Date/Time
Date(s) - 6 Oct 2014
5:15 PM - 5:15 PM
Location
Class of 1978 Pavilion, Special Collections Center
Category(ies) No Categories
Penn Workshop in the History of Material Texts, Monday, 6 October.
Featuring Marianna Shreve Simpson (UPenn), whose talk is entitled “Who’s Hiding Here? Artists and their Signatures in Persian Manuscripts of the Early Modern Period.”
5:15pm in the Class of 1978 Pavilion in the Kislak Center on the 6th Floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library.
Marianna writes:
“Various Persian poetic manuscripts dating from the 15th and 16th centuries contain illustrations and illuminations signed by their artists in minute script. Often these all-but-invisible signatures are tucked within the frames of illuminated title pieces or worked into a composition’s architectural or landscape setting. Wherever their placement, they were deliberately positioned out of sight and thus contrast noticeably with the easily legible scribal signatures found in contemporary manuscript colophons. This paper will speculate on the motivations for and significance of these hidden signatures within Persian artistic practices and the image and self-image of the artist in early modern Iran. To broaden the cultural perspective, the discussion will consider some comparable signatures in European manuscripts and paintings.”
All are welcome! Those who do not hold University of Pennsylvania ID cards should bring another form of photo identification in order to enter the library building.