The Making of the Artist in Late Timurid Painting

Late Timurid manuscript painting (ca. 1470-1500) used strategies to shift from illustrative to self-reflective, highlighting artists' imagination and manual dexterity. Strategies include visual abundance, linear precision, inscriptions, and signature. The Cairo Bustan, made in late Timurid Herat, is a key example.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 15 August 2024
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

In the absence of a tradition of self-portraiture, how could artists signal their presence within a painting? This book explores the role of pictures in late Timurid manuscript painting (ca. 1470-1500) as a means of centring and defining artistic work, even as they did not represent the artists likeness. Influenced by the culture of the majlis, an institutional gathering devoted to intricate literary performances and debates, late Timurid painters used a number of strategies to shift manuscript painting from an illustrative device to a self-reflective object, designed to highlight the artists imagination and manual dexterity. These strategies include visual abundance, linear precision, the incorporation of inscriptions addressing aspects of the painting and the artists signature. Focusing on one of the most iconic manuscripts of the Persianate tradition, the Cairo Bustan made in late Timurid Herat and bearing the signatures of the painter Bihzad, this book explores Persian manuscript painting as a medium for artistic performance and self-representation, a process by which artistic authority was shaped and discussed.

Dimension: 244 x 172 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474437448