Shows and describes examples of Persian calligraphy, glass, tile, pottery, lacquer, books, paintings, jewelry, textiles, sculpture, and architecture

From monumental architecture to miniature paintings, sumptuous carpets, and ceramics: the decorative profusion of the arts of Persia captured in glorious detail through hundreds of color photographs

Today the Victoria and Albert Museum holds extensive and renowned collections of Iranian art, spanning at least twelve centuries of Iran's sophisticated cultural history. These objects range from archaeological finds to architectural salvage, from domestic furnishings and drinking vessels to design archives. Most of this diverse material was purchased in the late nineteenth century, over a few decades - roughly between 1873 and 1893 - during a specific period of contact between Victorian Britain and Qajar Iran. This book investigates that period through four case studies, showing how architects, diplomats, dealers, collectors and craftsmen engaged with Iran's complex visual traditions, ancient and modern --

In the seventeenth century, the Persian city of Isfahan was a crossroads of international trade and diplomacy. Manuscript paintings produced within the city’s various cultural, religious, and ethnic groups reveal the vibrant artistic legacy of the Safavid Empire. Published to coincide with an exhibition at the Getty Museum, Book Arts of Isfahan offers a fascinating account of the ways in which the artists of Isfahan used their art to record the life around them and at the same time define their own identities within a complex society.

Housed in the Hermitage Museum along with other institutes, libraries, and museums in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union are some of the most magnificent treasures of Persian Art. For the most part, many of these works have been lost, but have been catalogued and published here for the first time with an unsurpassed selection of colour plates. In a comprehensive introduction, Vladimir Lukonin, Director of the Oriental Art section of the Hermitage Museum, and his colleague Anatoli Ivanov have broadly documented the major developments of Persian Art: from the first signs of civilisation on the plains of Iran around the 10thcentury BCE through the early 20th century. In the second part of the book they have catalogued Persian Art giving locations, origins, descriptions, and artist biographies where available. Persian Art demonstrates a common theme which runs through the art of the region over the past three millennia. Despite many religious and political upheavals, Persian Art whether in its architecture, sculpture, frescoes, miniatures, porcelain, fabrics, or rugs; whether in the work of the humble craftsmen or the high art of court painters displays the delicate touch and subtle refinement which has had a profound influence on art throughout the world.

The two-volume Companion to Islamic Art and Architecture bridges the gap between monograph and survey text by providing a new level of access and interpretation to Islamic art. The more than 50 newly commissioned essays revisit canonical topics, and include original approaches and scholarship on neglected aspects of the field. This two-volume Companion showcases more than 50 specially commissioned essays and an introduction that survey Islamic art and architecture in all its traditional grandeur Essays are organized according to a new chronological-geographical paradigm that remaps the unprecedented expansion of the field and reflects the nuances of major artistic and political developments during the 1400-year span The Companion represents recent developments in the field, and encourages future horizons by commissioning innovative essays that provide fresh perspectives on canonical subjects, such as early Islamic art, sacred spaces, palaces, urbanism, ornament, arts of the book, and the portable arts while introducing others that have been previously neglected, including unexplored geographies and periods, transregional connectivities, talismans and magic, consumption and networks of portability, museums and collecting, and contemporary art worlds; the essays entail strong comparative and historiographic dimensions The volumes are accompanied by a map, and each subsection is preceded by a brief outline of the main cultural and historical developments during the period in question The volumes include periods and regions typically excluded from survey books including modern and contemporary art-architecture; China, Indonesia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sicily, the New World (Americas)

Outstanding collection of 400 motifs: floral designs, geometrics, arabesques, mythical creatures, rosettes, paisley patterns, palmettes, medallions, border and marginal decorations, scrolls, curves, and hunting scenes.