The Achaemenid Persian empire was the largest that the ancient world had seen, extending from Anatolia and Egypt across western Asia to northern India and Central Asia.

Research Assistant Julia Cohen highlights a number of folios from the most influential works of Persian literature that are on view in Bazm and Razm: Feast and Fight in Persian Art and the Department of Islamic Art's permanent galleries.

Publishing and Marketing Assistant Rachel High speaks with Fragonard: Drawing Triumphant author Perrin Stein to discuss the "Fragonard myth," the changing role of drawing in the 18th century, and the reasons why Stein loves studying this artist.

Persian Miniatures is a picture book showcasing the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection of popular Persian illustrations from the 14th to early 17th century. The book contains an introduction by M. S. Dimand which briefly explains the history and importance of these Persian miniatures and the artists who made them.

"There's no break in the line; there's no hesitation in the hand of the artist."

Digital Editor Pac Pobric introduces a new Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History essay on the Museum's excavations of Qasr-i Abu Nasr from 1932 to 35.

The publication of this book commemorates the one thousandth anniversary of the completion of the Shahnama, the Persian national epic, which was written down in more than 50,000 couplets by the poet Firdausi. It also celebrates the most lavishly illustrated version of this text, a manuscript produced for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, who ruled Iran from 1524 to 1576. The Metropolitan Museum is fortunate to own 78 of the 258 illustrations to this text, a selection of which is on view in the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Gallery of Later Persian Art, open from November 2011. Thanks to the generosity of the Iranian-American community and the annual NoRuz at the Met Benefit it has held in recent years at the Metropolitan, all of the illustrations to Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama are being published in color for the first time in a single volume. Held in collections across America, Europe, and the Middle East, these illustrations may never again be physically reunited, making this book an important resource for lovers of sixteenth-century Persian painting. By printing a facsimile of the illustrations, we hope that readers will experience some of the wonder that the young Tahmasp must have felt when he opened his manuscript. The original book was large, but not too big to lift. Inside its covers, stories and pictures of battles and trysts, kings and heroes, would have unfolded as he turned the pages. Iranians still know every twist and turn of many of these tales. For those unfamiliar with the Shahnama, its vividly painted illustrations provide an excellent introduction.

The publication of this book marks 1,004 years since the completion of the Shahnama, the Persian national epic, which was written down in more than 50,000 couplets by the poet Firdausi. It also celebrates the most lavishly illustrated version of this text, a manuscript produced for the Safavid Shah Tahmasp, who ruled Iran from 1524 to 1576. The Metropolitan Museum is fortunate to own 78 of the 258 illustrations to this text, a selection of which is on view in the Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Gallery of Later Persian Art. Thanks to the generosity of the Iranian-American community and the annual NoRuz at the Met Benefit it has held in recent years at the Museum, all of the illustrations to Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama were published in color for the first time in 2011 in a single-volume edition. The present volume, which includes an extended introduction and a concise synopsis of each narrative episode, will enable a broader audience to appreciate this exceptional manuscript. Held in collections across North America, Europe, and the Middle East, these illustrations may never again be physically reunited, making this book an important resource for lovers of sixteenth-century Persian painting. By printing a facsimile of the illustrations, we hope that readers will experience some of the wonder that the young Tahmasp must have felt when he opened his manuscript. The original book was large, but not too big to lift. Inside its covers, stories and pictures of battles and trysts, kings and heroes, would have unfolded as he turned the pages. Iranians still know every twist and turn of many of these tales. For those unfamiliar with the Shahnama, its vividly painted illustrations provide an excellent introduction.

This is the second in a four-part series of exhibitions surveying design in the 20th century through the presentation of significant objects in all media drawn from the Museum's collection by major European modernist designers of the Bauhaus, De Stijl, Scandinavian, and other avant-garde design movements.

A Century of Design, Part II: 1925-1950 — the second in a four-part series of exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art surveying design in the 20th century — will display more than 50 objects from the Museum's collection to demonstrate the dynamic rise of Modernism and its influence on public perception of everyday objects, such as furniture, housewares, and decorative objects. On view in the Museum's Gallery for Modern Design and Architecture from May 9 through October 29, 2000, the exhibition will follow the advancement of design in Europe during the second quarter of the 20th century — from Art Deco through the influences of the Bauhaus school, Functionalism, Russian Constructivism, and organic Scandinavian design.