Persian painting: The page and the text as determinants in the construction of pictorial space

In this paper, I examine how the physical structure of a manuscript, the composition of an illustrated page, and especially the interplay between the text blocks and the illustration influence, control, and aid the representation of the pictorial space of the painting. I consider the illustration as one component of a fourfold structure, the other three being the quire, the folio, and the text. Henceforth, my argument is that each one of these components, or rather the interplay between them, has an impact on the fictional space in the painting, on its narrative, and on the various layers of meaning. The location of the painting within the quire, i.e., on the recto or verso of the folio, often determines where are the inner and outer sides of the space and the movement within the plot and its time. The bold expansions of the paintings into the margins of the folios further enhance the meaning of “in” and “out”, both on the horizontal plan and in relation to the viewer’s eye. Finally, the composition of the page, i.e., the interplay between the text columns and the illustration creates a fictional division of the space into various zones of depth, in the same way as stage props. An analysis of Arab and Persian Paintings from the 13^th to the 17^th centuries shows that the range of variation in the interplay between the folio, the frame, and the composition is almost endless, yet they all contribute to the construction of a multi-dimensional pictorial space.