I visited this exhibition yesterday and thought I would add its web pages to this group. I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition, not in the same exhilarating way I did the First Emperor (Terracotta warriors) but in a more reflective way. I found the sights and textures (as much as you could glean them) to be sumptuous, a world I could really get lost in, exquisite miniatures, colours, calligraphy, patterns, carpets, textiles and architecture all worked as one to give that wonderful sensation of a culture, or time past, that all good exhibitions should. The ability to combine a spirituality based on the intellect and expressed through craft in all its most exalted ways was what struck me the most about the objects on display. This was a period of great change in Europe, both politically and economically, and you could see that this was also the case in Safavid Iran and its empire. The Armenians and Uzbeks were also part of a cultural exchange that rippled through the Silk Route in this period. Somehow, it seems to me, Iranian art has managed to capture this in all its exquisiteness.

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