The intellectual and scientific efforts of the three most distinguished sages of Isfahan, i.e. Mirdamad, Mirfendereski, and Sheikh Bahaei, resulted in the formation of the Isfahan School, a cultural school, which caused revolutions in various fields of science, art, architecture, and literature.
With the transfer of the country’s capital to Isfahan, the art of the city began to flourish, and many researchers believe that its pinnacle may be observed in the art of Persian painting, i.e. negargari or Persian miniature.
The Transfer of the Capital to Isfahan
With the transfer of the Safavid dynasty’s capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, the lifestyle of Isfahani people underwent enormous changes.
Shah Abbas I chose Isfahan as the seat of his government, and this resulted in the concentration of economic and artistic potential in the city.
At the time, the construction of palaces and government buildings accelerated, and this led to the prosperity of artistic works, including painting.
As a result, negargari or painting in Iranian style underwent significant transformation in this period, whose influence showed itself in different aspects of content, colour, volume, and size.
Persian Painting, More Popular Than Ever!
Although works of painting in history were usually directed towards palaces and a limited number of governmental books, with the growth of negargari in Isfahan, these works became increasingly social and popular.
During this period, lots of creations centred on life and romantic concepts, and these works were welcomed by the general public.
People respected the painters, and Shah Abbas also put them in the same category as his courtiers, in terms of financial matters.
During this period, paintings became more realistic as well; thus, their believability increased, and they could exert more influence on different groups of people with any level of literacy and knowledge.
Symbolism in Isfahan Painting
Many people know the Isfahan School by the name “Reza Abbasi.” He laid the groundwork for important transformations in the art of Isfahan, e.g. mural painting.
Abbasi did not limit painting to book design and led it towards large dimensions and huge murals. Moreover, he turned to painting on tiles, which is stylistically different from his other creations.
His works have long been subjected to scrutiny in terms of both technical and thematic features, and researchers have analysed several symbols prevalent in Isfahan painting, based on his creations.
In what follows, we will have a brief review of some of these symbols.
Hunter, the Symbol of Ascension
In Persian painting, a hunter, who is usually shooting an arrow with his bow, is the symbol of reaching a significant goal and, in the context of self-knowledge, signals reaching perfection and overcoming flaws and deficiencies.
For instance, Reza Abbasi has a painting known as “Mounted Hunter,” in which a man on a horse has hunted a mountain goat.
It is worth noting that “mountain goat” in Abbasi’s paintings conveys fall and lowliness; thus, the aforementioned painting expresses man’s victory over inferiorities and his readiness for ascension.
Another subtle point in Abbasi’s Mounted Hunter is that it lacks colouring, except for the hunter’s collar, which is painted blue.
Researchers believe that the blue colour of the characters’ collars in Isfahan painting is in fact an emphasis on their spectacularity.
Tree and Branch, Birth and Death
One of the characteristics of Isfahan painting is the use of nature. Isfahan, because of its richness of water resources and proliferation of old and mighty trees, had special natural landscapes in its paintings.
In the Isfahan School of Painting, trees and their branches symbolize development and the stages of life.
For instance, in the paintings “Hatim Tai’s Tomb,” “Timur and the Ant,” “Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni and the Hermit,” and “the Dervish and the Young Man,” the tree element is used to represent the concept of life stages.
Moreover, cut branches in the hands of characters are a symbol of the end of life cycle.
The confrontation of symbols reaches its peak in the painting “the Dervish and the Young Man,” in which Reza Abbasi depicts an old man holding a cut branch in his left hand, while there is also a young man leaning on a tree.
Daffodil, the Symbol of True Love!
What distinguishes the style of painting in the Isfahan School is the existence of concepts of Islamic mysticism and lyric literature.
One of the romantic elements in Islamic mysticism is the daffodil. This flower symbolizes divine love and man’s inclination for closeness to God.
In the painting “the Dervish and the Young Man,” the old man holds a daffodil in his right hand, which represents the concept of sublime love.
The daffodil in Isfahan painting is in contrast to the wine, which symbolizes the love of material world and its unattainable dreams.
In the painting “the Dervish and the Young Man,” this contrast is beautifully displayed, and you can see a cup of wine in the young man’s right hand.
In fact, the daffodil is a symbol of the spiritual world, and the wine is a symbol of this physical world, which has a meaning of lowliness and mortality.
A Display of Economic Prosperity
The growth of painting in Isfahan was one of the achievements of transferring the Safavid capital to the city.
An analysis of the concepts used in these paintings shows that, during that period, the people of Isfahan improved their living conditions to some extent, and natural blessings and agricultural and artistic products also helped them in this way; thus, in the paintings of Isfahan style, the tree trunks became more massive, the gardens and flowers more vibrant, and the faces and figures plumper and fatter.
Moreover, in these paintings, the clothes of people have an air of aristocracy, and the men wear turbans decorated with feathers and flowers.
Another interesting point is the change in the colouring of the paintings so that most paintings moved towards more royal colours, such as yellow, golden, purple, and brown.
These changes happened despite the fact that, prior to the formation of the Isfahan School, the paintings contained skinny figures, thin faces, and more normal clothes as the Safavid government had not yet reached the desired economic and social status.
The Decline of Negargari in Isfahan
Apart from various other artistic and conceptual transformations, the style of painting underwent some changes due to the cultural exchange with Europeans as well.
For instance, after a while, “portrait painting” was added to the works of this period, and the frequency of the figures in the paintings became somewhat outdated.
Moreover, people’s faces, beards, and hair in the paintings became more realistic, and expensive colours, which were previously rare, were used for painting.
Of course, none of these changes resulted in the decline of Isfahan painting, but the excessive exertion of such innovations by the next generation of painters lead to the replacement of this art’s deep concepts by the qualities of imported styles; concepts that were followed by Reza Abbasi and other great artists of that period.
It is noteworthy that the pinnacle of Isfahan painting was reached through the efforts of grandees like Reza Abbasi, Shafi’ Abbasi, Moein Mosavar, Mohammad-Yousef, Mohammad-Qasem, Mohammad-Ali, Aqa Reza Heravi, and Aqa Reza Mosavar.
Eventually, with the weakening of the Safavid government and the beginning of subsequent wars, Isfahan painting also began facing temporary challenges.
Isfahan, the Capital of Painting
Years after the peak period of painting in Isfahan, the city still serves as a centre for this field.
Eisa Bahadori was a renowned artist, who emigrated to Isfahan because of his interest in the city’s history of art.
Bahadori laid the groundwork for the rise of other great masters, such as Mahmoud Farshchian, Javad Rostam-Shirazi, Amir-Houshang Jazizadeh, etc.
Earlier than these masters, Mirza-Aqa Emami was also considered as one of the followers of the Isfahan School of Painting.
Mahmoud Farshchian is also known as one of the eminent figures of painting in the world, who revived this historic field by combining traditional and modern schools of painting.
His works have been exhibited in many cities of the world, including Paris, New York, and Chicago.
“The Evening of Ashura,” “the Guarantor of the Deer,” “the Prophet Abraham,” “the Fifth Day of Creation,” “Ali’s Tending of the Orphans,” and “Shams and Rumi” are among Farshchian’s most famous paintings.
He also had the honour of designing and decorating the holy shrines and tombs of the Imams.
Another great painter of our time in Isfahan is Reza Badrosama, who has also been awarded the country’s First Class Honour in Arts.
