Table of Contents

  • ART IN IRAN

    Multiple Authors

    The history of art in Iran and Iranian lands.

  • ART IN IRAN i. NEOLITHIC TO MEDIAN

    E. Porada

    An important element of the art of Iran is the presence of composite beings. One type, here called demon, is a combination of man and animal walking on two legs. An example is the demon with the head of a mountain goat or a moufflon.

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  • ART IN IRAN ii. Median Art and Architecture

    P. Calmeyer

    We know that Medes were mentioned in neo Assyrian annals from the year 836 B.C. onwards; as late as in King Esarhaddon’s vassal treaties (672 B.C.) they are represented by petty princes: central kingship had not yet been established, the foundation of which was later ascribed to the legendary judge, Deïokes.

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  • ART IN IRAN iii. Achaemenid Art and Architecture

    P. Calmeyer

    No work of architecture or art can be attributed with certainty to an Achaemenid earlier than Cyrus the Great. Only a cylinder seal, now lost, but several times used on later bullae at Persepolis, can possibly have belonged to an older member of the family.

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  • ART IN IRAN iv. PARTHIAN Art

    S. B. Downey

    monuments generally included in discussions of Parthian art come from the periphery of the Parthian world—Syria, Mesopotamia, the edges of the Iranian plateau.

  • ART IN IRAN v. SASANIAN ART

    P. O. Harper

    There are major remains of many different types: monumental rock reliefs, silver vessels, stucco architectural decoration, and seals.

  • ART IN IRAN vi. PRE-ISLAMIC EASTERN IRAN AND CENTRAL ASIA

    G. Azarpay

    Monumental works of art of the pre-Islamic age are there evidenced only from the early medieval period that corresponds with the Parthian and Sasanian dynasties in Iran.

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  • ART IN IRAN vii. ISLAMIC PRE-SAFAVID

    P. Soucek

    Of especial importance for the development of art in Islamic Iran was the cultural and artistic legacy of the immediate past.

  • ART IN IRAN viii. ISLAMIC CENTRAL ASIA

    G. A. Pugachenkova

    Under Islam the sculpture and mural painting previously displayed in Central Asia almost completely disappeared, and ornament took pride of place.

  • ART IN IRAN ix. SAFAVID To Qajar Periods

    A. Welch

    The arts of the Safavid period show a far more unitary development than in any other period of Iranian art.