Art History based on the Artist in the Two Worlds: The Beginning of Art History in the West and Iran

In the West, the history of writing on art goes back to the classical antiquity but writing art history began with Giorgio Vasari’s 16th-century pioneering work on the artists’ biographies. In the present article, the authors follow the preliminary conditions that led to the birth and development of art history in the western world. The first important comparison is between the birth time of art history’s writing in the West and in the Iranian world, and the second is related to the axis on which art histories in the two worlds have been organized. We know that the first art histories in Europe were organized on the basis of artists’ lives. This pattern remained as the dominant model of art history for many centuries. Thinking on the neglected dimensions of art in this pattern led some of the art historians to new patterns of art history, including the idea of “art history without names”. On the other hand, in Iran, a genre of writing that can be called a kind of art history began in 10th AH/16th AD century. Art historiography in Iran was in the form of adab (principles) treatises, tadhkirahs (biographies) and prefaces to albums of calligraphies and miniatures. Most of these works were organized on the basis of persons, especially artists. Warp and woof of the art history in these treatises is a network consisted of the longitudinal axes of master-apprentice chains and the transverse axes of contemporary apprentices of each master. Art critique, explanation of art principles, and some marginal notes on the social and cultural context complete this network. One can find some resemblances between these early art historical texts in the two European and Iranian worlds. The most important resemblance is their organization on the basis of artists. However, they have many radical differences rooted in their different view of the world, human being, art, past and present.