{"id":526,"date":"2018-04-27T15:05:24","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T13:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caravanserai.shop\/?p=526"},"modified":"2020-07-12T22:31:55","modified_gmt":"2020-07-12T20:31:55","slug":"a-quick-overview-of-persian-handicrafts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caravanserai.shop\/hr\/a-quick-overview-of-persian-handicrafts\/","title":{"rendered":"A Quick Overview of Persian Handicrafts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The World Handicrafts Council was established by the United Nations Educational, cientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 90 countries have already joined it.<\/p>\n

The World Crafts Council (WCC), affiliated to UNESCO, is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1964 to promote fellowship and foster economic development through income-generating craft-related activities. WCC offers encouragement, help and advice to craftsmen across the world. It is organized into five regions: Africa, Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America and North America. The members of the WCC have marking the World Handicrafts Day (June 10) annually.<\/p>\n

Iran is home to one of the richest art heritages and handicrafts in world history and distinguished in many disciplines, including architecture, painting, weaving, pottery, calligraphy, metalworking and stone masonry.<\/p>\n

Persians were among the first to use mathematics, geometry, and astronomy in architecture and also have extraordinary skills in making massive domes which can be seen frequently in the structure of bazaars and mosques. Iran, besides being home to a large number of art houses and galleries, also holds one of the largest and valuable jewel collections in the world.<\/p>\n

Persian Carpet<\/h3>\n

The art of carpet weaving in Iran dates backs to 2,500 years and is rooted in the culture and customs of its people and their instinctive feelings. Weavers mix elegant patterns with a myriad of colors. The Iranian carpet is similar to the Persian garden: full of florae, birds and beasts. The colors are usually extracted from wild flowers, and are rich in colors such as burgundy, navy blue and accents of ivory.<\/p>\n

The proto-fabric is often washed in tea to soften the texture, giving it a unique quality. Depending on where the rug is made, patterns and designs vary. Some rugs such as Gabbeh, and Kilim have variations in their textures and number of knots as well. Out of about 2 million Iranians involved in the trade, 1.2 million are weavers who produce the largest amount of hand-woven carpets in the world.<\/p>\n

Painting<\/h3>\n

Oriental historian Basil Gray believes \u201cIran has offered a particularly unique art to the world which is excellent in its kind\u201d. Caves in Iran\u2019s Lorestan province exhibit painted imagery of animals and hunting scenes. Those in Fars province and Sialk are at least 5,000 years old. Painting in Iran is thought to have reached a peak during the Tamerlane era when outstanding masters such as Kamaleddin Behzad gave birth to a new style of painting.<\/p>\n

Qajarid paintings, for instance, are a combination of European influences and Safavid miniature schools of painting such as those introduced by Reza Abbasi. Masters such as Kamal-ol-Molk further pushed forward the European influence in Iran. It was during the Qajar era when \u201cTeahouse painting\u201d emerged. Subjects of this style were often religious and nationalist in nature depicting scenes from Shiite history and literary epics like Ferdowsi\u2019s Shahnameh.<\/p>\n

Miniature<\/h3>\n

A Persian miniature is a richly detailed miniature painting which depicts religious or mythological themes from the region of the Middle East now known as Iran. The art of miniature painting in Persia flourished from the 13th through the 16th centuries, and continues to this day, with several contemporary artists producing notable Persian miniatures. These delicate, lush paintings are typically visually stunning, with a level of detail which can only be achieved with a very fine hand and an extremely small brush.<\/p>\n

Persian miniature is a small painting, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works. The techniques are broadly comparable to the Western and Byzantine traditions of miniatures in illuminated manuscripts, which probably had an influence on the origins of the Persian tradition. Although there is an equally well-established Persian tradition of wall painting, the survival rate and state of preservation of miniatures is better, and miniatures are much the best-known form of Persian painting in the West.<\/p>\n

Several features about Persian miniatures stand out. The first is the size and level of detail; many of these paintings are quite small, but they feature rich, complex scenes which can occupy a viewer for hours. Classically, a Persian miniature also features accents in gold and silver leaf, along with a very vivid array of colors. The perspective in a Persian miniature also tends to be very intriguing, with elements overlaid on each other in ways which sometimes feel awkward to people who are accustomed to the look and feel of Western art.<\/p>\n

Pottery and Ceramics<\/h3>\n

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Prominent archaeologist Roman Ghirshman said, \u201cThe taste and talent of these people [Iranians] can be seen through the designs of their earthenware.\u201d Of the thousands of archaeological sites and historical ruins of Iran, almost every one of them can be found to have been filled, at some point, with earthenware of exceptional quality. Thousands of unique vessels alone were found in Sialk and Jiroft sites. The occupation of the potter (kouzehgar) has a special place in Persian literature.<\/p>\n

Calligraphy<\/h3>\n

Persian calligraphy has several styles. The style initiated by Darvish was emulated by his contemporaries\u2013Mirza Hassan Isfahani, Mirza Kouchek Isfahani and Mohammad Ali Shirazi. After his death, the Shekasteh style fell into stagnation until it was revived in the 1970s. Says writer Will Durant: \u201cAncient Iranians, with an alphabet of 36 letters, used skins and pen to write instead of earthen tablets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Such was the creativity spent on the art of writing. The significance of the art of calligraphy in works of pottery, metalwork and historical buildings is such that they are considered deficient without the calligraphic adorning. Illuminations, especially in the Qur\u2019an and works such as Shahnameh, Divan-e Hafez, Golestan and Boustan, are recognized as highly invaluable because of their delicate calligraphy alone.<\/p>\n

Vast quantities of these are scattered and preserved in museums and private collections worldwide such as the Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg and Washington\u2019s Freer Gallery of Art among many others.<\/p>\n

Tilework<\/h3>\n

Tilework is a unique feature of the blue mosques of Isfahan. In the old days, Kashan (kash + an literally means \u201cland of tiles\u201d) and Tabriz were famous centers of Iranian mosaic and tile industry in the past. Since centuries, Iranian art has developed particular patterns to decorate Iranian crafts. These motifs can be:<\/p>\n