Persian Painting

Persian Painting

Painting in Iran dates back to those prehistoric times when the first inhabitants of the plateau recorded their observations of the world around them on the walls of their cave –dwellings or on pottery, some specimens of which survive to this day. A study of these early drawings reveals similarities with specimens of primitive art found else where, but one also finds a number of characteristics that are unique.

Persian painting, with its freedom of action, its boundless imaginativeness, its softly moving lines and its brilliant colours, allows the artist to create works of great beauty by expressing his true feelings with a skill, which his hands and his fingers have acquired over many years of God Almighty’s primeval and eternal qualities of perfection, is present in all elements of Persian painting, from the overall composition down to the last details. By drawing upon beauty, the Persian artist has been able to convey his intellectual precepts and his ideas to the viewer in a pleasing manner, so that the latter feels at home in the atmosphere which is created by the artist with his findings.

Geometric perspective gives a material aspect to a work of art, creating an effect of precise observation; it was deliberately shunned by the persian painters who was not bothered with the question of distances; he felt that perspective would compress his shapes and forms together, whereas he wanted to portray every object in its prime and to show every episode at its climax, at that breathtaking moment before the final act. Thus the Persian painter concluded that he should forget about the real side of nature, and concentrate instead on the metaphysical; he should paint the truth behind the objects and not their superficial appearances. By relying on philosophical and spiritual to his work.