Harvard University professor David J. Roxburgh has been named the inaugural Mary Ausplund Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic & Ancient Art in the School of Art + Design. As part of his visiting professorship, he will give a lecture entitled “Ethics and Aesthetics in Baysunghur’s Books: Art and Literature in 15th-Century Herat,” Friday, June 24, at 7:00 p.m. in the Art Building, 2000 SW Fifth Avenue, Room 200, on the Portland State University Campus. Registration for this lecture is encouraged but not required.
Baysunghur, also known as Sultan Bāysonḡor Bahādor Khan, was an early 15th-century prince from the house of Timurids who lived in Herat, an ancient city on the historic Silk Road, now located in present-day Afghanistan. A patron of art and architecture, he commissioned the Baysonghor Shahnameh, an illustrated manuscript of Persian miniatures, featuring these intricately detailed works of art.
The Mary Ausplund Endowed Visiting Professorship of Islamic and Ancient Art was established in 2019 with the purpose of engaging scholars with expertise in the area of ancient and/or Islamic art, in order to increase understanding of the culture and beliefs represented through these art forms, which span three millennia. Visiting scholars will also teach a class in the area of Art History as well as connecting with PSU’s Middle Eastern Studies Center during their visits.
Professor Roxburgh is the chair of Harvard University’s Department of History of Art and Architecture and the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Professor of Islamic Art History. One of the preeminent scholars of Islamic art, specifically manuscript painting, calligraphy, the art of the book, Timurid art and architecture and other areas. He has published numerous essays in journals including Art Forum, Art Bulletin, Iranian Studies, Journal of the American Oriental Society and more. Books include Prefacing the Image: The Writing of Art History in Sixteenth-Century Iran (Leiden, 2001), and The Persian Album 1400-1600: From Dispersal to Collection(New Haven, 2005). He holds a Ph.D. in the History of Art from University of Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in Fine Art from Edinburgh College of Art.
Marian Feldman of Johns Hopkins University has been named as the second Tooze Endowed Visiting Professor of Islamic and Ancient Art, with a public lecture scheduled for December 2, 2022, titled “The Material Charism of Akkadian Kingship: Bodies and Fabric in Early Mesopotamian Art."
Image: A page from an album made for Prince Bahram Mirza, titled "Prince and Lady under Flowering Branch," from the early 16th century.