Ancient to Medieval Art Survey

The Court of Gayumars portrays a society that not only stood on top of a mountain but was also surrounded by riches (Kleiner 154). Men and animals are seen gathering from all directions to listen to the King in the painting. This demonstrates the former harmony; animals and humans were never rivals. To show the dominance hierarchy, the artist employs colors that constantly sap among the universe's distorted and untamed landscape. Again, though humans are visible, animals have also been used in the artwork. As if that's not enough the painter represents flora and fauna to typify the affluence of that time. This paper sets out to review the work of art by Sultan-Muhammad, Court of Gayumars (1525-1535) with respect to political, social, cultural, religious and stylistic dimensions.

Political and Spiritual

To start with, The Court of Gayumars is a political piece of art. It portrays the tranquil reign of the first Gayumars. It achieves this by depicting people, animals, and the scenes. Moreover, The Court of Gayumars evokes is an outward concern of the political structure of Iran at that time. The sides, for instance, swarm with farsighted beings from the invisible world, or maybe souls that wait for reawakening. As a work of art, the painting represents the epitome of mystical artworks. The mystical aspect reaffirms a society that was firmly grounded in mythology and complex belief system (Saadi-Nejad 232). One can also imagine that The Court of Gayumars must have attracted his contemporaries at the time of painting. Although the artwork depicts the synthesis of Timurid and Turkman art, the way the spiritual characterization has been modified coupled with its dramatic effect conjures up the tensions that were evident in mid-fourteenth-century. Nonetheless, The Court of Gayumars is not simply heterogeneous work of art. What becomes apparent from a glimpse is that the artists had the understanding of the rich legacy of royalty, which played a critical role in the presentation of this material world. The mounting rocks with the vegetation represent an exceptional world of nature spirits. Each violet or yellow escarpment harbors an invisible being or a group of them, which then emerge with camels, apes, lions, and all manner of people (Saadi-Nejad 240). The era in which the painting was done represents an epoch when high and low culture sought some common ground. The political aspect of the art is demonstrated in the confrontation and struggle of the high culture in gaining the upper hand. Nevertheless, the Kings son that is seated to the left and grandson to the right indicated the successive hegemony that was evident in the Monarch's governing structure. The presence of demons also indicated the struggle between the good and the evil.
Stylistic

In The Court of King Gayumars, Sultan-Muhammad uses different stylistic aspects including lighting, texture, composition, and space to stimulate powerful emotions. Specifically, Sultan-Muhammad uses subject matter like a god-like image and attendants. Gayumars was not only Iran's first king but also a well-known figure in Islam. Therefore, the godlike image reflects the significance of the painting, which emphasized in the center and surrounded by his son and grandson on both sides. The artwork depicts an elaborate style that portrays main themes through color selection. Most importantly, he employed fine brushes that were made from squirrel hairs to symbolize accessibility of pigment, dyes, and sophistication that animated the Court of Gayumars. Again, the artwork has a variety of colors including blue, red, and bronze, green to emphasize the painting and stimulate visual harmony that is a spiritual characteristic of Islamic artwork (McWilliams 224). Furthermore, to bring out the cultural element, Sultan-Mohamed utilized bright and subtle colors, abstract designs of conventional Islamic art. In addition, the painting has impenetrable specifics including calligraphic text, mountainous landscape and vegetation. Calligraphic text symbolizes Allah's sacred word. Nonetheless, it underscores the value of this painting. On the other hand, vegetation is portrayed in the Court of Gayumars because during that era vegetative motifs were not only commonly employed but were also major cultural forces in private places as well as religion (Saadi-Nejad 237). The paint also has leopard print, which represents King Gayumars as the first king of Iran while indicating the type of clothing people wore, leopard pelts. Another stylistic aspect evident is the composition of the painting. For instance, beside the king Gayumars, there is his son and grandson. Moreover, there are viewers, blossoming branches from the right and left the side of the king. The composition of this painting is arranged in a vertical axis that depicts a detailed scene to absorb and fascinate the audience. Nonetheless, the painting brings to the fore, elements of Bihzad's stylistic approach that was perhaps alluring to the artists (Saadi-Nejad 233). While the artist embraces a sense of wit that is represented in muscular frivolity, this enables the artist to entertain the spectator with the spiritual complexities of an earthly court, where only a single figure, a wide-eyed dolt at the apex, third person from the right, approaches the feast with all the religious seriousness. Again, this demonstrates the level of caricature inventiveness that informed the paintings of that era
Culture

The painting symbolizes two centers of culture. In particular, Sultan-Muhammad portrays the spectacular illumination of Afghanistan and Iran. These cities were main centers of the way the artwork has been presented. Furthermore, the cultural aspect is evident where King Guyamars is adorned in leopard print, which represents apparel that people wore during that time. Again, Sultan-Muhammad used different colors to depict different cultures while embracing and influencing Islam. The court of Gayumars has a variety of colors that form unique Islam shapes as well as ornamentation.
Unlike being a vague and fused amalgamation of geometrical shapes, the Court of Gayumars represents landscape. The artist was nonetheless impacted by the cultural iconography and reference points on the representation of local artists. The myths and cultural symbols also influenced how the art was showcased. In particular, the tiny Persian painting approach with a plethora of scenes reconstructed in the image attest to that influence (Saadi-Nejad 235)
Moreover, the mountain is depicted the linkage between the earth and the heavens. In reality, this shows that the society was deeply rooted and connected to conventional traditions of worship. Nonetheless, the representation of the king in the snow like apparel evokes the memories of the climatic conditions and the natural ecology that they co-existed. The presence of vegetation and animals also demonstrate agriculture as their economic activity of that epoch. Again, it is a clear representation of fertility that ensured the sustainability of the society.
The painting brings forth the memories of the birth of civilization, where people and animals co-existed in harmony and men dressed up in leopard skins (McWilliams 225).
Conclusion

A close examination of the Court of Gayumars typifies anything but the legendary royalty of Iran that is connected to the genesis of civilization with its well-structured social order. While they lived in mountainous places, their apparel came from leopard skins. This demonstrates how culturally significant the artwork was. Nonetheless, the affluence of the Court is captured by animals and people that seen obedient to the king. The largesse and the profound details of the painting with the king in a tiger skin demonstrate a hierarchical political arrangement. Although the rocky mountain is home to humans, other creatures such as demons inhabited this territory as well. For instance, demonic representation is seen gazing at the bear while pelting a rock at the same time. However, these types of paintings were symptomatic of Persian mysticism (Simpson 800). In short, the demon is a representation of man's worst enemy.




















Works Cited
Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Concise Global History. Cengage Learning, (2016): 154
McWilliams, Mary. In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art: [exhibition, Cambridge, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, January 31-June 1, 2013]. (Harvard art museum, 2013) 224
Saadi-Nejad, Manya. "Mythological themes in Iranian culture and art: traditional and contemporary perspectives." Iranian Studies 42.2 (2009): 231-246.
Simpson, Marianna Shreve. "Mediaeval Persian Painting: The Evolution of an Artistic Vision." (2009): 800-804.