Reverse painting on glass is undoubtedly one of the major visual art forms of the Iranian culture whose significance is yet to be adequately researched and studied. It is a tradition that best reflects the Iranian-Shiite identity.

Certain characteristics in this genre of painting, both in terms of form and visual elements, speak truth to the imagination of the Iranian-Shiite artist. The choice of glass -- with its brilliant, reflective surface and its inevitable refraction -- as a medium on which the painter works out his craft, the subject mater of the painting, the various narratives and the way they are presented to the viewer, all betray certain aesthetic worldview that is unique to this culture.

Reverse paintings are of two kinds: religious and decorative, each of which can be subdivided into smaller categories.

Iranian reverse painters remain by and large anonymous. The little trace they leave behind, if any, is often limited to a given name, inscribed in a corner of the painting.

The collection of reverse paintings on glass that is now before you is possibly the most comprehensive of its kind. It has been gathered over many decades from various villages and cities in Iran. In book form, it will be accompanied by the fruits of a research that took as many years to complete.

In the hope that the book of Iranian reverse painting on glass will encourage future research on the medium as a definite manifestation of Iranian collective identity.

Dr. Jahangir Kazerooni