Skills and Style in Heritage: Architecture, Woodwork and Craftsmanship in 15th-century Mâzanderâni Shrines (Iran)
Résumé
In Northern Iran, the Mâzanderân region still preserves a significant group of fifteenth -century mausoleums built by local dynasties (esp. the Mar‘ashîs and Bâduspânids). Quite unknown by comparison with their more famous Timurid or Turkmen neighbors, these funerary structures remain unstudied. Through a presentation of this corpus, this lecture will develop three main areas. The first part of this lecture will present the original architectural style of the Mâzanderâni mausoleums. The second part will introduce the rare group of wooden doors and cenotaphs associated to these monuments. Both architectural and woodwork studies are witnesses to the very specific regional trends of the Mâzanderâni artistic production in the fifteenth century. Then, this Mâzanderâni corpus is also associated with a significant group of craftsmen’s signatures, especially from woodworkers (sing. Persian: najjâr). Some families of woodworkers are even identified. Thus, the last part of this lecture will attempt to shed new light on the craftsmen milieu.