Lecture: Picturing Power and Poetics - Persian Miniatures from Timurid Herat to Safavid Isfahan

What is Persian painting, and how does it relate to us in the current age? This online talk offers a focused art-historical introduction to Persian miniature painting. We will begin the journey with the definition of the genre, considering the scale, craftsmanship, and visual analysis of miniature imagery. We then explore the manuscripts within Safavid court culture, the treatment of illuminated books as luxury commodities and instruments of political representation, along with the evolution of Persian Miniature Schools and the emergence of shifting styles for distinct provincial expressions. Finally, we will examine the pictorial space between Persian and Western examples and consider the miniatures’ poetic and conceptual strategies in representing human experience. Lecturer Biography Fatima Zahra Hassan is a visual artist, miniature painter, educator, and researcher whose work revolves around the rich artistic traditions of the Islamic world and South Asia. She studied at the National College of Arts in Lahore before continuing her education at the Royal College of Art in London, where she completed her MA with distinction. Fatima Zahra is regarded as a pioneer in introducing and promoting the practice of Indian, Mughal, and Persian miniature painting in the United Kingdom. Her work reflects a deep engagement with the practical and intellectual traditions of Islamic art, with a particular focus on the art of the book from South Asia and Iran.