Seeing Isfahan: Perspectives on the Safavid Image
International Conference| Friday 27 - 28 May 2022
Date and time
Location
Trinity Long Room Hub
Fellow Square Trinity College Dublin 2 IrelandAbout this event
Designed to enhance the current exhibition at the Chester Beatty, the in-person academic conference Seeing Isfahan, Perspectives on the Safavid Image will examine an illuminating cross-section of visual and intellectual culture in Isfahan. A programme of twelve speakers will present new research that asks how Safavid identity was visualised in early modern Iran.
This conference is presented by Dr Moya Carey (Chester Beatty) and Dr Anna McSweeney (TCD). Organised by the Chester Beatty and Trinity Long Room Hub Arts & Humanities Research Institute. Held in association with the Chester Beatty exhibition Meeting in Isfahan: Vision and Exchange in Safavid Iran
Friday 27 May, TCD Long Room Hub
10:00-11:00
KEYNOTE: Massumeh Farhad, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Available live online and in-person)
Towards a New Pictorial Language: Painting and Patronage in Seventeenth-Century Iran
(The keynote will be available live online and in-person)
11:00-11:20 Coffee
Session 1: New Sensations: Taste and Vision
11:20-12:00 | Sussan Babaie. The Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London
Art, food, and the emergence of a cuisine
12:00-12:40 | Farshid Emami, Rice University
Space, Time, and Vision in Late Safavid Paintings
12:40-13:40 Break for lunch
Session 2: Translations: Occult Science, Antiquity, and Language
13:40-14:20 | Matthew Melvin-Koushki, University of South Carolina
Philosophy, Amuletry, and Talismanic Cities: Isfahan as Timurid-Safavid Occult Capital
14:20-15:00 | Lindsay Allen, King’s College London
The Dimensions of Antiquity in Safavid Iran
15:00-15:40 | Ladan Niayesh, Université Paris Cité
The Lives and Times of Thomas Herbert’s Persian Glossary (1634, 1638, 1664)
15:40-16:00 Tea
Session 3: Burning and Melting: Binding, Imitation, and Gender
16:00-16:40 | Kristine Rose-Beers ACR, Head of Conservation, Chester BeattyPressure Tooled and Soft Textile: Diverse Bindings from a Cosmopolitan City
16:40-17:20 | Michael Chagnon, Curator, Aga Khan Museum; Assistant Professor (status-only), Department of Art History, University of TorontoCBL T 433: A Treasury of Innovation
17:20-18:00 | Negar Habibi, University of GenevaFifty Shades of Womanhood: Female representations in Safavid Isfahan
Saturday 28 May, TCD Long Room Hub
09:45-10:00 Coffee
Session 4: City Careers: Painters and Patronage Options in Isfahan
10:00-10:40 | Moya Carey, Curator of Islamic Collections, Chester Beatty
Reza `Abbasi’s narrative work in the Book of Kings (CBL Per 277)
10:40-11:20 | Quentin Arnoux, University of Geneva
Searching for patrons and inspiration: Mu`in Musavvir and his artistic journey in the streets of Isfahan
11:20-12:00 | Amy Landau, Fowler Museum, UCLA
Muhammad Zaman and Technologies of the Image
12:00-12:30 Round Table