Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art

This book investigates the interaction between word and image in medieval Persian art. Greater Iranian arts from the 10th to the 16th century are technically some of the finest produced anywhere. They are also intellectually engaging, showing the lively interaction between the verbal and the visual arts. Focusing on objects found in the main media at the time, Sheila S. Blair shows how artisans played with form, material and decoration to engage their audiences. She also shows how the reception of these objects has changed and that their present context has implications for our understanding of the past. It is lavishly illustrated in colour. It features 5 case studies – on ceramics, metalwares, painting, architecture and textiles – that showcase the variety of Persian art. It investigates the interaction between the visual and the verbal in a multi-lingual society. It looks at the transformation of everyday objects into works of art. It is written by one of the foremost experts in Persian art.

Reviews of Text and Image in Medieval Persian Art

"Sheila Blair is an acknowledged world authority on epigraphy and this book is a scrutiny of five specific examples, arranged chronologically." – The Art Newspaper'This splendid new book by one of the leading scholars of Islamic art manages that most difficult task-making a serious contribution to scholarship while being accessible to a wide range of readers and attractive to them. It is not a survey but five case studies: a 10th-century ceramic bowl, a 12th-century copper alloy rosewater sprinkler, a 14th-century tomb, a 15th-century manuscript painting, and a 16th-century carpet. Blair (Boston College; Virginia Commonwealth Univ.) beautifully describes and analyzes each in its immediate and its broadest historical context. Each object works like a pebble thrown into water, producing expanding circles of related objects, people involved in its manufacture and commission, and later works in its tradition or directly reflecting it in some way … Individual chapters or the book as a whole would be suitable for use in college courses.' — L. Nees, (University of Delaware) CHOICE