Wandering artists, manuscripts and paintings: the circulation of pictorial models in Iran: state of the question and new perspectives
Online lecture by Dr. Nourane Ben Azzouna | Université de Strasbourg
The question of repetition of compositions and motifs in Islamic and especially Persian illustrated manuscripts has given rise to several studies since the 1970s. These studies have mainly focused on so-called "classical Persian painting", and especially on royal manuscripts made for Timurid and Turkmen patrons in the 15th C. In addition to pointing to the similarities and differences between manuscripts, illustrated cycles and individual paintings, several hypotheses have been put forward to explain these phenomena. This presentation will first offer a historiographical overview of these studies and hypotheses, which range from the circulation of artists, manuscripts and paintings to the mechanical reproduction of paintings, for instance using stencils or collage, to aesthetic notions similar to those known in literary theory such as taqlīd, pāyravī, tatabbuʿ, javāb, naẓīrah, etc. The presentation will also propose new avenues of reflection, for example on the very training of the painter, or on why, despite repetitions, each illustrated manuscript remains unique, notably from the point of view of the selection of illustrated topics and text-image relations.
This lecture is the last of a Webinar series organised by the NoMansLand research project (FWF Y 1232) dedicated to the study of Islamic manuscripts in pre-modern Iran and Central Asia.
Convenor: Project team "Nomads' Manuscripts Landscape"
For a list of all lectures and recordings, please see Webinar series "Pre-modern Islamic manuscripts"