Manifestation of Sientific Ideas in Persian Miniature Paintings: The significance of Silver in Representing Water based on Optics

The remaining works of Persian miniature painting which have survived the wars, fires, etc. indicate that from the middle of the eighth century A.H. the solved silver was used by the painters for coloring and for representation of the surface of water instead of drawing blue lines. This usage raises various questions including why these artists developed such a change. Did this shift have its roots in a forgotten prior tradition or was the result of a novel and fresh view which paved the way for this decision? The present research tries to benefit from a historical and descriptive approach to trace the significance of silver in the representation of water in older traditions (i.e. Sassanid and Manichean traditions). Then it moves on by reviewing the findings of some of the scientific fields contemporary to this turn of the usage such as alchemy and astronomy and optics in an analytic-descriptive method. It is based on Ibn Al-Haytham’s manuscripts about optics, al-Manazir. Ibn Al-haytham or Alhazen was a pioneer of modern optics. He was an Arab Muslim polymath. who made contributions to the principles of optics. In other words in order to find the reasoning behind this decision, the scientific findings of the time has been borne in mind. To gather the proper data that supports the claim, the researcher has used the documentary approach. To analyze them, the qualitative method has been used. The samples presented here are selected in a way to reflect the development of representation of water in Persian miniature painting as a process. This research benefits from a historical and fundamental point of view which led it to a reasonable conclusion. The analysis proved that the application of silver for presentation of the surface of various forms of water for example the seas, rivers, Persian pools and the water in Persian gardens which reflects the sky as a link to Heaven and God, is not in debt of any prior or ancient traditions or any astronomical findings (related to alchemy at that time). But in fact, it is the optics that affected such a choice. The miniaturists used this method to bring a sort of harmony and balance to their work of painting in accordance with their visual understanding of the world around them. Due to the fact that the modern researches attempt to read various works from different perspectives, it seems vital that we also read the Persian works of miniature with a fresher and more open range of possibilities that what have always been applied to them. For instance one can bring the scientific advances contemporary to the creation of these works in dialogue with the decisions made by the painters and see how the scientific advances can affect the artistic creations of an era and the way the artists behave inspired by these findings. Having the same goal in mind, the research in hand, tries to present a scientific reason behind choosing silver for portraying the surface of water in Persian miniatures.