Tehran School of Painting Its Origins and Achievements up to the Late Century

The Iranian visual arts, in a general view, can be divided into two groups. The first group follows the world's important artistic trends; and the second group, having different spectrums, is to preserve and promote the rich heritage of Iranian art. In the case of the first group, one should take a comprehensive approach to the history of the world art and examine its relationship with tradition and modernism. In the second case, the focus of the present article, the establishment of the Tehran School of Ancient Crafts should be considered as the foundation of the Iranian contemporary painting. The close analysis of the thought lines of the second group can be enlightening in the study of the current status of the traditional Iranian art.
In the history of world painting, unique characteristics are attributed to the aesthetics of the Iranian art. In its structure and style, the employment of rich colours and the special concept of space indicate a different worldview among the Iranian painters. They conceived of the shape and form of their paintings in accordance with their subject matters. By examining many similar topics that have been used in various schools of painting over several centuries, differences in the form and even in the content of the paintings can be detected. The works of Sultan Muhammad based on the stories from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and also the paintings of Kamal al-din Behzad on the story of "Yusuf and Zulikha" are significant examples. These painters due to their genius proved successful in establishing a creative relationship between form and content. Such achievement was the result of several centuries of effort and artistic experience, which finally reached its peak at the beginning of the Safavid era when Tabriz was the capital city of Iran.
The historical status of the Safavids played a vital role in the formation of the painting schools. At that time, politically and culturally, Iran was caught in a deadlock. As the Ottomans were threatening the northwest borders of Iran, the government was forced to move the capital city from Tabriz to Qazvin and then to Isfahan. The transference of the capital city to Isfahan brought forth efficient connections between Iran and the European countries. The communication with the Dutch and Orange tradesmen, politicians, and artists provided more fitting grounds for cultural communication with the West. Even Shah Abbas the Safavid (1571-1629) invited the western painters to paint and decorate his court. In such a historical context, traditional calligraphy had fallen from prosperity and the court did not support artists who practiced it. These factors caused the growth and development of patchwork and the prosperity of single-leaf paintings and patterns. The painters freed from the court restrictions, got able to deal with everyday issues and the common people in their works. The new paintings expressed a different aspect of the multi-cultural and ethnic society of Isfahan which was evolved by the migration of Turks, Armenians, Circassians, and Georgians, and also by the commotion of the Europeans presenting their cultural gifts.
Reza Abbasi was an influential artist of that era who, with a different approach to the events of his time, depicted everyday life and recorded the delicate details of history. He portrayed the human body and costumes in a precise and calculated style, using minimal lines and curves, with the visual delicacies of Nastaliq calligraphy. Using the possibilities of Nastaliq in an innovative style, he amalgamated calligraphy with Iranian traditional motifs. The elements applied in his works led to the formation of new concepts in the sketching of the human body. With the decline of the Safavid Empire, the style of Reza Abbasi and his prominent disciples fell out of favour. From the twelfth century onwards, the traditional artists turned to produce more practical works such as lacquer painting and the flower-bird illustration. In the continuation of the pictorial traditions, the application of oil colours, gave rise to the imitative style of Zand and Qajar paintings that were considered as Iranian national painting. The style bore traces of realism that was not dissimilar to naturalism and with its incomplete sketches appealed both to the taste of the court and the common people.
Amid the adherents of the Iranian pictorial traditions was Mirza Abulhasan Ghaffari (Sani al-Mulk) in the Qajar era. The traces of Iranian painting can be seen in his employment of colouring and composition, particularly in those sketches painted for One Thousand and One Nights. It seems that he and Mahmoud Khan Malik al-Shoa'ra had succeeded in creating a balance between the common western experiences and the heritage of Iranian art. With the establishment of the School of Fine Arts in 1910 by Muhammad Ghafari (Kamal al-Molk), the academic style of nature painting was popularized. By the establishment of the Constitutional government and the initiation of modernism in Iran, the nature painting was officially supported by the court; and the Iranian painters turned to the European classicism and abandoned the Iranian pictorial traditions. At this time, Hadi Khan Tajweedi started working at the School of Fine Arts.
The painters of this school adhered to the traditions of western classical art and disregarded the fact that the art of their ancestors belonged to a different taste and age. According to the evidences, the knowledge of the traditional painters was based on the techniques and methods of performance. They had a mere technical and formal approach to colours, the human and animal organs, and the abstract motifs as well. And in their naturalistic approach to penning, polishing, and face painting they were dexterous.
The non-observance of perspective did not mean that the Iranian painters were ignorant of the perspective; rather they removed the perspective with full awareness, as they were not allowed to represent nature in its three-dimensional aspect. In Iranian classic painting, every element should lose its materiality to assume the colour of light, still forming a meticulous and detailed decorative unity between the elements. This was so serious among the Iranian painters that they took an anti-perspective move to represent the social concepts. With the establishment of School of Fine Arts at the end of the Qajar era that promoted the academic classical European naturalistic art, the Iranian painting was on the verge of oblivion. But with the establishment of the School of Ancient Crafts in the first Pahlavi era, due to political and cultural policies, it was revitalized only in the form (not in the content). By the establishment of Tehran School of Ancient Crafts in 1929, and due to the efforts of Behzad and Tajweedi that morbid movement was resuscitated. In this article the School of Ancient Crafts is believed to be a vital source in the renaissance of ancient Iranian painting.