Bibliographia Iranica

A predominantly bibliographic blog for Iranian Studies

Tag: Art History

  • Amélie Kuhrt to deliver the Harold Bailey Lecture 2015

    Friday 11th December, 5.30pm at FAMES, Cambridge
    Professor Amélie Kuhrt, FBA  – The King Speaks: The Persians and their Empire
    The Achaemenid empire was created in the space of less than thirty years and dominated, with considerable success, a region stretching from Central Asia to the Aegean for around 200 years. How did the Persian kings and ruling elite visualise their immense power? How was that vision expressed? In this talk, Amélie Kuhrt, Professor Emeritus at University College London, aims to present an outline of the Persian image of their domain, concentrating on monuments and inscriptions from the royal centres and leaving aside the stories of outsiders, such as Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Jews. 
    The lecture will begin promptly at 5.30pm, followed by a reception.
    Admission free. Booking not required.
    Venue: Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
    Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge CB3 9DA
    Enquiries: info@indiran.org
    Tel. 01223 356841

  • Roman ‘Soldatenkaiser’ on the Triumphal Rock Reliefs of Shāpūr I

    Shavarebi, Ehsan. 2015. Roman ‘Soldatenkaiser’ on the Triumphal Rock Reliefs of Shāpūr I – A Reassessment. HISTORIA I ŚWIAT 4, 47-63.

    Five rock reliefs surviving in Persis/Fārs province in southern Iran represent the victories of Shāpūr I (241–272 AD), the second Sasanian King of Kings (Šāhānšāh), over the Roman Empire. The three Roman Emperors depicted on these reliefs have traditionally been identified as Gordian III (238–244), Philip I – known as ‘the Arab’ – (244–249) and Valerian I (253–260). From the 1960s onward, new interpretations are presented. In the most recent of these, Uranius Antoninus (253/254) is recognised on three of Shāpūr’s triumphal reliefs. The present paper aims to re-examine these new hypotheses by considering numismatic materials, including a unique gold coin of Shāpūr which bears an image of the same topic accompanying a legend on its reverse.

  • Religion, History and Art of Ancient Iran

    Farridnejad et al. Faszination Iran — Cover 2015Farridnejad, Shervin, Anke Joisten-Pruschke & Rika Gyselen (eds.). 2015. Faszination Iran. Beiträge zur Religion, Geschichte und Kunst des Alten Iran. Gedenkschrift für Klaus Schippmann. (Göttinger Orientforschungen. III. Reihe: Iranica, Neue Folge 13). Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag.

    This Memorial Volume is dedicated to one of the most prolific and renowned scholars in the field of Ancient Iranian Archaeology and History, the late Professor Klaus Schippmann (1924-2010), who held the chair of “Near Eastern Archaeology with special reference to Iran” at Georg-August University of Göttingen until his retirement in 1990.

    The volume consists of eleven papers, written by some of the foremost scholars in the field of Iranian Studies as well as some of his lifetime friends and colleagues. The articles are essentially concerned with different aspects of Ancient Iranian Art, Archaeology, History, Numismatics and Religion, reflecting the scholarly interests of Klaus Schippmann. The volume is accompanied also by parts of his unpublished private diary (1959) from his Nachlass, reflecting his ideas, visions and memories of his excavations as well as one report of his last trip to his favourable archaeological site of taḫt-e soleymān (Iran), written by his personal tour leader. The book is illustrated by numerous plates.

    This volume could be of interest for scholars and students of Ancient Iranian Art, Archaeology, History, Religion and other neighbour disciplines.

    Table of Contents (PDF):
    • In Memoriam Klaus Schippmann
    • Anke Joisten-Pruschke: „Ich muss irgendwie sehen, dass es für mich einen Weg gibt Archäologie zu studieren“ – Klaus Schippmanns Tagebuch einer Reise in den Vorderen Orient (1959)
    • Oric Basirov: “Proselytisation” and “Exposure of the Dead”:
      Two Christian Calumnies Commonly raised against the Sasanians
    • Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis: “Observations on some coins of Persis”
    • Touraj Daryaee: “The Xwarrah and the Sēnmurv: Zoroastrian Iconography on Seventh Century Copper Coinage“
    • Shervin Farridnejad: “Das zoroastrische mār-nāme „Schlangenbuch“. Zur zoroastrischen Volksreligion und Ophiomantik”
    • Rika Gyselen: “Some Thoughts on Sasanian mgwh-Seals”
    • Bruno Jacobs: “Zur bildlichen Repräsentation iranischer Eliten
      im achämenidenzeitlichen Kleinasien”
    • Anke Joisten-Pruschke: “Feudalismus im Sasanidenreich?”
    • Wolfram Kleiss: “Hochterrassen – Zikkurati – Stufenpyramiden”
    • Karin Mosig-Walburg: “Herrscherpropaganda der Nachfolger Shapurs I. (Ohrmazd I. – Narse) – Ein Beitrag zum Verhältnis von König und Adel im Sasanidenreich in der zweiten Hälfte des 3. Jh. n. Chr.”
    • Michael Shenkar: “Aspects of Iconography of Ahura Mazdā: Origins and Significance”
    • Dieter Weber: “Spätsasanidische Preislisten im frühislamischen Iran”
    • Hartmut Niemann: “Der Kreis schließt sich – Klaus Schippmanns letzte Reise zum ‘Takht’ “

  • History of the Iranian Architecture

    Kleiss, Wolfram. 2015. Geschichte der Architektur Irans. (Archäologie in Iran und Turan 15). Berlin: Reimer.
    “6000 years Iranian architecture”! The  history  of  the  architecture  of  Iran  is  such  a comprehensive topic, that when taking it into regard a certain restriction must be made to examples  found  within  the  present-day national  borders  as  well  as  within  the  timespan  from  the 6th century B.C. until 1979. The architectural examples  presented  here  were  always  contingent on different topographic and climatic conditions in addition to diverse cultural influences. Rock architecture and mosques – bazaars, baths and palaces, as well as modern public buildings and housing: Wolfram Kleiss characterizes in this volume the architectural history of Iran from the 4th millennium BC to the present day.
    For more information:

    Table of Contents, German Summary and Reading Sample

    English Summary

    Persian Summary

    About the author:
    Wolfram Kleiss is the retired first Director of the German Archaeological Institute (Tehran Branch). Numerous publications, among others on Caravanserais and dovecotes in Iran.

  • Zoroastrian Embroidery

    Parsi Zoroastrian Embroidery © UNESCO Parzor
    Parsi Zoroastrian Embroidery © UNESCO Parzor

    Cama, Shernaz. 2014. Parsi Embroidery: An Intercultural Amalgam. In Zhao Feng, Marie-Louise Nosch & Lotika Varadarajan (eds.), Global Textile Encounters, 263–274. (Ancient Textiles Series). Oxford: Oxbow Books.

    From early history, textiles have woven together the tapestry of humanity. The Parsi Zoroastrians, now a tiny minority of under 65,000 individuals in India, have saved, in their cupboards and trunks, this proof of our world’s multicutural history. Cpmplex roots and routes lie behind what we call “Parsi Embroidery” today. The tradition grew  from Achaemenian Iran, travelled through the Silk Route into China and then came back with Indian and European influences, to its originators, the Parsi Zoroastrians of India.
    Shernaz Cama is asociate professor at Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, India.

  • Paintings of afrāsyāb

    Details of a copy of mural called The Ambassordors’ Painting, found in the hall of the ruin of an aristocratic house in Afrasiab, commissioned by the king of Samarkand, Varkhuman (ca. 650)

    Compareti, Matteo. 2015. Samarkand the center of the world: proposals for the indentification of the afrasyab paintings. Costa Mesa: Mazda Publishers.

     In antiquity Samarkand was the capital of the Persian province of Sogdiana. Its language, culture, and “Zoroastrian” religion closely approximated those of the Persians. Following its conquest by Alexander, its strategic position and fertile soil made Sogdiana a coveted prize for Late Antique invaders of Central Asia. Around 660 CE — at the dawn of Arab invasion — local king Varkhuman promoted the execution of a unique painted program in one of his private rooms. Each wall was dedicated to a specific population: the north wall, the Chinese; the west, the Sogdians themselves; the east, the Indians and possibly the Turks. The south wall is probably the continuation of the scene on the west wall. In Chinese written sources, some support for this concept of the “division of the world” can be found. Accidentally discovered during Soviet times, the room was named “Hall of the Ambassadors” due to the representations of different peoples. However, many aspects of its painted program remain obscure. This study offers new ideas for better identifications of the rituals celebrated by the people on the different walls during precise moments of the year.
    About the Author:
    Matteo Compareti (PhD 2005) is adjunct assistant professor in Department of Near Eastern Studies, University of California-Berkeley.

  • Architecture et représentations dans l’Iran sassanide

    Callieri, Pierfrancesco. 2014. Architecture et représentations dans l’Iran sassanide (Cahiers de Studia Iranica 50). Peeters.

    This volume contains the text of the five “Ehsan and Latifeh Yarshater Distinguished Lectures on Iranian Studies”, organized by the Unité Mixte de Recherche 7528 “Mondes iranien et indien”, and delivered in 2014 at the College de France in Paris. The aim of this book is to take stock of the architectural and figurative culture of Sasanian Iran on the basis of a new comprehensive evaluation of the varied range of architectural and artistic evidence known to us, and in the light of the recent discoveries published in Iran over the last few years. Without any pretence of being exhaustive, the idea is to bring more light to bear on the utilisation of built-up areas, forms of expression and visual communication, and the mechanisms involved in artisanal production. Two chapters are dedicated to the architecture, a field in which we are far from having arrived at a general consensus, while another chapter deals with a category of artistic production closely linked to the architecture, namely stucco work. The other two chapters look into the technical-stylistic aspects of types of production so far studied mainly from the iconographic point of view: the rock reliefs and the seals.

  • Persian kingship and architecture

    Babaie, Sussan & Talinn Grigor (eds.). 2015. Persian kingship and architecture: Strategies of power in Iran from the Achaemenids to the Pahlavis. I.B.Tauris.

    Since the Shah went into exile and the Islamic Republic was established in 1979 in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, the very idea of monarchy in Iran has been contentious. Yet, as Persian Kingship and Architecture argues, the institution of kingship has historically played a pivotal role in articulating the abstract notion of ‘Iran’ since antiquity. These ideas surrounding kingship and nation have, in turn, served as a unifying cultural force despite shifting political and religious allegiances. Through analyses of palaces, mausolea, art, architectural decoration and urban design the authors show how architecture was appropriated by different rulers as an integral part of their strategies of legitimising power. They refer to a variety of examples, from the monuments of Persepolis under the Achamenids, the Sassanian palaces at Kish, the Safavid public squares of Isfahan, the Qajar palaces at Shiraz and to the modernisation and urban agendas of the Pahlavis. Drawing on archaeology, ancient, medieval, early and modern architectural history, both Islamic and secular, this book is indispensable for all those interested in Iranian studies and visual culture.

    For the ToC and having a look into this volume see here.

    About the Editors:

    Sussan Babaie is Lecturer in the Arts of Iran and Islam at The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, UK.

    Talinn Grigor is Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Brandeis University in Boston.

  • Yarshater Lectures at SOAS

    ‘In the rays of light of imperial favour’: The visual arts of early fifteenth-century Timurid Herat.

    Four lectures by Professor David J. Roxburgh of the Department of History of Art and Architecture and Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History, Harvard University:

    • 15 January Timurid Herat: The City as a Setting for Art and Literature
    • 16 January The Timurid-Ming Embassy of 1419-22: Art after China
    • 19 January Modelling Artistic Process: The Kitābkhāna and ΄Arzadāsht
    • 20 January Baysunghur’s Books: Codifying Form and Aesthetic Value

    For more information, see the series’ SOAS webpage or the poster.

  • Textiles and elite tastes

    Canepa, Matthew. 2014. Textiles and elite tastes between the Mediterranean, Iran and Asia at the end of antiquity. In Marie-Louise Nosch, Zhao Feng & Lotika Varadarajan (eds.), Global textile encounters (Ancient Textiles Series 20), 1–14. Oxford and Havertown, PA: Oxbow Books.

    Read the article here.