"India: Art and Culture 1300-1900" is actually a 478-page catalogue for the exhibition "INDIA !" held at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Rather than call it a catalogue, which can sometimes conjure up a negative image and diminish the importance of this effort, it would be more appropriate and accurate to call this a definitive tome on Indian Art. This specialized book presents three hundred thirty-three works representing Indian art from fourteenth through the nineteenth century. Author's love for art and his expertise are very obvious to the reader in the scholarly text and references accompanying each piece of work. Recipedelights.com thinks that this book is perfect for libraries, professional artists, art students, art lovers or Indian art buffs.

Stuart Cary Welch is THE acknowledged expert on Indian art. This is probably the best and most important introduction to the subject. There are nearly 200 colour pages and the text is informative without presuming too much knowledge in the reader. There is a good glossary and index plus selected bibliography for each chapter which deals with art from each selected period. I so badly wanted this book to add to my Moghul/Rajastan book collection that I ordered it directly from Mapin Publishing Pvt, Ahmedabad, India. They shipped it + 2 others airmail to Australia without charging me the full postage. This book should be on EVERYONE'S coffee table because it's beautiful and enlightening and stimulating and gorgeous and, well, just THE BEST BOOK on Indian art

Mention the words "Safavi" or "Safavid" to people in the West and you will most likely get a blank stare in return, but this Iranian dynasty presided over a great cultural flowering in literature and architecture as well as in art. Stuart Cary Welch produced a beautiful introductory guide to some of the beauties of that era, taking illustrations from several famous books and collections of the 16th century height of Safavid glory. While the political history of the time in Iran, Central Asia and Afghanistan (all parts of the Persian world in a cultural sense) was full of battles, massacres, sieges and sudden changes of rule-very much like Europe at the same time-the delicacy of Persian art knew no bounds. Brilliant, jewel-like colors, striking designs, and bold displays of mythical heroes touched in gold and surrounded with the miniature figures of the Persian court world appear on the pages of this book that is guaranteed to satisfy. Chinese-style rocks and trees mingle with Islamic calligraphy and Persian legends. While this book reproduces the illustrations both in full and in detail, the text is only the slightest of introductions to what can be a consuming study for any lover of art at its greatest. Buyers of this book will want to look further. May I suggest Anthony Welch's two books "Artists for the Shah" and "Shah 'Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan", "Persian Drawings" by B. W. Robinson, and "Persian Painting" by Basil Gray. Another related volume, a treat for anyone interested in Persian art, would be "Isfahan: Pearl of Persia" by Wilfred Blunt and W. Swan.

Stuart Cary Welch is an art historian (I think he taught at Harvard, but I'm not sure) who loves his work, and it clearly shows in this volume. The pictures are exquisite, the reproductions are beautiful, but the best part is the commentary: his only goal is to make the work -- and the stories the pictures tell, for they are all essentially book illustrations -- as much a pleasure to the audience as it was to him. He could not wear his learning more lightly nor with more enthusism, and yet it is clear he must know everything there is to know about this culture. Right after you get this, you'll immediately go right back to Amazon to get a copy of the Shah-Nama, the marvelous epic Iranian poem that so many of the splendid miniatures in this volume illustrate.

I have been looking for a version of the shah nameh that both adults and children could enjoy, for years. I was first exposed to these stories as a child by my grandfather and I have never forgotten them. The Heroism, Romance and Tragedy that one is exposed to in these stories is truly exhilarating. It is simply but lyrically translated.The book also has beautiful reproductions of the persian paintings on the shah nameh which are an added treat.
I eagerly await the two volumes which are yet to come.

In this first of three planned volumes, Dick Davis begins his effort to provide a fairly broad translation of the Shahnameh. He effectively utilizes the prosimetrum form, a mixture of verse and prose (naqqali in Farsi), where verse is used to accentuate periods of heightened tension.

In addition to being a fine literary accomplishement, this series of volumes is quite beautiful and heavily illustrated throughout with reprints from 16th and 17th century manuscripts. The books are very sturdy and make for excellent display.

I recently saw this book as well as the second volume in the planned three-volume set in the gift shop at the Sackler Gallery in Washington, D.C., in connection with an exhibit of art work from various Shahnameh manuscripts currently on display. In all fairness to the publisher, it should be pointed out that this is a gloriously illustrated art book, not simply a text. The full-color enlargements of miniature fragments from medieval Persian manuscipts are breathtakingly beautiful, and the high price no doubt reflects the fact that this book was very expensive to produce. It is exquisitely produced and for those who can afford it well worth the cost. The rest of us should urge our public libraries to acquire it!