Full Description
This book studies developments in art historical writing and factors which shaped the album preface. The prefaces were written in Persian between ca. 1491 and 1609 to introduce albums of calligraphy, painting, and drawing assembled for Safavid rulers and courtiers.
Approaches to the study of these sources are examined, followed by an analysis of the sociohistorical court-centered context; the circumstances of the texts' composition, reception, and literary dimensions; and their art historical formation and content. It ends with an interpretation of calligrapher Dust Muhammad's preface and his conceptualization of a history and aesthetics of depiction.
The book is the first to study the prefaces collectively and in relationship to other cultural practices. It also draws on a wide variety of additional primary sources. It includes forty illustrations and several tables.
Contents
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION TO THE PREFACES
CHAPTER TWO: THE AUTHORS AND THEIR MILIEU
CHAPER THREE: COMPOSITION AND CONTEXT
CHAPTER FOUR: LITERARY DIMENSIONS
CHAPTER FIVE: ART IN HISTORY AND PRACTICE
CHAPTER SIX: LIFTING THE VEIL FROM THE FACE OF DEPICTION: DUST MUHAMMAD'S PREFACE
CHAPTER SEVEN: EPILOGUE
APPENDIX 1. DESCRIPTION, LITERATURE, AND RECENSIONS
APPENDIX 2. PREFACES IN OTHER LITERARY GENRES
APPENDIX 3. MASTER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS
GLOSSARY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
