Bihzad, master of Persian painting

by Ebadollah Bahari

Although Kamal al-Din Bihzad (c. 1460-1535) is acknowledged to be the greatest master of Persian painting, there has to date been no comprehensive study of his life and work. Bihzad flourished during the golden age of artistic achievement in the late Teimurid and early Safavid periods, working in Herat and then in Tabriz. This beautifully illustrated book traces the roots of the style developed by Bihzad, its heritage and its legacy in Iran, Mughal India and Ottoman Turkey. Ebadollah Bahari approaches the subject by attempting to relate the paintings to the literary and Sufi themes they portray, thus enabling us to appreciate Bihzad's work in a way that has generally been neglected by Western art historians. In addition, he argues convincingly that Bihzad and his atelier transferred to Tabriz in 1528, considerably later than has been suggested previously. He also offers an important reappraisal of some of Bihzad's pupils, offering new evidence that Shaykh-Zadeh, who continued to work i