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PERSIAN MINIATURES
158
" "
Manafi-i-Heiwan (1295 circa) may be taken
as illustrations reminding us rather of Sassanian
art. Exquisite perfection
of line is the
dominant characteristic of the first school ;
in the second, we find a broader treatment, a
more splendid disposition
of masses, and a more
monumental design than in any other known
school of Persian painting.
It is amongst
the works of these thirteenth-century painters
that we must look for the discovered master-
pieces
of Persian art.
In our present state of ignorance we may
call this the great age.
It is the familiar age
of fine Rhages pottery ; and to compare the
beautiful drawing on the twelfth- and thirteenth-century
pots with the miniatures of
this period is to let a flood of light on to the
study of both. Mr. Kevorkian has, or had, a
wonderful painting from " The History of the
Kalifs" by Tabari (about 1200), the figures of
which might have walked straight out of a
had walked
Rhages bowl into which they
some fifty years earlier direct from Western
China. Yet, admirable as this thirteenth
century is, I do not believe that it is in fact
the supreme age of Persian painting. Certainly
it is not the primitive age. This is an
art that comes out of a long tradition. And
just as we have already discovered pottery
earlier than and surpassing that of the