Iranian Art and Architecture

A

2

Sassanian Period

A great renaissance in architecture took place under the Sassanid dynasty, which ruled Persia from 224 until 651. Construction was radically different from that of the Achaemenian period. Walls were built of burnt brick or small stones bound with mortar; barrel vaults of brick were used to span rooms and corridors; and domes were erected over the large halls. The principal features of the plan of the palaces at Persepolis were adopted, but the various rooms were enclosed within a single building. Thus, the same building incorporated a public audience hall, a smaller private audience hall, and a complex of lesser rooms. Remains of the major monuments of Sassanian architecture include the ruins of domed palaces at Firuzabad, Girra, and Sarvestan, and the vast vaulted hall at Ctesiphon. The large site of Bishapur was systematically excavated in the mid-20th century by the Archaeological Service of Iran. Palace sites have also been excavated at Qais, Hira, and Damghan. Other ruins include bridges at Dizful and Shushtar and a number of small temples built at various locales for the Zoroastrian worship of fire.

B

Sculpture

In the first great period of Persian art, during the reign of the Achaemenids, sculpture was practiced on a monumental scale. About 515 bc, Darius I had a vast relief and inscription carved on a cliff at Behistun. The relief shows him triumphing over his enemies as Ahura Mazda, the chief Zoroastrian deity, looks on. The carving was derived in plan and detail from Assyrian models, but the naturalistic treatment of the drapery and the eyes was original.

At Persepolis, sculpture was an important adjunct to the architecture. In addition to the sculptured animal capitals on the columns, which were a dominant feature of the interiors of the buildings, friezes representing lions were set on the exterior cornices. Doorjambs were carved with reliefs of the king, and staircases were decorated with friezes of royal guards and tribute bearers carved in low relief. The main gateway to the city was flanked by a pair of huge bulls with human heads, carved in high relief.

The decoration of the palace at Sūsa consisted of stone reliefs in the style of those at Persepolis, and panels of bricks glazed blue, green, white, and yellow. The use of glazed bricks continued a tradition that was first established in Assyria and Babylonia. The glazed-brick panels at Sūsa portrayed soldiers, winged bulls, sphinxes, and griffins. The best known of these panels make up the Frieze of Archers (Louvre, Paris). Achaemenian sculpture in relief is further exemplified at Naqshah Rostam, where four royal tombs were hewn out of the rock. At each tomb the face of the cliff was carved to represent the facade of a palace; above the palace, figures support a dais on which the king stands worshiping the gods.

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After the conquest of Persia by Alexander the Great, Greek influence, in its late, Hellenistic phase, was predominant in the arts of Persia. Examples include fragments of bronze sculpture found at Shami, and the Parthian sculptural reliefs at Behistun. The second great period of Persian art began, as noted, with the reign of the Sassanid dynasty in ad 224. A single example of sculpture in the round has survived from this period: a colossal standing figure of a king near Bishapur. A few statuettes have also survived, but the characteristic sculptural work, as in Achaemenian times, was the relief cut in rock. The best-known examples are colossal reliefs at Naqshah Rostam portraying the Persian kings Ardashir I and Shapur I (reigned 241-72) mounted on horses. A similar equestrian relief at Taq-i-Bustan represents another Persian king of this dynasty, Khosrau II. Following the Sassanian period, sculpture ceased to exist as a major art.

C

Pottery, Metalwork, and Weaving

The earliest examples of Persian decorative arts date from the late 7th millennium bc and consist of animal and human female figures fashioned in clay. The female figurines, found at Tepe Sarab near Kermānshāh (Bākhtarān), are complex objects made of many small pieces fitted together on small dowels. The thighs and breasts of the figures are exaggerated, and the heads are reduced to small pegs. In contrast to the highly stylized and abstracted human figures are quantities of animal figurines done in an extremely natural style.

The second great development in prehistoric art occurred during the 4th millennium, when a variety of painted pottery styles appeared on the plateau. The vessels are usually red or buff in color and are covered with animal figures, often goats, painted in black. The pottery was found alongside small objects such as stamp seals and small instruments of copper including pins and chisels. During the 3rd millennium, burnished gray pottery was manufactured in northeastern Persia along with a great amount of cast copper objects such as axes, decorated pins, figurines, and the like. Painted pottery continued to be made in other parts of the country except in northern Iranian provinces of Azerbaijan, where black and gray burnished wares appeared, decorated in many instances with geometric patterns incised into the surface and then filled with a white paste. About 1300 bc gray burnished pottery appeared over the whole of the north, perhaps originating in the northeast, and probably associated with the spreading Indo-Iranian tribes. About 800 bc painting again revived, with geometric patterns, animals, and human figures represented.

Beginning at the end of the 2nd millennium and continuing to the middle of the 1st millennium a great florescence of bronze casting occurred along the southern Caspian mountain zone and in Lorestān. Harness trappings, horse bits, axes, and votive objects were made in large quantities and reflected a complex animal style created by combining parts of animals and fantastic creatures in various forms.

Luxurious works of decorative art were produced during the Achaemenian period, including ornaments and vessels of gold and silver, stone vases, and engraved gems. A collection of these objects, called the Treasure of the Oxus, is exhibited at the British Museum, London. Sassanian metalwork was highly developed, the most usual objects being shallow silver cups and large bronze ewers, engraved and worked in repoussé. The commonest themes were court scenes, hunters, animals, birds, and stylized plants. The largest collection of these vessels is in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; other examples are in museums in Paris, London, and New York City.

Silk weaving was a flourishing industry under the Sassanid dynasty. The designs, consisting of symmetrical animal, plant, and hunter patterns framed in medallions, were imitated throughout the Middle East and also in medieval Europe. Even after the Arab conquest, Sassanian silks and metalware continued to be manufactured, and Sassanian designs strongly influenced artists in Byzantium to the west and as far as Eastern Turkistan to the east.

III

Islamic Period

After the conquest of Persia by the Arabs in 641, Iran became part of the Islamic world. Iranian artists adjusted to the needs of Arabic Islamic culture, which was in turn influenced by Iranian traditions. Architecture continued to be a major art form, but because Islamic tradition condemned the three-dimensional representation of living things as idolatrous (at least in a religious context; see Islamic Art and Architecture), sculpture declined. Painting, on the other hand, not affected by proscription of the human form, reached new prominence, and the decorative arts, too, continued to thrive.

A

Architecture

The mosque became the major building type in Iranian architecture. The established style of vaulted construction was continued; common features were the pointed arch, the ogee arch, and the dome on a circular drum. Outstanding examples of early Islamic Iranian architecture include the Mosque of Baghdād built in 764, the Great Mosque at Samarra erected in 847, and the early 10th-century mosque at Nayin. The Mongols destroyed much of the early Islamic architecture in Iran, but after their conquest of Baghdād in 1258, building was resumed according to Iranian traditions. Subsequently, a number of the most notable buildings in the history of Iranian architecture were erected. They include the Great Mosque at Veramin, built in 1322; the Mosque of the Imam Reza at Meshad-i-Murghab, erected in 1418; and the Blue Mosque at Tabrīz. Other major structures include the mausoleums of the Turkic conqueror Tamerlane and his family at Samarqand, the Royal Mosque at Meshad-i-Murghab, and the vast madrasas, or mosque schools, at Samarqand, all of them erected during the 15th century.

Under the Safavid dynasty (1501-1722), a vast number of mosques, palaces, tombs, and other structures were built. Common features in the mosques were onion-shaped domes on drums, barrel-vaulted porches, and pairs of towering minarets. A striking decoration was the corbel, a projection of stone or wood from the face of a wall, used in rows and tiers. These corbels, arranged to appear as series of intersecting miniature arches, are usually called stalactite corbels. Color was an important part of the architecture of this period, and the surfaces of the buildings were covered with ceramic tiles in glowing blue, green, yellow, and red. The most notable Safavid buildings were constructed at Eşfahān (Isfahan), the capital at that period. The city, laid out in broad avenues, gardens, and canals, contained palaces, mosques, baths, bazaars, and caravansaries.

Since the 18th century, the architectural styles of western Europe have been adopted to an increasing degree in Iran. At the same time, traditional forms have remained vital, and native and imported elements have often been combined in the same building. Recently, unadorned steel and concrete structures, similar to those seen in other parts of the modern world, have been built as dwellings, public buildings, and factories.

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