Text and Image in Persian Art: From the Samanids to the Safavids

Greater Iranian art from the tenth to sixteenth centuries contains some of the finest, most technically complex achievements in the history of world art. Intellectually engaging, art from Greater Iran showcases the power of merging texts and vibrant imagery, creating lively, highly expressive verbal and visual expressions. Focusing on objects found in the period's main media, Sheila S. Blair follows artisans' play with form, material, and decoration to engage their audiences, and she traces the reception of these objects over time. She ultimately connects our present understanding of these works to our conception of an Iranian past. Lavishly illustrated in color, the volume centers on four genres: ceramics, metalwares, architecture, and textiles, exhibiting a variety of Persian examples. Written by the world's foremost expert on Persian art, it captures both the thrilling visual and verbal interactions of a multilingual society and the phenomenal transformation of everyday objects into art.