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Persia. 30 centuries of Art & Culture The history of Persia goes back to the beginning of the first millennium B.C., when Persian tribes began to settle on the Iranian plateau. In the course of thirty centuries, the Persians created a civilization which influenced the development of world culture, although in their own country, alongside their own rulers, foreigners also came to power: Greeks, Arabs, Mongols and Turks. Elements of the culture of these peoples left a noticeable trace in Persian culture, which, nonetheless, succeeded in preserving its own uniqueness. The State Hermitage has an outstandingly rich collection of monuments of Persian art from the most ancient times up to the rule of the Qajar dynasty (1785-1925). From 31 March through 16 September 2007, the Hermitage-Amsterdam exhibition center is holding its seventh exhibition, entitled Persia: thirty centuries of culture and art. This show offers visitors more than 200 display items, including world-renowned samples of Sassanid silver and famous Persian miniatures. This is the first time such a large-scale exhibition of Persian art has ever been organized in The Netherlands. The exhibition opens with the history of the ancient Persian Empire of the Achaemenids (648-330 B.C.). A bas-relief fragment from the capital city of Persepolis is one of the main exhibits of the show. Monumental architecture and art conveyed the might of the Achaemenid dynasty, which borrowed images of the bull, the lion and the griffin from the art of the Babylonian kingdom. We know about the culture and art of the Scythians and Sarmatians, nomadic peoples in the steppes of the Black Sea Littoral, the Northern Caucasus and modern-day Kazakhstan from archeological finds in burial mounds (kurgans). A rich collection of gold items from various periods was gathered in Western Siberia at the behest of Peter the Great. These materials come from various kurgans which were dug up by the local population. Among the finds are items which were made in Iran and brought here after the fall of the Achaemenid dynasty in the 330s B.C. These finds constitute the so-called "Siberian collection of Peter the Great," which, ever since the 1720s, has been kept in St Petersburg. Initially it was in Russia’s first public museum, the Kunstkamer, but in the middle of the 19th century it was moved to the Hermitage. The exhibition displays several samples of Scythian items, for example, a griffin figurine. In the second half of the 4th century B.C., the Achaemenid state was conquered by Alexander the Great. The influence of Hellenistic culture may be traced in the art of Parthia and the Sassanid state. It is especially worth noting Sassanid silver, which often was decorated with scenes of the hunt. Several examples of dishes dating from the 3rd century B.C. are shown in the exhibition. With the adoption of Islam, the language of fine arts in Persia underwent changes. The exhibition presents some of the most valuable objects from this period in the history of Persian art: works of bronze, such as an 11th century A.D. jug in the shape of a rooster and samples of ceramics. One of the main exhibit items is part of a 13th century frieze from the Pir Hussein Mausoleum consisting of 22 tiles. It was only in the beginning of the 20th century that Europeans recognized Persian miniatures to be an especially refined art form. The flowering of this form of art goes back to the 15th-16th centuries, when creation of illustrated manuscripts was the main expression of court art. The Shah, princes and court nobility ordered illustrated manuscripts of the Persian epic Shahnameh (The Book of Kings) by the poet Ferdowsi, Khamse (the Quinary - Five Jewels) by Nizami, as well as the works of other great Persian poets like Khafiz. Beginning in the 16th century, production of miniatures on separate sheets became the main sphere of artistic work by Persian painters. Two halls in the exhibition are devoted to the flowering of Persian art in the 15th - 18th centuries. For example, there are samples of Iranian ceramics. The form of the works and the cobalt painting below the glazing reveal the influence of 15th century Chinese porcelain, which remained the decisive factor in ceramic art right up to the 17th century. The State Hermitage’s collection of ceramics from this period is considered the best in the world. The exhibition also devotes attention to glass. Europeans who traveled around Persia in the 17th - 19th centuries remarked in their diaries about the huge quantity of glass objects. The center of production was the city of Shiraz, the source of vessels for aromatic substances in the shape of swans which were very popular in 19th century Europe. The exhibition presents rare and valuable samples of 16th century textiles. Among them our attention is drawn to velvet and silk depicting a prince and servants in a flowering garden. These, as well as later examples with depictions of people and birds, often reproduce subjects and compositions from Persian miniature painting. Persian ambassadors often included fabrics among the diplomatic gifts. The last section of the exhibition is devoted to the culture and art
of Iran in the period of rule of the Qajar dynasty (1785-1925), when Persian
culture was strongly influenced by Western European art. |
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