Style combination · Contrasts

Burmese Parabaik Painting × Persian Miniature

Persian book painting crowds a ruled picture field with pattern, architecture and figures under a high horizon without cast shadow; the parabaik leaves the cream paper open, uses European recession and keeps its rich ornament for the covers.

From the research on Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books)

Mix them and make something Burmese Parabaik Painting Persian Miniature

A sample layout drawn from the recipe: shapes from Burmese Parabaik Painting, their arrangement from Burmese Parabaik Painting, the finish from Burmese Parabaik Painting. Not a real work, and not an image of either style.

What each style brings

Each part of the design comes from the style with the stronger say in it, and each style gives at least two.

Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books) Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)

Type from Persian Miniature: Brush & pen calligraphy
Colour from Persian Miniature: Jewel & metallic
Full polychrome
Form from Burmese Parabaik Painting: Stylised figuration
Borders & frames
Composition from Burmese Parabaik Painting: Framed panels
Sequential narrative
Surface from Burmese Parabaik Painting

The type

Open fonts standing in for each style’s own type, which is often hand-drawn or commercial.

Display · Persian Miniature

Gilt

Rakkas, standing in for Nastaʿlīq, the hanging Persian hand of Timurid and Safavid manuscripts, written in ruled columns around the paintings (the Baysonghor Shahnameh of 1430 and the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp are both written in it)

Text · Burmese Parabaik Painting

Painted Burmese folding books of the Konbaung court and its monasteries. A long sheet of mulberry paper, folded like a concertina between lacquered or tooled-leather covers, carries a sequence of watercolour scenes in ruled panels, often with a short Burmese caption in a yellow band beneath: royal ploughing, elephant catching, barge processions, donations, the life of the Buddha and the Jataka. By the mid-19th century painters had added European shading, perspective and a horizon to rows of small stylised figures.

Bodoni Moda; Burmese Parabaik Painting used Burmese round script (Myanmar script) written in ink as captions in the band beneath each scene and Burmese and Pali in Burmese script for the texts of Buddhist and court parabaik

The colours

The ground and leading colours come from Persian Miniature, with a counter-accent from Burmese Parabaik Painting. The ink reads on the ground at 4.5:1 or more.

Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books) Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting)

#efe4c8 ground · 36%
#1f3f8f ink · 14%
#c8412c accent · 18%
#e1b83c accent · 14%
#d98f86 accent · 10%
#4f8a4a accent · 8%

As CSS

:root {
  --ground: #efe4c8;
  --ink: #1f3f8f;
  --accent-1: #c8412c;
  --accent-2: #e1b83c;
  --accent-3: #d98f86;
  --accent-4: #4f8a4a;
  --font-display: "Rakkas", cursive;
  --font-text: "Bodoni Moda", serif;
}

Use it with care

Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books): Many parabaik show the life of the Buddha, previous Buddhas and Jataka stories and were made as acts of merit; treat these scenes and every Buddha image as sacred to Myanmar's Buddhists, and do not crop them into decoration, merchandise or tattoos, place them low or on footwear, or alter or parody the Buddha. The captions are real Burmese texts: have a Burmese reader write or check any caption and never fill the bands with invented script, which image models produce. Many court books left Mandalay Palace after the British captured it in 1885 (the V&A's 1882 manuscript IM.128-1918 was taken from Queen Supayalat's apartments), so credit each book to its court, place and present collection, work with Burmese scholars and painters, and never present a generated image as a historical parabaik.

Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting): Some histories and poems in this tradition depict the Prophet Muhammad, such as his Night Journey (Miʿraj) on Buraq (a Bustan of Saʿdi folio of c. 1525–35, made probably in Bukhara and Herat rather than in Safavid Iran; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974.294.2); after about 1500 Persian painters usually veiled his face, and many Muslims consider any image of him forbidden, so do not adapt or generate such scenes, never supply a face for the Prophet, and keep holy figures off trivial products. Verses, names of God and Qur'anic phrases in the text panels are real texts: have them written or checked by a fluent reader of Persian and Arabic and never fill panels with pseudo-script. Many famous folios are dispersed: George Demotte broke up the Great Mongol Shahnama and altered its pages, and Arthur Houghton gave folios of the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp to the Metropolitan Museum and sold others one by one before the remains of the manuscript went to Tehran in 1994, so credit each leaf to its manuscript as well as to its present collection. The court tradition declines from the 17th century, which is why the period ends in 1700, but the art of miniature is still practised (Abu'l-Hasan Khan Gaffari in 19th-century Qajar Iran, Mahmoud Farshchian (1930–2025) in our own time); it is living heritage, inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List in 2020 on a joint nomination by Azerbaijan, Iran, Türkiye and Uzbekistan and passed on from master to apprentice, so commission or credit practising painters rather than tracing their work, credit the court and city (Tabriz, Herat, Shiraz, Isfahan) rather than a single modern nation, and never present a generated image as a historical folio.

The two styles

Twelve bordered narrative panels depict a crowned figure in ornate Thai-style clothing with attendants, forest animals, boats, temples and Buddhist monks. Repeating yellow flowers and green vines frame the scenes, which are rendered in muted red, gold and green on a cream ground.

1752–1885 · Southeast Asia Burmese Parabaik Painting (Konbaung Folding Books) Painted Burmese folding books of the Konbaung court and its monasteries. A long sheet of mulberry paper, folded like a concertina between lacquered or tooled-leather covers, carries a sequence of watercolour scenes in ruled panels, often with a short Burmese caption in a yellow band beneath: royal ploughing, elephant catching, barge processions, donations, the life of the Buddha and the Jataka. By the mid-19th century painters had added European shading, perspective and a horizon to rows of small stylised figures.

An ornate Persian-miniature-style garden illustration shows flowering trees, a winding blue stream, deer, spotted cats, colorful birds, and people gathered around a richly decorated pavilion. Floral borders and gold detailing surround the scene, with “Garden of Wonders” written in a cartouche at the top.

c. 1300–1700 · Middle East & North Africa, South Asia Persian Miniature (Ilkhanid, Timurid and Safavid Book Painting) The court book painting of Iran and Timurid Herat, formed in Mongol Tabriz from Islamic, Byzantine and Chinese models: from Rashid al-Din's Jamiʿ al-tawarikh (1314) and the Great Mongol Shahnama to Behzad's Herat and the Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp, ending in the album pages of Safavid Isfahan. Small, elegant figures crowd a picture set into ruled columns of verse and framed by coloured rules and gilded margins. Space climbs the page under a high horizon, without linear perspective or cast shadow, in lapis, vermilion, malachite, gold and silver.

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