ART OF THE PERSIAN COURTS
Another central feature of the best Persian painting is the art of calligraphy. Many images, the Coronation among them, incorporate calligraphic texts into their compositions; moreover, and perhaps more significant, many of the painters were calligraphers first: their skill of rendering letters with brush strokes of varying length, shape, and thickness was also used, to not wholly different ends, in image making. It is perhaps relevant that among the many outside influences absorbed by Persian art over the years was Chinese painting, brought by the Mongol conquerors; calligraphy is the traditional basis of Chinese art as well.
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One of the most frequently illustrated of Persian texts was the Shahname, a history of kings. This show includes a spectacular Shahname illustration, Zal Is Sighted by a Caravan (c. 1525). At the lower right, a caravan of very precisely delineated animals and human figures contrasts (as the catalog points out) with a spectacular, undulating formation of multicolored rocks filling the left side of the image. These rocks are curved and layered almost like leaves or flowers, and as one gazes at them they begin to seem scary, almost alive; one soon notices that some indeed are alive, fantastically forming human and animal faces. The gold sky is filled with a giant dragonlike bird with two long, multicolored tails: this is a picture as visionary as anything in the Western canon.
