Saba Cultural Institute in Tehran, affiliated to the Iranian Academy of Arts (a cultural institution under the auspices of the Presidential Office) has organized a workshop on page illumination (taz’hib in Persian) and traditional designs.
Covering introductory, advanced and complementary courses, the workshop will open on July 7 with an orientation session and includes a total of 17 sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. August 15 will be the closing day of the workshop, according to the Persian website of the academy, Honar.ac.ir.
Illumination artists Ardeshir Mokhtari-Vafer and Meysam Hassankhani will conduct the workshop.
Introductory courses of the workshop will include spiral designs, Khitan style flowers as standalone motifs, various Khitan designs, arabesque designs, and combination of Khitan and arabesque designs.
The Khitan, or Qidan as they are known to the Chinese, were a nomadic people originating in eastern Inner Mongolia. Their art style in illuminating manuscripts has had great influence on the Middle Eastern, Far Eastern and Central Asian artists.
Advance courses of the workshop will include geometrical designs, traditional patterns (including paisley), and layout elements of quarter medallion, toranj medallion, frontispiece and margin.
During the complementary course, participants will be briefed on procedures of page illumination, how they should make their paints and what tools to use.
Taz’hib (gidling) is an Arabic word derived from “zahab” meaning gold. Taz’hib means to draw beautiful patterns of plants or geometrical shapes mainly on the margins of books.
In the early years of the art, golden colors dominated the design. However, now other colors are also used including azure, turquoise, blue, green and vermilion.
In Iran, the art of page illumination goes back to the Sassanid era (224-651 AD). Like painting, illumination has its own historical periods and schools. Seljuk, Bukhara, Timurid, Safavid and Qajar are among the famous styles of illumination.
