TABRIZ SCHOOL

in painting, school of miniaturists founded by the Mongol Il-Khans early in the 14th century and active through the first half of the 16th century. The style represented the first full penetration of East Asian traditions into Islamic painting, an influence that was extreme at first but then blended with the native idiom. The early works of the Tabriz school were characterized by light, feathery brushstrokes, gentle rather than bright Persian colouring, and an attempt to create the illusion of spatiality. An example is a painting (dated 133040) from the Persian poet Ferdowsi's epic Shah-nameh (Book of Kings) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The illustration of the funeral of the ruler Esfandeyar conveys a degree of pathos unequaled in Persian art. Space and depth are suggested by the placement of the large number of figures on various levels, one above the other, a technique brought to Central Asia by the Mongols. A later illustration of the same text (1380) in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Mass., shows a maturing of the Tabriz school. It is a scene of the Sasanian prince Bahram Gur after having killed a wolf, done in brilliant hues reminiscent of Mesopotamian painting. The attempt to create three dimensions is highly successful, as is the combination of ceremonial symbolism and realistic detail. The Tabriz school reached its apogee just as the Il-Khans were being vanquished by the Timurids (13701506), the dynasty of the Islamic conqueror Timur. The school continued to be active in this period, though it was overshadowed by the workshops in Shiraz and Herat (see Shiraz school; Herat school). When the Safavids came to power at the beginning of the 16th century, however, the ruler Shah Esma'il brought the master of the Herat school, Behzad, to Tabriz, and the school was revived with a radical change in style. The figures were individuals rather than types, and the colours were graded in marvelously subtle shades. Following the removal of the Safavid court from Tabriz, the school began to decline, and the Kazvin and Esfahan schools (see Esfahan school) then became the centres of painting in Iran.