Life and Achievements of Ali Ashraf, The Painter

Of all The artists working for the studio of Nadir Shah's historian, Mirza Mahdikhan Astarabadi at Isfahan, Ali Ashraf with his considerable output and his numerous pupils is distinguished. His works were widely collected. He is particularly well-known for his lacquer painting, In fact his extant works give first place to elegant flowers and birds. These are perhaps a conventional imitation of heavenly beauty. He is less associated with the illustration of manuscripts, partly because Nadir Shah is not known have been an assiduous patron of them and perhaps because of Ali Ashraf's personal preference for heavier and more static flower and birds for beauty expression. There is however a reason to suppose that he was not capable of working in the style of the court atelier. He is the most important of a group of later safavid painters who practised a highly eclectic style, often with subjects drawn from European painting. Decorative floral composition with were widely use for lacquer works from later safavid period on words, also become a popular genre is 18^th century Persian painting. Mirrors belong among the subjects with painting. They became particularly popular in the second half of the 18^th century. Mirrors cases were usually small, light, graceful and decorated more often than not with floral motifs or composition adopted from works of European art. The use of European models is especially well demonstrated in Ali Ashraf painting on the mirror case. Ali Ashraf tried to convey every natural future by pictorial means. Flowers were shown at stages of development, from barely open buds to blossoms with half-scattered petals. *This article extracted from my research project known as” achievements of three Persian painters of 18 th century”, in university of Tehran. Qalamdan or pen case is oblong subject with rounded ends and a sliding internal section the portrait of a young European in armour is painted on it, framed by flower and foliate motifs is gold against a black ground. Ali Ashraf one of the most master of Qalamdan painting. The binding of manuscripts provides us with the rare opportunity of proving that bindings existed separately from the manuscripts, which apparently only preserved their original bindings in extremely rare instances. The bindings bears the precise date of manuscripts. The cover and flap are decorated with paintings against a black ground. In the first, and fairy wide, border, Persian verses are written in cartouches in with point. The themes of painting are a banquet, a battle and a fairy tale garden. The inside is of dare red leather and is decorated with cartouches and medallions with foliage against a black blue turquoise and yellow ground. Ali Ashraf is one of the distinguished master in binding. The royal hunt is the principal theme represented on surfaces of painted casket. Hunting had its origin in Pre-Islamic Iran. It was a short reserved for royalty and the elite. Ali Ashraf is one of the painters that in casket painting was distinguished.