Beyond the Frame: Image and Imagination in Islamic Miniature Paintings
Join us for our Fall Seminar, Beyond the Frame: Image and Imagination in Islamic Miniature Paintings facilitated by Resident Scholar, Dr. Razieh Ghorbani.
This series explores Islamic miniature painting as a complex field of representation: a world assembled through shifts of scale, changing viewpoints, layered spaces, and a plethora or ornaments, details, and artifacts. A miniature folio constructs a world that does not engage a single human gaze; it does not assume a viewer from a typical worldly standpoint. It narrates events, scenes, and histories as worlds unfolding at different paces. Its figure and artifacts have no shadow on the ground; its buildings and spaces do not follow perspectival depth; and its borders can hardly contain its exuberant landscapes.
SATURDAYS, OCTOBER 10 - NOVEMBER 14, 11:00AM - 1:00PM
Full Registration: $50 (5-weeks) | Free for students with valid ID
We gather in this seminar to explore these scenes meticulously as we ask about the forms of knowledge and narration they produce, as well as the types of attention and immersion they make possible. The course considers the miniature not as a reduced image of a larger world, but as a different framework of imagining and seeing one.
OCTOBER 10 | WEEK 1: WHAT IS MINIATURE? MEDIUM, POETICS, AND MATERIAL HISTORY
What do we mean when we say “miniature,” and what does the term flatten or obscure? This opening session grounds the course in the physical codex and the link between image, text, and imagination.
OCTOBER 17 | WEEK 2: MODES OF VISION: AXONOMETRY, PERSPECTIVE, AND WORLD-SEEING
How do different artistic traditions map reality, and what do these choices reveal about how a culture understands human positionality in the universe? What do the thin skies and the vast fields in miniature paintings tell us about world-seeing in the Islamic world?
OCTOBER 24 | NO CLASS - OPPORTUNITY TO ENGAGE TWO MASTER CALLIGRAPHERS
Calligraphic Dialogues with Bahman Panahi and Heikun Oda at Seldon (optional)
OCTOBER 31 |WEEK 3: NARRATIVE DEVICES & ASYNCHRONOUS TIME
How does a static, two-dimensional page tell complex stories across time and space? What does the margin (hashiya) bring into the main context (matn) from the outside world?
NOVEMBER 7 | WEEK 4: ORNAMENT, PATTERN, AND DETAIL
Is ornament merely decorative background, or is it a primary engine of meaning, structure, and mediation in miniature painting? How does the ornament situate the viewer in and beyond the image?
NOVEMBER 14 | WEEK 5: THE MINIATURE AS ARCHIVE: THE PAST AND THE PRESENT
How do miniatures construct historical memory, record time, and continue to resonate or transform in modern /contemporary contexts? How do miniatures function beyond images and operate as spatial-temporal frameworks?
Image: The Feast of Sada, attributed to Sultan Muhammad, ca. 1520-22. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Open Access / Public Domain.
