BOOK ARTS OF ISFAHAN: Diversity and Identity in Seventeenth-Century Persia

By Alice Taylor

Published to coincide with an exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum (1995), this book explores the vibrant artistic legacy of the capital city of the Safavid Empire in seventeenth-century Persia. Isfahan was a crossroads of international trade and diplomacy and, consequently, became a kaleidoscope of resident languages and religions. The artists of the city were remarkably responsive to the physical and psychological diversity of its many peoples: Armenians, Uzbeks, Turks, Christians, and Jews. So distinctive was their approach that art historians now acknowledge an Isfahan style.

Book Arts of Isfahan brings together dozens of miniatures, most of them drawn from the collections of the Getty Museum, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. With Alice Taylor's concise and readable text, they provide an excellent overview of the books and manuscripts produced in the Isfahan style.

J. Paul Getty Museum (1995)