The Persian painter Kamal al-Din Bihzad was known as "the wonder of the age" (Roxburgh, Persian 179). Not much known about his life, but still Bizhad is considered one of the two greatest Persian painters of all time, second only to the legndary Mani (Bahari 16). He was called by court chroniclers of the Safavids, Ottomans, and Mughals the "Unique One of the Age" or "Master of the Age." These kinds of titles were not something royal writers of the three greatest powers of sixteenth-century Islamic Asia bestowed lightly. (Barry133) Why is Bihzad so highly praised? What properties of his work make his paintings so appealing? What characteristics of his style and techniques raise Bihzad above all other Persian painters?
There are four distinct categories of Bihzads work including: portraitts or events from life, depiction of historical events (with imaginative interpretations), book illustrations, and double page illustrations of imaginary scenes. (Bahari 47) The two masters that had the most influence on his art were Amir Ruhallah Mirak Khurasani, who wove fine detail and illumination in his work, and Mawlana Wali Allah whose style was very expressive with delicate brushwork. (Roxburgh, Persian 45) Mirak was Bihzad's adoptive father and teacher (Roxburgh, Persian 222). It is only fitting that such a relationship would have the egreatest impact on Bhizad's art. Two Antelopes and Two Lynx (fig. 1) is great evidence of the influence Wali had on Bihzad. The twisty tree is basically a copy of a tree from a previous work by Wali (Bahari 54). Bihzad grew up during the mid-fifteenth-century conflict fought between rival princes over the empire of Shah Rukh. Some scholars believe Bihzad's work often reflects the violence he saw. (Barry...
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Bahari, Ebadollah. Bizhad, Master of Persian Painting. London: I. B. Tauris Publishers, 1996.
Barry, Michael. Figurative Art in Medieval Islam and the Riddle of Bizhad of Herat. Paris: International Publications, Inc. 2004.
Blair, Sheila S., and Jonathan M. Bloom. The Art and Architecture of Islam 1250-1800. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Grabar, Oleg. Mostly Miniatures: An Introduction to Persian Painting. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001.
Lentz, Thoma W. “Changing Worlds: Bihzad and the New Painting.” In Persian Masters: Five Centuries of Painting, edited by S. R. Canby. Bombay. Pp. 39–54. 1990.
Roxburgh, David .J. “Kamal al-Din Bizhad and Authorship in Persianate Painting.” Muqarnas 17: 119-46. 2000.
Roxburgh, David .J. The Persian Album, 1400-1600: From Dispersal to Collection. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005.
Information from the textbook and Hays’s article help illuminate the events depicted and their significance in culture and art of the New Kingdom, and how the style ties into the art of the time.
Ibn Munqidh, Usama. "From Memoirs." McNeill, William and Marilyn Robinson Waldman. The Islamic World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1973. 184-206.
I learned about many significant artwork and artist in this class. This class provided me with a better understanding of the history of the world Art, but also helped me understand the development of art style. However, among all of these precious pieces of artwork, there are two special ones that caught my attention: The Chinese Qin Terracotta Warriors and The Haniwa. Each of them represents the artist’s stylistic characteristics and cultural context. Although they represented different art of rulers, historical values, and scenes, there were visible similarities.
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, or LACMA as it is commonly known, is among the world’s largest art collections in North America, and to be specific enough the most prevalent artwork in the western United States (Compton 165). This massive art museum has a collection of over 100,000 artworks, which extends from the ancient times to present days (Gilbert and Mills 174). These collections, which are mainly from Asia, Africa, Europe, Latin-America and America itself, are grouped into several departments within the museums buildings, depending on the region, culture, media, and time period. This paper analyzes the different genres of art and explains the main features that make the Islamic artworks distinguish themselves as historic masterpieces, by using stylistic and interpretive analysis methods.
"Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History." The Achaemenid Persian Empire (550–330 B.C.). N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Shahîd, Irfan. Byzantium and the Arabs in the Fourth Century. Washington, D.C: Dumbarton Oaks, 1984.
Bihzad has placed strong emphasis on the complexity of the palace’s architecture which he has adorned with colorful ornaments and emblazoned with gold. Each room is decorated with rugs and tiles featuring complex floral and asymmetrical patterns that cover each chamber from floor to ceiling. The palace appears to be three stories tall and features a balcony on the left and a zigzagging staircase on the right. The asymmetrical style of these two architectural features gives the impression of the work being 3-dimensional ...
In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi’s childhood experiences allow her to demonstrate the cultural changes that occurred in post-revolutionary Iran, as well as those perpetrated by western culture. In Persepolis, western culture plays a major role in the author’s attempt to dispel the
Lesko, Barbara, "Queen Khamerernebty II and Her Sculpture," in Ancient Egyptian and Mediterranean Studies, (Providence, Rhode Island, 1998), 158.
The question arises to many historians that when did this work originated. It has been said that it was originated in Persia in pre-Islamic time period and then later translated into Arabic. The Norton Anthology of World MasterPieces states:
Nagle, D. Brendan. “The Second Persian Invasion” The Ancient World; A social and Cultural History. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002.
...ere was a very particular exposition of some of his work, called Basquiat: The Unknown Notebooks. It consisted in pages of regular notebooks, but with observations, sketches, ideas and poetry fragments, either from popular culture or from world history and races. These pieces were very unique and the sketches had a special touch that I had never seen before in any other artwork. Basquiat’s work was very simple, but with strong ideas and a clear message. That was the beauty of his work.
Flood explains the origin of Islamic iconoclasm through a quote by K.A.C. Creswell stating, "the inherent temperamental dislike of Semitic races for representational art" and believes iconoclasm is contested among Muslims as well. The Hadith, which is the narrative of the Prophet's life forbids "all representations that have shadows (whose defacement is obligatory), and some schools of thought go so far as to liken artists to polytheists." Although the impact of iconoclasm depends on the time and place in which it occurred, the Hadith definitely helped to promote "the eschewal of figural imagery" and "the destruction or mutilation of existing figural imagery." In 696-697 figural imagery was repla...
G. Esposito, John L (2002) Islam; What Everyone Should Know. New York. Oxford University Press Inc.
Kenneth Jost. 2005. “Understanding Islam.” Annual Editions: Anthropology 11/12, 34th Edition. Elvio Angeloni. New York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.