but not in those of Persia, which raises some interrogations. Was it envisaged to lay out to with it fall it from Tahmasp Shah, in fact buried with Mashhad? It is of this place that the famous carpets come from Ardabil further.

One also owes in Shah Tahmasp a palate with Tabriz, his capital until 1555, of which nothing is preserved except a description by the Italian traveller Michele Membre, who visits Tabriz in 1539. According to him, it was composed of a garden surrounded by ground and stone walls with two doors of large a meydān in the east and a new mosque.

At the end of the reign, Tahmasp organizes the gardens of Sādatabad. This one, like all the Persan gardens, is divided into four by two perpendicular alleys and is bordered by a channel, provision which one finds in particular in the carpet-gardens same time. It contains baths, four markets hall and three houses of pleasure: Gombad-e Muhabbat, Iwan-e Bāgh and Chehel Sutun. The name of this last, built in 1556, means “palate with the forty columns”, name which is explained by the presence of twenty columns reflected in a basin. In the tradition Persian, the number forty is frequently employed to mean great quantity. This small construction on a floor was used as place of audience, for the banquets or at more private ends. It was decorated with the painted panels of literary scenes Persians, like the history of Farhad and Shirin, as well as scenes of huntings, festivals or of Polo, etc Of the floral bands surrounded these panels carried out on models of Tahmasp Shah itself, painter at his hours, or of Muzaffar Ali or Muhammadi, then employed in the workshop-library ( Ketab khaneh ) royal.

In the town of Na' in, the house of the governor, built on a plan with four Iwan S, presents a decoration undoubtedly worked out between 1565 and 1575 according to a rare and very sophisticated technique: on a red coat of paint, the artist posed a white coating, then scraped it to let appear in red silhouette of the reasons pointing out those of the art of the book and fabrics. One finds there combat of animals, princes in throne, scenes literary (Khosrow and Shirin, Yusuf and Zuleykha), a play of sports shirt, scenes of hunting, etc One notes that the silhouettes are curved and that the taj , the hairstyle characteristic of Safavides at the beginning of the empire disappeared, according to the fashion of the time. In cartridges are penmanships of the quatrains of the poet Hafez.

Under Abbas Shah

The reign of Abbas Shah marks the explosion of architecture safavide, with the construction of a Isfahan news.

Ispahan

For the third time in the history of Safavides, the capital of the empire changes under Shah Abbas: it is Ispahan, a city more centered than Tabriz or Qazvin (located between Teheran and Tabriz). A new capital is thus installation beside the old city, organized around a meydān, great a 512 meters length place on 159 broad. On a side seat the mosque of the Shah takes, other the oratory of the Shah, known as mosque of Sheykh Lutfallah, while the house Ali Qapu opens on a large alley of pleasure ( Chāhār Bāgh ) and the large bazaar leads to the old mosque of Friday. Two bridges cross the river Zayandeh rud, driving with a Armenian district taking the name of Néa Julfa.

Ali Qāpu

Qaysarieh, or large bazaar

The mosque of Sheikh Lutfallah, or oratory of the Shah

The mosque of the Shah

The Allaverdikhan bridge

Datable of 1608, this bridge was set up by order of the first Georgian minister of Abbas Shah. It is placed in the continuity of Chāhār Bāgh. With its arcades, in the sides and the base, it thus offers a possibility of walk to several levels, according to the height of water. It is used obviously as stopping but crossing point, also, to control the course of the river. While crossing it, water gives place for a purpose of large fountain thanks to emmarchements. At side is a talār, the kiosk of the mirrors , from where the sovereign could observe the river.

Under Shah Abbas II

Chehel Sotoun

This building, which the dating remains very discussed, was undoubtedly high under the reign of Shah Abbas II, then redécoré in the years 1870. According to a poem registered on the building and another of Muhammad Ali Sahib Tabrizi, it would have been created in 1647-48, and so certain researchers think that this building was built in several stages, the majority incline to think that it was built in only one jet, because it is rather coherent. It is about a rectangular building, comprising columns which are reflected in basins ( chehel sotoun means “forty columns” into Persan).

Chehel Sotoun is decorated with great historical paintings, exciting the magnanimity or the warlike courage of the various large sovereigns of the dynasty: scene of battle with Shah Ismail, the sultan moghol Humâyûn is received by Shah Tahmasp, then Vali Nadr Muhammad Khan, sovereign of Bukhara between 1605 and 1608, by Shah Abbas Ier, and finally, one finds an evocation of the catch of Kandahar per Shah Abbas II, who must be later, the city having fallen only in 1649. In the secondary rooms also many gallant scenes and characters in foot are. One notes in the decoration of the Western influences (opening on a landscape, similarities with the Armenian district) and Indians (horse represented tints with henné, iwans covered with mirrors).

The Khwaju bridge

Second large bridge of Isfahan, built fifty years after the Pole Allahverdikhan, the Khwaju bridge has an identical and slightly complexed structure, with brise-flots in range, allowing more spectacular effects of water.

End of the period

One can still evoke two buildings of Isfahan, dating from the late Safavide time. The Hasht Behesht (the “eight paradise”), consists of a house comprising eight small entities laid out around a big room under cupola to four iwans. Small vaults crown the secondary rooms, decorated with mirrors which make surfaces moving. The external decoration, out of ceramics, is remarkable by the extensive use of the yellow. One locates this building in the years 1671.

The madreseh Mādar-e Shah , or madreseh of the mother of the Shah, is on Chāhār Bāgh and is gone back to 1706 - 1714. She does not bring any architectural innovation, and for this reason, evokes well the relative stagnation of architecture at that time: a plan with four iwans and a dome pointing out the mosque of the Shah constitute the major part of its architectonic elements. The decoration, very geometrized, is on the other hand a little different from the decorations of the 17th century, by a pallet where the yellow, the green and gold dominate, and a vegetable network denser than in the mosque of the Shah.

Movable art

Ceramics

Under Shah Ismail and Shah Tahmasp

The study and the dating of ceramics under Shah Ismail and Shah Tahmasp are difficult because there exists little of dated parts or mentioning a place of production. It is also known that the most powerful characters preferred by far the Chinese porcelain with the production of local ceramics. Several sites of workshops however could be identified, without certainty however:

Nishapur
Kubachi (for architectural ceramics)
Kerman (monochromic castings)
Mashhad
Yazd (quoted on a ewer of British Museum)
Shiraz (quoted by Chardin)
Bordarbas
Gambrun
Na' in

The five first seem more assured than the four following, having been quoted in sources, but none is absolutely certain.

In general, the decorations tend to imitate those of the Chinese porcelain, with the production of parts blue and white with sinicizing form and reasons (marli jig-sawn, clouds tchi, dragons, etc) However, Persan blue is distinguished from the blue of China by its more and subtle nuances. Often, of the Persan poetic quatrains, sometimes in relation to the destination of the part (allusion to the Wine for a cut, for example) take seat in cartridges. One can also announce very an other type of decoration, much rarer, which comprises iconographies very specific to Islam (Islamic Zodiaque, scales, arabesques) and seems influenced by the Othoman world, as testifies to it to the frayed palmettes, known as Palmette S rumies, very much used in Turkey.

Many types of parts are produced: cuts, dishes, bottles has long collar, spittoons, etc Of the gourds, with a very small neck and a paunch punt on a side and strongly corpulent of the other, can be announced: a specimen is with the Victoria and Albert Museum, another with the Ermitage.

Between the reign of Abbas Shah and the end of the empire

According to petrographic ceramics, one can distinguish four groups, each one related to a place of production:

Lias
Mashhad
Tabriz (center which remains hypothetical, perhaps with a workshop caused by the royal patronage)
a center not identified, which produces blue and white ones imitating ceramics wanli ( kraak porselein )

With the closing of the Chinese market in 1659, ceramics Persian takes a new rise, in order to fill the European needs. The appearance of false marks of Chinese workshop to the back of certain ceramics mainly marks the taste which develops then in Europe for the Far-Eastern porcelains, satisfied by safavides productions. This new destination involves the use increasingly larger of a Chinese and exotic iconography (elephants) and the arrival of new forms, sometimes astonishing (octagonal ghelyan, dishes, zoomorphes object).

In same time, new figures appear, influenced by the art of the book: elegant young people wine waiter S, young women with the curved silhouette or cypress intermingling their branches, which point out paintings of Riza' Abbasi. One notes the use of very beautiful yellows, and the technique of the Luster still present on some parts with.

A case with share: the ceramics of Kubacha

The discovery, on the walls of the houses of Kubacha, ceramics fixed on the walls of the houses to the very homogeneous style quickly led the historians of art to think that there was a production center in the city. This interpretation however was disputed by Arthur Lane and much of others after him, and seems erroneous today.

This series is produced over three centuries, during which it evolves/moves much, but always preserves a hole in the bases intended for the suspension of these parts. Schematically, one can distinguish three times:

at the 15th century, a two-color printing between green glaze and reasons painted in black;
at the 16th century, a two-color printing between turquoise glaze and reasons always black;
at the 18th century, of the polychrome parts (cobalt, dull red, orange yellow), with influences of the art of the book, Othomans and Indians.

The series of Kubacha still remains very mysterious, and of many production centres were proposed without none really getting clear.

The art of metal

The art of metal undergoes a progressive decline at the time of the dynasty safavide, and remains difficult to study, in particular because of the low number of dated parts.

Under Ismaïl Shah, one notes a perpetuation of the forms and decorations of incrustation timurides: reasons of mandorles, shamsa (suns) and for clouds tchi are found on inkpots in form of Mausolée or jugs of globular form pointing out that of Ulugh Beg out of jade.

Under Tahmasp Shah, the Incrustation disappears quickly, as a group testifies some to candlesticks in the shape of pillar. On the other hand, one notices the appearance of pastes coloured (red, black, green) to replace the polychromy formerly given by the gold and money incrustations. One notes also the beginning of the work of the Acier, in particular by openworks, to carry out elements of plating of door and standards.

The work of the hard stones

One generally knows several objects out of hard stone, datable of the 16th century. There exists thus a series of jugs to the globular paunch, assembled on a small annular basis and carrying a broad and short collar, of which two (one in black Jade encrusted with gold, the other out of white jade) are registered in the name of Ismail the Ist handle takes a form of dragon, which betrays a Chinese influence, but this type of jug comes in fact directly from the previous period: the prototype is the jug of Ulugh Beg. One knows also cuts and handles of jade knife, often encrusted with wire of gold and engraved.

The hard stone is also used to create cabochons to encrust them in objects as metal, like the large zinc bottle encrusted gold, datable turquoise and ruby of the reign of Ismail and preserved at the Musée of Topkapi to Istanbul.

The carpet

related Article: Persian carpet

Many a carpet (between 1500 and 2000) was preserved since the period Safavide, but the dating and the establishment of the source of these carpets remain very difficult. The inscriptions are an invaluable indication to determine the craftsmen, the places of manufacture, the silent partners, etc Moreover, once a carpet was manufactured and remained in a precise place, it makes it possible to identify the other parts which are relative for him.

It is generally accepted among the specialists that in fact the Safavides made pass the carpet of an artisanal production ensured by wandering tribes the statute of “national industry” whose products were exported in India, in the Ottoman Empire and in Europe. The export of the carpet was flourishing at the period Safavide towards the Europe (sometimes via the Portuguese colony of Goa) and towards the empire Moghol, where the Persian carpets stimulated the local production. Some carpets Safavide S also were transported by the Dutch Compagnie of the Eastern Indies towards Batavia, Ceylon, the Malaysia, Cochin like worms the Holland even. European orders had placed in Perse for the weaving of special carpets: for example, the group of the “Polish carpets” was undoubtedly tied with Ispahan, but some carry the weapons of Poland.

On the basis of account of travellers and other textual sources, it appears that workshops of royal carpets existed with Ispahan, Kashan and Kerman. These workshops produced carpets for the palates and mosques of the Shah, but also to be offered to the close monarchs or to the foreign dignitaries, or to carry out parts on ordering of the nobility or other citizens. The silent partner paid capital in the form of raw materials then and paid wages with the craftsmen throughout tying.

The fast development of the industry of the carpet in Perse at the time Safavide seems to be due to the taste of the sovereigns for this craft industry. Ismaïl I {{er}} then Shah Tahmasp and Shah Abbas Large the is known to be personally interested by the production of the carpets. One even supposed that the last two quoted sovereigns personally invested themselves in the production of carpet, in particular by the drawing of the reasons. During their reign, the productions of Persian carpet were most important of all the time safavide.

It is at that time and more particularly starting from Shah Tahmasp (1523 - 1576) that the first carpets with floral decorations are created, in order to satisfy the tastes of Safavides. The difference between the carpets of the nomads and the carpets floral is due to the role of the “Master” ( ostad ). It is him which draws the paperboard which will be reproduced by the noueurs. The drawings of the carpets of the nomads, them, are transmitted by the tradition

The manufacture of the carpets is strongly subjected to the supervision of the royal workshop of art of the book, which provides the models of them. Thus by comparing them with bindings and illuminations, the specialists could determine a stylistic evolution. Thus, the majority of the carpets produced at the 16th century, i.e. mainly under Shah Isma' it and Tahmasp Shah are said “to medallion” because they are organized around a large central medallion multifoil, known as sometimes Shamsa, i.e. sun, and the corner pieces carry each one a quarter of medallion which strongly points out that of the center. The carpets of this most famous types are the pair of carpets known as of Ardébil, of which one, preserved at Victoria and Albert Museum, is gone back to 946 of the Hégire, that is to say 1539 - 40 of the Christian era and signed “the work of the humble servant of the court Mahmud Kashani”.

Starting from the end of 16th and beginning of the 17th century, is with the advent of Shah Abbas, the medallion tends to disappear, whereas the corner pieces already could be eliminated as of second half of the 16th century, as proves it the Tapis of Mantes. It is the flowering of the “carpet-vases”, which, as their name indicates it, present a vase from where spouts out a floral composition. The garden, which is associated with the paradise also gives place to a type of composition which appears as of the 17th century in Perse in order to imitate the gardens of the Shah, divided into rectangular or square pieces by alleys and canals irrigation ( chahar bāgh ).

One can also find carpets with topic hunting: the Chasse is an appraisal activity of the Shah, applicant addresses, force and knowledge of nature. This topic is also related on the paradise and the spiritual activities, since hunting often proceeds in a nature which can point out the gardens of the paradise. One of finest is undoubtedly the carpet probably tabrizi currently preserved at the museum Poldi Pezzoli in Milan and gone back to 1542 - 1543. The Carpet of Mantes, dated from second half of the 16th century and preserved at the Museum of Louvre, is also for this reason exemplary.

The town of Kashan as for it is characterized by a rather particular production from relatively small carpets and entirely from silk at red bottom or blue where fantastic animals inherited the Chinese bestiary fight (kilins, dragons, phoenix). As in the large carpets, those of the 16th century present a medallion (carpet of the Gulbenkian Foundation), which disappears at the next century. The museum of Louvre and Metropolitan Museum preserve each one of it a specimen at the free field.

The art of the book

Under the reign of Safavides, the art of the book constitutes the essential engine of arts. The Ketab khaneh, the workshop-library royal, provides most of the models of reasons for the objects: carpet, ceramics or metals is subjected to him.

Several types of books are copied, enluminés, connected and sometimes illustrated: religious books - Coran S, but also comments of the crowned text and works theological - and books of literature Persian - Shah nama, Khamsa of Nizami, Jami Al-tawarikh of Aldine Rashid, Timur nāmeh -, encyclopedias and scientific treaties of soufis. The Paper, invention Chinese arrival very early in Iran (8th century), is always employed. One notes the frequent use of coloured papers. Towards 1540 appears also a marbled paper, which disappears however rather quickly.

The bindings for the majority are carried out in tinted Maroquin, and of very beautiful quality. They can be gilded and stamped geometrical, floral or figurative reasons or raised blue color. In second half of the 16th century, one perforates leather to let appear with the lower part coloured sheets of paper or of silk. At the same time, with Shiraz, appears the enamelled binding, which remains however very rare and very estimated in Iran.

The decoration of the margins can be carried out various manners: they are sometimes inserted, i.e. inserted in paper different (tradition which appears as of the 15th century), sanded of gold, according to a practice Chinese, or painted colors or with gold.

The styles of the illustrations vary much from one manuscript to another, according to the periods and the production centres.

1501-1550: the heritage

Three centers are active at this period:

Tabriz , capital of the empire safavide between 1501 and 1548, employs again it also the artists of the ketab khaneh Aq Qoyunlu. The illustrations indicate a double heritage: that of Aq Qoyonlu and the Timurides. This one is supported by the catch of Herat in 1501, but appears really only in the years 1525. The various directors of the ketab khaneh are:

Sultan Muhammad (1515-1522)
Bihzad (1522-v.1540)
Mir Musavvir (v. 1540 - 1548)

Many great painters, like Aqa Mirak, Mir Sayyid Ali or Dust Muhammad are employed then by the workshop-library, and produce large royal manuscripts. The first which one has a trace is the Shah Nāmeh unfinished ordered by Ismail for his/her Tahmasp son, for whom only four paintings were carried out of which Raksh defending Rustam deadened . The latter is undoubtedly one of the most famous pages of the Safavide painting, which still shows the strong pregnancy of the Art turkmene in the treatment of the very dense vegetation, like a carpet, and in awkwardnesses of prospects. It is thought that it is when Shah Tahmasp returns in Tabriz into 1522 that its realization stops about 1522, whereas, Petri of the influence of his Masters Behzad and Sultan Muhammad, it starts the realization of his large Shah Nāmeh . It orders also other exceptional works, a such Khamsa and a Iskandar Nāmeh . Other patrons employ the artists of the royal ketab khaneh: prince Braham Mirza (1517-1549) is thus made constitute an album ( muhaqqa ) by the painter Dust Muhammad.

The art of penmanship is then dominated by a very important man, called “Zarrin Qalam”, i.e. “gold calame”, which excels in six canonical penmanships.

The influence of the royal workshops of Tabriz is extremely important, and the nonroyal, enluminés and illustrated manuscripts are diffused in all the empire, marking the provincial centers like that of Shiraz.

Shiraz is the capital of the Fars and a provincial center of the south of very active Iran. The artists are always the same ones as those employed by the Aq Qoyunlu, and produce volumes of small sizes, copies of Corans and large poetic texts, intended for the majority for the trade towards the Ottoman Empire (Syria, Egypt). In spite of the blockade imposed by this empire in 1512, the production does not weaken, which leaves think that it turns to other purchasers still badly identified, being given the absence of local patronage. Under the influence of Tabriz, one notes evolutions between 1501 and 1525: the silhouettes become slimmer, the taj , the characteristic bonnet Qizilbash, with a red stick and twelve folds corresponding to the twelve Imams of the Chiisme duodécimain, appears. As from 1525, the workshops of Shiraz produce nothing any more but copies of works of the royal workshops of Tabriz, then of Qazvin and Isfahan.

Bukhara is not strictly speaking a center safavide, since the city is in the center of a State independent directed by the dynasty ouzbèke of the Chaybanides between 1500 and 1598. But the nomadism of the artists, due to the frequent political changes and the nomadism of the sovereigns, implies notable influences on behalf of the centers safavides. The manuscripts of this school are characterized by their margins richly decorated with the technique with the encartage. Their bindings have a against-dish with a large openwork leather decoration and a dish with large rectangular plates with animalist reasons or arabesques, according to the old tradition timuride. Paintings use a harmonious pallet, with aired compositions, but the absence of new models and the repetition of commonplaces created a certain dryness.

The school of Bukhara knows its apogee between 1530 and 1550, and will influence directly the Art moghol.

1550-1600: transitional period

Years 1550-1600 are remembered by many changes in the organization of the empire and thus of the production of books at Safavides. With the transfer of the capital in 1548, the royal workshop moves, and it is Qazvin which takes the continuation of the royal production. However, the provincial centers like that of Shiraz (in the south) or of the Khorasan (in the east of Iran) continue to produce more or less rich manuscripts.

With the transfer, in 1548, capital of Tabriz to Qazvin, the ketab khaneh is mainly dismantled, following the edicts of repentance published by the Shah for religious and economic reasons. The artists flee towards the courses provincial or foreign (moghole and Othoman). Seul Aqa Mirak resists this starting series. Other artists, as Siavush Beg Géorgien or Sadiqi Beg take the place of the former generation. New large calligraphers, such Mir Ali or Malik Dayalami appear and give rise to the “rule of both calames”, which defines identical rules for penmanship and painting. Illumination and the binding evolve/move in parallel of the art of the carpet, since the paperboards used are identical. In the manuscripts, paintings are generally double pages without bond with the text, while the images of wine waiter, young women, princes or of dervishes fill the albums ( muhaqqa ).

If the end of the reign of Tahmasp Shah is not very profitable (one however knows a Fāl Nāmeh going back to these years with the signatures from Aqa Mirak and Abd Al-Aziz), Shah Ismail II (R. 1576-77) exerts a beneficial influence, ordering large a Shah Nāmeh and a Ajayibnāmeh (delivers wonders). Unfortunately, its short reign prevents a real rebirth, even if it poses new bases, marking the beginning of the multiplication of the pages of albums. Its successor, Shah Muhammad Khudabandeh, being blind, it is interested little in the books, and thus breaks the started recovery. The recrudescence of the art of the royal book will take place only partially under Saha Abbas Ier the Large one, which orders, as it was the tradition, seems T it, large a Shah Nāmeh before the transfer of the court to Isfahan.

The provincial workshop of Shiraz remains flourishing until 1620, but generally continues to recopy models resulting from the royal workshops of Tabriz then of Qazvin and from Khorasan. The decoration is plentiful, the very abundant illustration in the manuscripts and the bright colors, though little varied. The drawing, end, represent characters with the round faces and the lengthened noses. Illumination remains very repetitive, and penmanships, generally in nastaliq, copy the ones the others. The majority of the manuscripts are not signed.

The workshops known as of the Khorassan are located at Herat and in the district of Bakharz. Under the patronage of the brother of Braham Mirza, Ibrahim Mirza, starting from 1565, they compete with the school of Qazvin with the use of artists like Shaykh Muhammad, Muzaffar Ali or Muhammadi, specialized in the drawings. The most famous manuscript left these workshops is a specimen of the Haft Awrang (Seven thrones) of Jami, and is dissociated by its deep originality of the productions of the official workshops.

1600-1660: decline of the enluminés manuscripts and the development of a specific kind: the page of album

During reigns of Shah Abbas Ier and Shah Safi, the number of manuscripts enluminés and illustrated drops much, leaving room to a new type of art of the book: the page of album. The albums, or muhaqqa , are generally made up under the direction of a painter or a calligrapher, and gather pages of different artists by juxtaposing drawings, even miniature penmanships old. Riza' Abbasi, which directs the ketab khaneh between 1597 and 1635 (this one being transferred, in 1602, in Isfahan), is undoubtedly the largest representative of this kind. The characters of these pages of albums often have lengthened silhouettes, with small and round heads. The subjects can be courtiers, the wine waiters being privileged, but also peasants or dervishes. Whereas Riza resists until its death, in 1635, with the European influence, other artists do not hesitate to be even inspired to reproduce the engravings brought by the Dutch merchants. Other great painters of albums of this period are Safi Abbassi, the son of Riza, known for its paintings of birds, and Mo' in Musavvir, Muhammad Qasim and Muhammad Ali, his disciples.

This taste for the album does not put fine for as much entirely at the manuscripts at paintings: the Shah Nāmeh for Abbas Shah, both Couch of Navai or the manuscript of Khosrow and Shirin (1632, Victoria and Albert Museum) constitute as many examples of the perpetuation of this tradition, than the provincial workshops give up besides less easily than the royal ketab khaneh. The school of Herat, in particular, still regularly produces copies of the large illustrated Persan texts.

1660-1722: end of the illustrated manuscripts

With the emergence of Ali Qoli Djebbeh Dar and Muhammad Zaman, two painters very Europeanizing, the share of the book illustrated in the art of the book still falls. A great activity of penmanship and illumination is implemented, with a true renewed interest for the first and a style abounding very fine and very rich in vegetable elements for the second.

Conclusion

Safavides were the last sovereigns to promote a national art “Persian”. One owes them a new rise of the artistic production in current Iran, particularly remarkable in town planning: Ali Qapu, Chehel Sutun have jewel cases with their measure to green parks traced according to precise prospects, whereas the monumental boulevard of Tchehar Bagh (or avenue of the Four-Gardens) crosses the town of Isfahan on three kilometers. Guards of the old Iranian artistic tradition more than true innovators, they worked out an art of court refined and sumptuous whose tendencies mannerists in the decoration are filled by a great poetic charm. Their fall involved a fast degeneration of art in Iran.

Appendices

Random links: