Historical and Scientific Analysis of Iranian Illuminated Manuscripts And
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Mandana Barkeshli1 The objective of the present research was to identify the materials Historical and Scientific and techniques used in Persian Analysis of Iranian illuminated manuscripts and Illuminated Manuscripts miniature paintings and its major 2 significance compared to Indo- and Miniature Paintings Iranian and Mughal paintings. The research methodology was based on three approaches. The first consiste of a series of interviews carried out with the artists from Iran and India. The traditional Iranian masters such as: Saniʿei, Jazizadeh, Takestani, Harati were among these artists. The second method was historical analysis, by collecting the Persian historical documents and treatises on the recipes and techniques from Timurid, Safavid, and Qajar periods. During the historical survey the historic documents, including over 30 historical treatises (such as Golzār-e safā, Ādāb ol-mashq, Resāle dar bayān-e khatt-e morakkab va hall-e alvān, Favāyed ol-khotut), were collected and studied.3 These sources are related to the materials used in the art of bookmaking and painting from the Timurid to the Qajar period, such as different techniques of making dyes for paper colouring, pigments and dyes used as paint, binding mediums, sizing materials, burnishing techniques, and so on. All the recipes were The present study aims to identify the materials and techniques used in Persian collected and categorized and the illuminated manuscripts and miniature information was used as the basis paintings and its major significance in comparison with Indo-Iranian and Mughal for our scientific analysis. Historical paintings. The research methodology was data on techniques was collected for based on oral interviews with traditional the most commonly recommended masters, historical analysis and scientific analysis. dyes, sizing materials, pigments, etc. During the historical survey over 30 that may have had a major role in Persian historical treatises from the fifteenth the stability of the Persian paintings to the nineteenth centuries (i.e. from the as a case study for further analytical Golestān-e Honar 16, summer 2009 Timurid through to the Qajar period) were collected and studied. All the recipes research. from these treatises were categorized and the information was used as the basis for Finally, the third technique was scientific analysis. the scientific analysis from original Scientific analysis to reveal the materials samplesselected from Irān-e Bāstān used in different paint layers of Persian miniature paintings was carried out. For Museum, private collectors and this task, twelve selected illuminated traditional artists. The Safavid manuscripts, miniature paintings and paint miniature paintings in the Irān-e boxes from the sixteenth to late nineteenth century were collected. For comparative Bāstān Museum collection, primarily analytical research, an Indo-Iranian from Iran and India, include a miniature painting, as well as two paintings wide range of dates and styles. A belonging to the Mughal period were also collected and added to the samples as the representative selection of paintings 8 references. was chosen for analysis of the materials used in these paintings. background. Three years later, One Indo-Iranian painting and one a scholarly work by Elisabeth Mughal painting from tenth and West FitzHugh entitled “Study eleventh century AH/ sixteenth of pigments on selected paintings and seventeenth century AD were from the Vever collection” appears selected. Different types of pigments in An Annotated and Illustrated were also collected from traditional Checklist of the Vever collection.6 artists for analytical identification. In this work, she has undertaken a Samples of the paints and pigments scientific comparative pigment study were also collected from a beautiful of miniature paintings originating artistic illuminated paint box from Egypt, India, Iran, and Iraq. belonging to Safavid period (tenth Six years later a work by Yves Porter century AH/ sixteenth century AD) entitled Painters, Paintings and Books for scientific comparative study. was published.7 It is a study of the The materials used in the Indo-Persian technical literature paintings including paper fibre, from the twelfth to the nineteenth sizing materials, ground layer century which treats the materials and pigments were analysed for used in Persian paintings based on materials identification. All the some of the Persian recipes; however colours were sampled from each the sources originated mostly from painting and paint palette under India. Scattered works, some of study. A complete record of the which are quite significant, were paper fibre, sizing materials, published in Iran, India, Pakistan, presence of ground layer and its and Turkey, and elsewhere. They nature, and pigment identification provide us with some information has been provided in Table 2-5. relating to the subject. However, It also indicates the identification most of these works emphasise the methods used in each case. pigments and dyes used in different forms of art such as wall paintings, Study Background Review fabric paintings, oil paintings and the Indian and Persian paintings occupy like. “Examination and Analysis of an important place in the realm of Wall Paintings” and “Identification Asian Art. In this regard, numerous of Natural Red Dyes in Old articles have been published, books Indian Textiles” by O. P. Agrawal; were compiled and attractive albums “Scientific Investigations of materials and reproductions were prepared by Used in the 14th and 15th Century museums and art centres and so on. Cloth Paintings” by B. N. Tandon; A quick glance over the bulk of these “Conservation, Technical Studies sources reveals that the majority of of Scroll Paintings” by A. R. Shah; them have been put together from “Conservation of Indian Miniature an art historian’s point of view. Few Paintings, Prints and Water Colours” sources mentioned have touched on by S. Subbaraman; and many other the areas of painting techniques and works are among scholarly efforts the materials used. in the field of pigments, dyes and There are very few serious works conservation of the works of art.8 on the materials used in Persian Some scholars did extensive Historical and Scientific Analysis ... and Indian miniatures. The earliest research and laboratory work work that I have come across during on specific pigments. Although my survey was published by A. P. such works have a background Laurie in 1935.4 The references and in pure chemistry, the results sources are somewhat neglected are valuable when it comes to until 1980s. “A technical analysis the interdisciplinary field of of Indian painting materials” in conservation which requires as 1985, is a work that appears after a much artistic and aesthetic sense gap of almost forty years.5 As can as it needs the support and minute be expected, this work emerges scientific approach. Gettens, Khun, from a more scientific and technical Plesters, FitzHugh, Schweppe, 9 Fig. 1. (left) Indo-Iranian miniature painting, 16th Century AD, Irān-e Bāstān Museum, checklist no. 4555 Fig. 2. (right) Mughal miniature painting, 17th century AD, Irān-e Bāstān Museum, checklist no. 4535 and Winterare the figures whom article to give them the attention that we come across more than once, they deserve. while going through the published The preparation of support layers sources on the scientific studies of has been discussed in these sources pigments.9 The present study is in different subjects such as: paper based on oral traditional knowledge, making (kāghaz sāzi), dying paper historical literature of the fifteenth (gune kardan), sizing (āhār zadan) and to nineteenth centuries Persian and burnishing (mohre kardan). These Indian treatises as well as laboratory topics have already been analysed works from original samples. historically and scientifically by the author and are published in 10 Oral and Historical Analysis international journals. A variety of supports mentioned Review in these oral and historical sources During the first and second stages, have already been identified and the oral interviews with the Iranian documented by the author. Briefly traditional masters and the historical the supports that can be found in survey from historical recipes, these two sources are: card board Golestān-e Honar 16, summer 2009 the author collected valuable oral (moqavvā), decorated papers (marble information, historical documents paper, abri paper), ground works and a number of treatises relating such as gold (bum-e talā), silver to the recipes for materials used in (noghre-push), gold powdered (bum-e the art of the book and miniature zarnegar, zarafshān), green verdigris painting that were documented (bum-e zangāri), marcasite (bum-e during the Timurid, Safavid and marghash) and gold marcasite (bum-e Qajar periods. The author has only zarak). included a small number of these Preparation of the paint layer references within the present paper and the variety of pigments and since this group of sources and dyes have also been discussed and 10 references would require an entire documented by the author based Fig. 3. (left) Safavid miniature painting, 16th century AD, private collection of M. Atiqi, checklist no.13 Fig. 4. (right, up) Safavid illuminated manuscript, 16th century AD, private collection of M. Atiqi, checklist no. 19 Fig. 5. (right, down) Safavid paint box, 16th century AD, private collection of M. Tavoosi, checklist no. 21 entirely on the oral and historical sources. The paint layer can be