Themes > Arts > Painting > Islamic Painting Art > Miniature Painting > Mesopotamia


Page from De Materia Medica of Dioscorides, showing Dioscorides and a student. Northern Iraq, 1229
These figures are more modeled than those of more typical Mesopotamian manuscripts and more attention has been paid to the drape of the costume and less to rendering the decorative patterns that adorned the textiles of which they were made.

During the twelfth century a number of secular book illustrations of outstanding quality were created throughout Mesopotamia. Surviving examples include medical treatises, books about animals, a few volumes of lyrical poetry, and books about the adventures of the traveler al-Hariri.

The Mesopotamian style employed a strong, solid use of line in drawing the human figure, with an emphasis on facial expressions which often bordered on caricature. They painted in bright, brilliant, and contrasting colors, using fresh, vivid hues. Great attention was paid to small details, such as the pattern of the textiles from which the costumes were made. Spatially, these artists utilized a two-dimensional convention which placed all the figures on the same plane, essentially silhouetting them against an open background.


Leaf from a copy of 'Assemblies' of Hariri which shows two figures seated. Syrian, 1237



The formal composition, the emphasis on pattern, the way in which the figures are confined to two planes, and the nature of the facial types are in the Mesopotamian miniature style. Although most of the manuscripts of this type can be assigned to Mesopotamia, a number were also done in Syria and Egypt, under the patronage of the Mamluks.


Leaf from a manuscript of the 'Assemblies' of Hariri, known as the St. Baast Hariri. Here Hariri is seen with a half-naked, old man who speaks to him in verse. Late thirteenth century

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