Minakari (Enameling)

It has surely happened to all of us that we feel a sense of belonging to the turquoise and azure blue colors of the works related to the art of Minakari.

This feeling of belonging is because these colors are intertwined with our visual memory as Iranians, colors that bring to mind the architecture of Safavid Isfahan and connect us to our Iranian identity.

In this article, we want to talk about the past and present of this Iranian art. Join us.

Minakari Handicrafts

First, we will delve into the past of the aforementioned art.

The roots of this art can be found in ancient Iran, a five-thousand-year-old art that, from the past to the present, has been executed by painting different designs with enamel colors on metals such as gold, silver, and copper, and even pottery, and then firing the painted metal at high heat.

Although the creation of enamelware has an older history in Europe, existing since the 13th century BC, the peak of this art’s flourishing in Iran occurred during the Sassanian era, to the extent that at that time, Roman enamelers learned it from Iranian artists.

After that and throughout history, this Iranian art has been prevalent in our country. Signs of this can be seen in the travelogues of Europeans.

For example, the Frenchman Jean Chardin referred to an enameled piece in Safavid-era Isfahan on which a design of birds and animals was drawn on a floral background, in light blue, green, yellow, and red.

In the contemporary era, however, the art was forgotten for a time, until Shokrollah Sani’zadeh revived it.

Gholamhossein Feizollahi, Mina Johari, Mohammad Ali Farshid, Hossein Honardoust, Mehdi Ghafarian, and Ebrahim Zarghouni are among the other prominent artists in this field during this period.

Isfahan Minakari

Now that we have a brief overview of the history of this art, we want to address which cities are leaders in its production.

Like most Iranian handicrafts, the cradle of this art is Isfahan. The prevalence of such arts in this city from the Safavid era until now, and the constant flow of domestic and foreign tourists to it, have led to the prosperity of Minakari in Isfahan.

However, the method of producing this product in the contemporary era differs slightly from the past.

To elaborate on this, we first want to describe the general method of making these products.

First of all, it’s good to know that there are two types of enamel in terms of production method: cloisonné (Khan-e-bandi) and painted enamel, with the second type being more common today.

Cloisonné or wired enamel was prevalent in Tehran and Isfahan in the past, but it is not very common today, and only works related to its sub-branch of black enamel or Sābi’ūn enameling are made in the south of the country.

Next, we want to explain painted enameling.

We previously said that to produce goods related to this art, one paints on gold, silver, copper, or pottery with a white pen and enamel colors, and then the painted product is fired at high heat in a kiln.

The advantage of using gold and silver is that they do not oxidize when combined with enamel, so a more detailed design with a closer resemblance to the pattern can be executed on them.

In this form of the art, metal oxides are combined, and due to high heat, the colors are created and stabilized over time, effectively creating a colored oxide coating.

Although working on gold and silver helps the artist to execute a more delicate and complex design, the use of these two metals is not very common today because the price of enamelware is higher with this method of execution.

Enamel painting on pottery with special colors is another method that was more common in the past in Hamedan province.

Today, however, making copper enamelware is more common than making it with gold, silver, and pottery. However, in all its forms—on gold, silver, and copper—this art has been applied to jewelry in addition to vessels from the beginning until now.

Now let’s see what features