Persian Lost Treasures

Persia's history is a complex and fascinating tale. Loukonine, former director of the Oriental Art Department of the Hermitage Museum, and his assistant, Ivanov, sketch an introduction to the tale in this work. Loukonine attempts to construct a framework for classification of Persian art while at the same time explaining the pitfalls of his approach, such as a lack of source material, the tremendous looting of archaeological sites during the 1950s and 1960s, and regional stylistic developments.Nearly 300 color and 150 black-and-white plates showing works from 13 museums across the former Soviet Union splendidly illustrate Loukonine's conceptualization. The scant but representative bibliography of scholarly literature in Persian art shows that there is a need for a book like this. Another useful piece of Persian history is told in Abolala Soudavar's Art of the Persian Courts (LJ 6/15/93); it focuses on book arts following the Mongol invasion. These two "chapters" in the story of Persiaare worthy pieces in an otherwise wide-open field of art history; as such, this is strongly recommended for larger public as well as academic libraries.