An introduction to Stylists of Rashida Shahnama

Iranian Domestic and Foreign Art Museums have numerous illustrated shahnama each of which plays an important role in analyzing the painting vicissitude of Esfahani School. In the meantime, Rashida Shahnama is one of the very important manuscripts now kept in Golestan Palace Museum in Tehran. This copy of Rashida Shahnama belongs to 11th Lunar Hegira with 93 unwritten depictions. All the depictions of this shahnama bear the general specifications of Esfahani School. In these depictions, visual and aesthetic elements of Esfahani School such as chorus, coloring, design, figures, sceneries, visual structure and executive techniques are seen. Since the depictions of this copy lack the signature of their creator, this paper emphasized that with the study of the exclusive specifications of each and every one of these painting, their creators may be identified. The main hypothesis of this paper is that the depictions of this Shahnama have specific identities distinguished from Esfahan School to the extent that they can be distinguished from other works of this era. In this paper, the executive style is called Esfahani, and the esthetics governing these works is analyzed.