Persian Painting

by Basil Gray, Albert Skira, Rizzoli (Publisher)

Second impression. An introduction and short history of Persian painting, including illustrations in books. Discusses the important schools and phases, European influences on Persian art and vice versa. With fifteen plates. Dust jacket chipped, torn. 92 pages. 1930 , square 8vo., cloth, dust jacket.. Limited.

Genres: Art, Art History

190 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1977

Reviews

[Arman Behrad · Rating 2 out of 5]

كتاب با ترجمه ي خوب فارسي، از انتشارات "دنياي نو" منتشر شده است. اگر صرفاً به دنبال تطور تاريخي مينياتور ايراني از دوره ي ايلخانيان تا صفويه هستيد، كتاب مناسبي است؛ اما اگر به دنبال درك آن هستيد، به هيچ وجه!

[Bernard English · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very nice, but as someone unfamiliar to this or any artistic tradition for that matter, I was a bit disappointed that there were so many painting based on the classic Persian poetry or epics, such as Shahnameh. I was hoping for more historical paintings of actual not fictional battles and of actual buildings--I know, that's just not the way its done. The Chinese/Asian influence is pretty obvious in the way the eyes are painted and in "Kay Khusrau offering the Crown to Luhrasp" even the hats look Chinese, to me at least. In part it was due to Chinese painters actually being commissioned to paint, by for example, Nasr II. However, Gray writes that "so far as can be seen today no Chinese influence can be detected in Persian painting before the Mongol invasions of the early thirteenth century." Apparently even the Persian/Arabic calligraphy was influenced by Chinese calligraphy. Chinese influence is probably not what most modern Iranians think of or perhaps are interested in, nonetheless the influence is striking to a tyro like me.