Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T04:09:46.798Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Aesthetics of the Calligraphic Works of Mirza Gholamreza Isfahani

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Bahram Bayani
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mirza Gholamreza's status in Persian calligraphy and the artistic quality of his works is well acknowledged both in Iran and abroad. Many of the calligraphic pieces of Mirza Gholamreza (d. 1887) are close in appearance to siahmashq and on the surface can hardly be distinguished from ordinary calligraphic studies, so much so that some critics have come to call him “the siahmashq nevis.” This article is an attempt, to investigate the aesthetics of Mirza Gholamreza's calligraphic art with reference to these so-called siahmashq works. By analyzing some of these works it will be shown that they are not siahmashq, i.e. calligraphic exercises, in the ordinary sense. Far from it, these pieces are perfect examples of high-art, demonstrating Mirza Gholamreza's full understanding as well as ability to use intrinsic plastic features of the nast'aliq form. Mirza's work is therefore the forerunner of what, more than a century later, became a major strain in modern Iranian painting known as naqqashi-khat (script-painting).

Keywords

Mirza GhloamrezacalligraphysiahmashqQajar artdefamiliarization
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , July 2015 , pp. 601 - 609
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 The International Society for Iranian Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article is a revised and extended version of the paper presented to the tenth annual conference of the International Qajar Studies Association held at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, 2010.

References

Aqdashlu, A. Nemuneha‘i az Asar-e Khoshnevisan-e Iran (Majmu'eh-ye Aydin Aqdashlu) dar Negarestan. Tehran, 1345/1966.Google Scholar
Arberry, A. J., trans. The Koran Interpreted. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Anjoman-e Khoshnevisan-e Iran. Moraqqa‘-e rangin. Tehran, Anjoman-e Khoshnevisan-e Iran, 1366/1987.Google Scholar
Bakhtiyar, M. “Bazshenakht-e noskhe‘i nafis dar ketabkhaneyeh daneshkadeyeh adabiyyat-e Mashad.” Majalleyeh daneshkadeyeh elahiyyat va ma'aref-e eslami-e Mashad, no. 33–34 (Autumn and Winter 1375, 1996–97).Google Scholar
Bayani, M. Ahval va asar-e khoshnevisan. 4 vols. Tehran, 1345–58/1966–79.Google Scholar
M, Bayani. Majmu'eyeh doctor Mehdi Bayani. Tehran, Entesharat-e Farhangsara, 1363/1984.Google Scholar
Benjamin, S. G. W. Persia and the Persians. London: John Murray, 1887.Google Scholar
Irani, A. Peydayesh-e khatt va khattatan. Cairo, Chehrenama, 1346/1928.Google Scholar
Mo'ayyeri, Mohammadali. “Yadi az Mirza Gholamreza-ye Khoshnevis.” In ketabnama-ye Iran, compiled by Pahlevan, Changiz, Tehran, Nashr-e Ney, 1366/1987, pp. 318–321.Google Scholar
Qadimi, R. “Khati keh Enteha Nadarad.” The daily: Hamshahri. Tehran, 1379/10/1 (2000/12/21).Google Scholar
Safwat, N. F. The Art of the Pen: The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art. New York: The Nour Foundation in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Schimmel, Anne Marie. “The Art of Calligraphy.” In The Arts of Persia, edited by Ferrier, R. W., 306–314. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Soheili Khansari, Ahmad. Moraqq‘-e Negarestan. Pajang, Tehran, 1369/1990.Google Scholar