Detail: A lecture on the diversity and creativity of deluxe Persian manuscripts made in the 16th century Shiraz.
Of the many artistic centres in Iran, perhaps none had a longer and more productive history than the city of Shiraz, capital of Fars province. Beginning at least in the early 14th century and continuing into the 17th, Shirazi calligraphers, illuminators, painters and binders produced vast quantities of deluxe manuscripts at a prodigious rate. One mid-16th century visitor, evidently overwhelmed by this output, declared that the multiple manuscripts of Shiraz were indistinguishable one from another, a critical view that persisted into modern times. Recent scholarship, however, has demonstrated the shortsightedness of such a perception. This presentation will consider the diversity and creativity of deluxe manuscripts made in 16th-century Shiraz through examples, particularly illustrated volumes of the Shahnama (Book of Kings), belonging to the British Library and other collections worldwide.
Marianna Shreve Simpson was Curator of Islamic Near Eastern Art at the Freer/Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution and more recently the Director of Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Islamic Art at the Walters Art Museum as well as being President of the Historians of Art Association. She specializes in the arts of the Islamic book in general and illustrated Persian manuscripts in particular; and she has published, lectured and taught widely in these fields.
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