Visual Evidence: Portrait of the Safavid Court
This activity corresponds to the "Visual Evidence: Portrait of the Safavid Court" feature in your textbook. The questions below are designed to help you learn more about the topic. Once you have answered the Comprehension questions, submit your answers and move on to the subsequent questions included in the Analysis and Outside Sources sections. Each section is designed to build upon the one before it, taking you progressively deeper into the subject you are studying. After you have answered all of the questions, you will have the option of emailing your responses to your instructor.
Introduction
During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the arts flourished in the great Islamic empires of Western and South Asia. This flowering of Mughal, Ottoman, and Safavid art resulted, in part, from the prosperity these empires enjoyed from domestic and international trade, and in part, from the creative stimuli provided by contact with European artistic traditions. As you read in the “Visual Evidence” feature for Chapter 17 of your textbook, Ali Quli Jabbadar's "Shah Sulayman and his Courtiers" beautifully exemplifies the productive interactions between European and native Iranian techniques in Safavid court painting. The links and questions below will help you to engage with other examples of this rich cultural exchange among Europe and the Islamic empires.
Comprehension
1. To where did Safavid Iranians spread Persian traditions in art, architecture, and literature?
2. What did Safavid artists emphasize in their works?
3. In what tradition did Ali Quli Jabbadar's "Shah Sulayman and his Courtiers" participate?
Analysis
Go to http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/safa_2/hd_safa_2.htm and read more about the arts of Iran during the period covered by Chapter 17 of your textbook. Make sure to click on the images so that you can examine more closely.
1. What are the distinctive features of Iranian textiles of this period? In what ways to they show the influence of the European consumer demand?
2. Compare "Two Lovers" be Riza 'Abbasi with 'Ali Quli Jabbadar's "Shah Sulayman and his Courtiers." In what ways might European art have influenced Abbasi's painting? What strikes you as indigenous Iranian forms and techniques?
3. How do the objects in the online exhibit represent the culture of leisure noted by travelers such as Jean de Chardin and exemplified by 'Ali Quli Jabbadar's "Shah Sulayman and his Courtiers"?
Outside Sources
1. Textile production was one of the major export industries in the great Islamic empires. To learn more about the industry go to http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crpt/hd_crpt.htm. How did Mughal, Ottoman, and Safavid methods of carpet weaving transform during this period? How did international consumer demand influence the development of decorative patterns?
2. The Italian city state of Venice had been an important player in Mediterranean commerce since the medieval period, trading with the various Islamic powers of North Africa, the Middle East, and the Black Sea region. At http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12433888, you can read about how these trade contacts shaped the arts of Venice. What evidence of Islamic influences can you see in the images?
3. At http://web.archive.org/web/20001205104400/http://www.cs.umd.edu/users/kandogan/FTA/Art/Miniature/miniature.html, you can examine several miniatures painted during the reign of the Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent. Compare these with the 'Ali Quli Jabbadar's miniature "Shah Sulayman and his Courtiers." What do you think are the distinctively Turkish and Iranian characteristics of these works? What evidence of European influence can you detect in the Turkish miniatures?