Sultan Muhammad, Bihzad, the Shanameh and Classical Persian Book Illumination
So let's leave the modern era... and let's leave the art of the West and turn to the Middle-East. As an admitted and unrepentant bibliophile I have long been enamored of the book as an art object: everything from William Morrisâ Kelmscott Chaucer...Â
... to that weird Renaissance masterpiece of the printed book: Aldus Manutiusâ Hynerotomachia Poliphili...
... on through Albrecht DĂźrerâs Apocalypse...
... to Henri Matisseâs Jazz...
... Doreâs illustrated classics... (Dante in this instance):
... Marc Chagallâs Four Tales from the Arabian Nights...
... and of course William Blakeâs visionary illuminations of his own poetry...
...on through contemporary works of "book arts". These have all been... in their way... as familiar and as important to me as an artist as almost any work in the more traditional genre of painting or sculpture.
Being something of a medievalist as well (medieval art offered me the first real understanding of the world of art beyond ârealismâ), I must admit that it has been the medieval book more than anything that has kept me obsessed with the book as a visual art form. I have had a long love affair with the medieval book in all its splendid variety: the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic manuscripts (the Book of Durrow, the Book of Kells...
... the Lindesfarne Gospels) with their ornate calligraphy woven into the most magical of knotted and intertwined abstractionsâŚ
... the boldly graphic, expressively colored and often horrific Hiberno-Islamic illuminations of the Commentaries of Beatus of Liebana on the Book of Revelations (works which most certainly were a major source of inspiration for Picasso)...
... the marvelous French Gothic manuscripts such as the beautiful Paris âEadwineâ Psalter...
... and the expressionistic Hours of the Rohan Master:
Of course I was forever enchanted with the exquisitely delicate works of the Limbourg Brothers, especially the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, perhaps THE masterwork of late medieval book arts in Europe:
Naturally, I was eventually drawn to the wonders of the book as an art form as it existed beyond the West⌠especially the Moorish, Turkish, Arabic, and Persian books. The marvelous gilded labyrinths of Islamic calligraphy to be found in the finest volumes of the Quâran dazzled me like nothing else...
...save perhaps the most ornate examples of Anglo-Saxon/Celtic interlace.
Even more fascinating were the magical manuscripts illuminating the most illustrious work of Persian poetry: Nezami (Nezami-ye Ganjavi),Omar KhayyĂĄm, Attar (AbĹŤ HamÄŤd bin AbĹŤ Bakr IbrÄhÄŤm), Shams (Shams-e-TabrÄŤzÄŤ Ab'ul Hasan YamÄŤn al-DÄŤn Khusrow), Saadi (Saadi-Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif ibn Abdullah), Rumi (Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi-Rumi), Hafez (KhwÄja Ĺ ams ud-DÄŤn Muhammad HÄfez-e Ĺ ÄŤrÄzÄŤ). These enchanting illuminated miniatures, gilded and spectacularly patterned, teeming with tiny, elegant figures and staged in the most sumptuous bedecked interiors or the most sensuous and idyllic garden settings immediately brought to life the whole resplendent, exotic, and sensual atmosphere of the Arabian Nights... the exotic Middle-east as a Westerner might dream it. These were the most fabulous of visual fairy tales and dreamscapes in which one might lose oneself for hours.
Persian culture is ancient and Persia had existed as a stable empire for some 1300 years, far outlasting its great rivals, Greece and Rome. From 643-650 the Persian Empire under the Sasanian rulers suffered a devastating defeat at the hands of the Byzantine Empire which so weakened them as to result in their subsequent subjugation by the small and numerically inferior Islamic Arab forces, and later by invading Mongols. It isn't until the 11th century and the rise of the great classical Persian poets, especially Abolqasem Ferdowsi, whose Shahnameh is the epic poem of Persia/Iran, that Persian culture once again began to assert itself.
Persia had accepted the Arab religion of Islam, but contrary to Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari's iconoclastic strictures as put forth in his Life of the Prophet, (the al-Jaami al-Sahih), and the influence of the rise of iconoclasm in the Byzantine Empire beginning in the 8th century under the emperor, Leo II, the tradition of imagery and visual narrative was deeply ingrained in Persian culture.
With the rise to power of the Safavid rulers in 1501, and a growing awareness of their own Persian history and culture, Persian poetry and art entered a "golden age". Manuscript illumination became thought of as the highest form of art, combining calligraphy:
... magnificent endsheets:
... marvelous and magical landscapes:
... ornate interwoven geometric abstractions:
... even collage! as in this page in which each shape in the design and the very lettering itself is produced from cut paper!
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Three great schools of painting and book production arose in the cities of Shiraz, Herat, and Tabriz. The school of Shiraz was especially known for a more symmetrical/geometric approach to painting and page layout, and a frieze-like approach... even early on, as can be seen in the Demotte Shanameh.
The Shiraz school would reach its artistic peak with the production of any number of illuminated copies of Nezamiâs Kahmseh produced in the late 15th century:
 The details, clarity, and confidence of these works surpass anything before seen in Persian miniatures. Painting of Shiraz would have a major influence throughout Persia.
The school of Tabriz under the Turkoman workshops was especially known for expressionistic or even âDionysianâ paintings in which figures are staged in the most sensuous, and florid landscapes. Faces and creatures (âgrotesquesâ) are often found hidden in the rocks and vegetation. The luxuriant and lush foliage and rolling clouds were clearly influenced by Chinese art. To this the Turkoman artists at Tabriz added the most brilliant coloring.
One of the most spectacular manuscripts to have been produced at Tabriz was an unfinished Shanameh (1515-1522) of which only a single image remains: Rustam Sleeping while Rakhsh Fights the Lion,attributed to the painter Sultan Muhammad:
The scale and quality of this painting, are enough to substantiate its claim to having been one of the greatest masterworks of Turkoman style at Tabriz. Sultan Muhammad, the leading painter of the Turkoman style, is credited with several other exceptional works, perhaps most brilliant being the luminous image of the Miraj or the heavenly ascension of the prophet Muhammad, painted for an illuminated text of Nezamiâs Khamseh (c. 1540):
The painting school of Herat was established in the early 15th century drawing upon many of the best artists from Shiraz and Tabriz. The artists of Herat were especially accomplished at painting people staged within complex settings beautifully composed. The greatest of the artists at Herat was Kamal ud-Din Behzad Herawi or Bihzad (c. 1460â1535), generally acknowledged as the greatest of all Persian painters. Bihzad had a special talent for not only portraying people but also in conveying a clarity of action or narrative, and staging this within a sophisticated space that drew great attention to the surroundings of everyday urban life.
In this scene of a beheading (below) Bihzad's use of color and positioning of the figures leads the eye to the central drama... and then around the picture where we find a great variety of personalities and their differing... even conflicting responses to the event unfolding before us:
In another illumination, Bihzad explores the everyday actions of urban life in a major Persian metropolis:
The eye is led around through scenes of beggars, barbers, bathers, and carpet sellers. Bihzad adds the sophisticated element of the architectural detailing breaking out of the rectangular picture plane.
One of the best examples of Bihzadâs work from Herat is to be found in his painting of Joseph and Zulaykha (the Hebrew Joseph and Potipherâs wife):
In this painting the virtuous Joseph flees the amorous advances of Zulaykha running through a labyrinthine space in which the viewer is given a simultaneous interior and exterior view. Bricks, patterned tiles, Persian rugs, and steep stairwells are at once dazzling and disorienting⌠perhaps conveying Josephâs own feelings as he seeks to escape from Zulaykha. The artist allows towers and balconies to again break out of the rectangular space while also weaving the text throughout the image in the most sophisticated manner. The painting is a Cubist masterwork centuries before Cubism.
Under the Safavid rulers, and the examples of Sultan Muhammad and Bihzad, there is a brilliant synthesis of the various Persian miniature styles that would result in what is arguably THE masterwork of Persian painting, the so-called Shahnameh of Tabriz (or the "Houghton Shahnameh"). Entire workshops of calligraphers, painters, gilders, leather workers, book binders, etc... were employed under the oversight of masters, including Sultan Muhammad and Bihzad. The format for each individual illustration was conceived of independently and involved the input of many different hands⌠some with quite dissimilar methods of working, and so for a book to maintain any sense of continuity and coherence demanded clear thinking, planning, and foresight on the part of the masters. This must have been especially challenging considering the fact the text and paintings could not always be completed in sequence. In order to maintain a degree of continuity of style, the artists in the workshops employed scrapbook collections or anthologies of calligraphy styles...
...painting styles for rendering various flora, fauna, or figures...
...as models in creating a work as complex as an illuminated manuscript. Something similar to these examples of calligraphy and imagery collaged into compositions may have even served as a rough mock-up or proto-codex in preparation for the final book. The stringent demands placed upon the workshop artists for major illuminated manuscripts can be clearly witnessed by the quality of the works rejected, as in this unfinished/abandoned folio page:
The Shahnameh of Tabriz is the most brilliant realization of the Persian book arts. No other book comes near to its level of polish, refinement and decorativeness. The work is the most stunning merger of painting, design, and calligraphy in the service of the singular masterwork of Persian poetry. Any number of the individual folio miniatures certainly rank among the finest examples of Persian painting⌠of painting in general. Among the most splendid miniatures one might wish to look particularly to The Court of Gayumars:
This painting is the culmination of the Turkoman style, and echoes many of the most striking elements of Rustam Sleeping while Rakhsh Fights the Lion. Both works show the influence, if not the hand of the painter, Sultan Muhhamad. The Court of Gayumars is considered by many to be the greatest of Persian manuscript paintings. The painting represents Gayumars, the first king of Persia, who ruled from the mountaintops and in whose presence the wild beasts became meek as lambs. Gayumars is seen sitting atop his mountain before a backdrop of flowering trees silhouetted against a gilded sky. He looks down mournfully at his son, Siyamak, who will be killed in battle with the Black Div. Beneath him his courtiers stand organized in a circular manner around a center of leafy, luxuriant vegetation. The court is bracketed by further exuberant flora and vividly colored rocks which burst forth from the limits of the rectangular frame.
The contributions to the Shahnameh of the painter, Sultan Muhammad are further seen in several other equally magnificent paintings beyond the possible attribution of the aforementioned tour de force (The Court of Gayumars). Among these is the splendid painting of Hushang Discovering Fire:
Like The Court of Gayumars this painting is unmatched in its vigorous portrayal of sensuous flora and fauna. The work also exploits a similar circular/organic organization of the figures beneath the central figure of Hushang.
An equally marvelous painting (also possibly employing the hand of Sultan Muhammad) that repeats the sumptuous and organic Turkoman style is the painting Rustam, aided by his Horse, Rakhsh, Slays a Dragon:
Here we find a Chinese-inspired dragon writhes in a serpentine knot as he wrestles with Rustamâs trusty steed, while the great warrior strikes the death blow with his sword. This arabesque of action takes place in a brilliantly colored and opulent landscape where the very fauna and the swirling clouds repeat the twisting and snaking motion of the central drama. The color alone would certainly inspire jealousy in such masters of color as Matisse, Bonnard, or Gauguin.
In contrast to these, paintings such as The Nightmare of Zahhak...
...clearly reverberate with the influence of Bihzad and the painting school of Herat. The viewer is presented with a geometrically constructed depiction of Zahhakâs palace that is at once an interior and exterior view. There is the most exquisite attention given to details of the setting and the decorative architectural patterns. The most refined element, however, is the artistâs mastery with the human figure. The scene illustrated in the narrative is of that moment at which Zahhak, the evil âsnake kingâ awakes screaming from a dream in which he envisions his own death at the hands of a great hero wielding an ox-headed mace.
Rather than focus upon Zahhak, the artist (quite possibly Bihzad himself) gives all his attention to the reaction of Zahhakâs court. Courtiers in the magnificent royal palace look up in surprise; Guardsmen in the towers glance over the balconies in an effort to discern just what the commotion is all about, while the women of the harem hold their fingers to their lips in a gesture of surprise or whisper to each other as they pass on the stairwells:
Many of the finest paintings of the Shahnameh and later Persian manuscripts of the "classical" period combine elements of both the lush Turkoman manner of Tabriz and the more cultured and urbane style of Bihzadian Herat. The dynamic, fervid, and âDionysianâ approach of Sultan Muhammad, the leading painter of the Turkoman school, was influenced by the balanced, harmonious, and humane school of Herat under the elder Bihzad. In the painting of Zahhak Receiving the Daughters of Jamshid whose Throne he has Usurped, (attributed to Sultan Muhammad)...:
... there is a marvelous merger of the two modes of working. Zahhak, the âsnake kingâ is seen enthroned in the most ornate and luxurious of palaces and surrounded by courtiers and servants. The almost gothic/baroque sensory overload or horror vacuii of the fabulous patterned architectural setting continues into the surrounding landscape where twisting trees bloom and clouds spiral and dance against a gilded sky. The gold itself carries over back into the architecture so that the sophisticated, urbane setting and organic natural surrounding almost become one.
In the Folio representing The Murder of King Mirdas...
...one may discover another marvelous example of the merger of styles. The painting presents the brutal patricide of Mirdas which occurs in a lush garden orchard. Mirdas lies with his back broken in a pit dug by his son, Zahhak while unseen observers peer out from doors and balconies of the palace, suggesting the evil deed did not go unnoticed. Spectators, often women, concealed behind doors and balconies, or peering from behind veils and curtains are suggestive of a sophisticated view of the intrigues of the court and were quite expressive of the influence of Bihzad and the urbane style of Herat.
A similar balance of the organic and the geometric⌠the landscape wilderness and the sophistication of civilization can be found in the painting of Sam and Zal are Welcomed into Kabul, Where the Latter is to be Betrothed to Rudabe, a Decendant of Zahhak.(Now there's a title!):
In this painting the mounted warriors under Sam and Zal move diagonally across the desert landscape. This diagonal is picked up and reiterated by the rigidly ordered line of figures welcoming them into the city. This rigidity itself restates the strict geometry of the fortified architectural setting. Perhaps the most remarkable detail is to be found in the balcony which juts out from the severe structure of the architecture in profile against the most gestural and organic element of the entire painting: the twisting tree silhouetted against the gilded sky which swirls in an arabesque that immediately draws ones eye to the very place where Zalâs wife-to-be observes the heroâs entrance unnoticed.
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The Shahnameh of Tabriz remained intact and in near-perfect condition well into the 20th century. The calligraphy remained crisp, the paper flawless and the brilliant colors remained virtually unchanged, due in part, no doubt, to the fact that the book had seldom been opened for reading thanks to a lack of understanding of the Persian language (Farsi) and only upon rare occasions for the display of the paintings to honored visitors.
In 1959 the owner at that time, Baron Edmond de Rothschild, sold the intact book to the American collector, Arthur Houghton. Rothschild, who had taken special care to ensure that the miniatures were always well-protected had initially turned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art with the belief that a work of such importance deserved to be housed in an appropriate institution. The Met, however, on the recommendation of the board of trustees (headed by Houghton!), at which time Houghton snatched it up it for himself.
Initially Houghton placed the book at Harvard with the understanding that an elegant and scholarly facsimile would be published by the universityâs academic press. It was thought that Houghton might eventually donate the work to his alma mater. Harvardâs Fogg Museum contained a renowned collection of Islamic art, an ideal setting for the work. In 1972, however, Houghton became âpiquedâ with the universityâs delay in the production of the book and he pulled the Shahnameh and brought it to New York.
At that time, after remaining intact for over 400 years, Houghton inexplicably tore 78 of the finest paintings from the book and presented them as a gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Thomas Hoving, then director of the Met states, âI was flatly opposed to the breaking up of the book in any fashion. I confronted Arthur physically, personally on the matter, but he was determined to do this, and he was the chairman of our board of trustees, after all.â On the other hand, Hoving also admitted that Houghtonâs gift âwas like getting a whole bunch of Michelangelo paintings from out of the blue.â
As the museum held non-profit status Houghton sought to claim a sizable tax reduction. Unfortunately the bequest came at a point in which the government was becoming increasingly suspicious of deductions claimed for the donation of art. A gift this size was enough to trigger an audit by the IRS, who disallowed Houghtonâs claim. Houghton became terrified that the government would eventually begin to investigate all of his business dealings⌠especially his various charitable foundations which had acted as fronts for the CIA during the Cold War.
Houghtonâs fears (âunbelievably paranoidâ according to Hoving) led him to the irrational decision to dispose of the remains of the Shahnameh. He initially offered it to the Shah of Iran, but the $20 million asking price was rejected. At this point he began to consign a few pieces at a time (prudently to avoid âflooding the marketâ and hurting his price) to Christieâs of London for public auction. The ÂŁ785,000 realized by the sale of the first seven folio pages should certainly have proved to the IRS that Houghtonâs claim as to the monetary value of his donation to the Met was in no way inflated.
Over the next decade or so Houghton continued to remove further folios from the Shahnameh and consign them to the auction block. This wholesale pillage of one of the greatest masterpieces of world art only came to a halt when Houghton died in 1990. By that time only 120 of the plates remained. All that exists today to suggest the coherent magnificence of the book as it originally existed is the scholarly limited edition facsimile eventually published by Harvard.
In spite of the irreparable vandalism that the Shahnameh had suffered, the Iranians were still more than eager to get what remained of their cultural patrimony. The estimated $20-million price tag, however, was impossible to justify for a mere work of art, especially following the prolonged and devastating war with Iraq. Eventually an ingenious barter was worked out between Houghtonâs estate and the Iranian government.
The Iranians had been attempting to get rid of certain âdecadentâ paintings that were âunsuitableâ for public exhibition under the Islamic rule. Among these was the painting, Woman III, by the Abstract Expressionist, Willem de Kooning, to which a like value of $20 million had been arbitrarily assigned. The trade took place under clandestine conditions upon the neutral turf of the Vienna airport. The remains of the Shahnameh were returned to in Iran in triumph and proudly put upon public display in Tehran, in the Museum of Contemporary Art which had sacrificed the De Kooning. The De Kooning, on the other hand, was privately sold for an undisclosed sum to the media executive, David Geffen, and immediately disappeared from public view.
The great British art critic, David Sylvester, a champion of Modernism and admitted admirer of De Kooning, was quoted as saying that âthe Shahnameh was worth at least 20 paintings by De Kooning, and that the Houghton Foundation had been the loser in exchanging the work for one painting by De Kooning. He further suggested that the Iranian government had actually recovered the Shahnameh gratis.â One cannot easily question Sylvesterâs claim, considering the fact that in 2006 just a single folio painting of the Shahnameh was auctioned off for $1.7 million, making it the 7th most-expensive book or part of a book sold that year⌠in spite of it being but a single page.
The parts of the Shahnameh can be found in collections around the world, including not only the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but also The State Hermitage Museum in Russia and, obviously, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran. The book was a entire art gallery between two covers and almost every individual painting is worthy of careful examination. It was one of the most magical works of art ever created; a virtual visual fairy-tale. Looking at the paintings one can easily see why artists as diverse as Ingres, Delacroix, Gauguin, Matisse, Klee, Beckmann, Kandinsky, etc⌠were greatly impressed with and inspired by Persian painting. At the same time one would hope that the tragic events surrounding the Shahnameh rooted in greed and a disregard for the cultural achievements outside oneâs own culture would have taught the art world a lesson not soon forgotten. Unfortunately the looting of the Baghdad Museum following the invasion of Iraq suggests that we may still have far to go.
Bibliographic sources:
Basbanes, Nicholas A., A Splendor of Letters; The Permanence of Books in an Impermanent World, HarperCollins Publishers, NY 2003, ISBN:0-06-008287-9
Blair, Sheila S. and Bloom, Jonathan M., The Art and Architecture of Islam, 1250-1800,
Yale University Press, NY 1994, ISBN: 0-300-05888-8
Danby, Miles, Moorish Style, Phaidon Press, London 1995, ISBN: 0-7148-3861-6
Davis, Dick (translation and Introduction) Abolqasem Ferdowsiâs Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings, Penguin Books, NY 2006, ISBN: 978-0-14-310493-3
Ferrier, R.W. ed., The Arts of Persia, Yale University Press, NY 1989, ISBN-10: 0300039875
Piortrovski, M.B. and Rogers, J.M. editors, Heaven on Earth: Art from Islamic Lands, Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, NY 2004, ISBN:3-7913-3055-1
