Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran

With a few notable exceptions, scholars have historically understudied and often underappreciated the art of Iran in the Qajar era (1779–1925). This catalogue presents a fresh take on the art of the period, setting aside the value judgments that shaped early responses to instead examine the effects and results of new technologies of representation across a variety of mediums. The book foregrounds the inherent relationship and movement among mediums and images, both traditional and new, while deflecting primary attention from royal patronage to more public and widely accessible forms of image-making. In bringing together four principal art forms—lacquer, painting and drawing on paper, lithography, and photography—the authors explore the separate and intertwined histories of these mediums, their contexts of production, and their means of dissemination across sectors of society ranging from the courtly elite to the citizenry at large. The book considers how the breadth of mediums and subject matters evidenced by these objects could be matched only by the diverse formats through which images were embodied and circulated in the world. Indeed, unlike their European contemporaries, Qajar artists and patrons were not concerned about systems of image duplication and translation—a key aspect this book takes up in its effort to approach Qajar art on its own terms, not as a lesser manifestation of Western ideals. This catalogue accompanies the exhibition Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, on view at the Harvard Art Museums from August 26, 2017 through January 7, 2018. David J. Roxburgh is the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History and Chair of the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University; Mary McWilliams is the Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art at the Harvard Art Museums; Farshid Emami is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University; Mira Xenia Schwerda is a Ph.D. candidate in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University.

Harvard’s Qajar Album—57 folios, with nearly 150 drawings, paintings, prints, and embossed works—is a remarkably wide-ranging collection of human, animal, and floral studies; narrative compositions inspired by Persian classic literature and historical subjects; religious themes; and portraits of rulers and heroes. Because these types of works were originally created as technical materials for artists to use in their daily work, most have been lost over time as a result of repeated use and subsequent damage or disposal. This publication offers a rare opportunity not only to appreciate the ingenuity of the individual works, but also to gain a better understanding of the entire system of artistic production and exchange in 19th-century Iran. The book unites 12 essays with a beautiful full-size facsimile of the complete album. From the necessarily global story of how the album came to be housed at the Harvard Art Museums—spanning Iran, Germany, England, and the United States—to the in-depth examination of individual themes and techniques, the publication exposes a rich network of artistic influence, exchange, and innovation. In doing so, it calls on us to question what has been left out of the dominant histories of art and to consider possible alternative definitions of what can be thought of as “modern.” The related exhibition, Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, is on view at the Harvard Art Museums from August 26, 2017 through January 7, 2018. David J. Roxburgh is the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History and Chair of the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University.

Over her lifetime, Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913–2014) assembled an exemplary collection of Persian art, including several hundred outstanding examples of lacquerware. Most of the intricately designed book covers, mirror cases, and pen cases, published here for the first time, date from the Qajar era (1785–1925). As a respected collector of Persian art, Mrs. Soudavar appreciated these lacquerworks for both their artistic quality and historical value. As a connoisseur of calligraphy and well versed in the art of penmanship, she cherished the pen cases and boxes for their association with her personal skill and enjoyment of the art of writing. Abolala Soudavar generously offered his mother’s collection of Persian lacquerware as a gift to the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and to the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C. The catalogue opens with an overview of Mrs. Soudavar’s remarkable life in Iran and her interest in the arts. Other essays address the history and work of major lacquer artists of the Qajar era as well as the materials and techniques of Persian lacquerwork. Twenty highlights from the collection and a fully illustrated checklist complete this introduction to one of the world’s foremost collections of Persian lacquer. This publication complements the exhibition Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, on view at the Harvard Art Museums from August 26, 2017 through January 7, 2018. Farshid Emami is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University; Katherine Eremin is the Patricia Cornwell Senior Conservation Scientist in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums; Massumeh Farhad is Chief Curator and the Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art at the Freer│Sackler; Claire Grech served as the Australian Conservation Science Fellow in the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums; Bronwen Gulkis is a doctoral candidate in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University; Mary McWilliams is the Norma Jean Calderwood Curator of Islamic and Later Indian Art at the Harvard Art Museums; Simon Rettig is Assistant Curator of Islamic Art at the Freer│Sackler; Abolala Soudavar and Fatema Soudavar Farmanfarmaian are independent scholars.