Fifty Centuries of Persian Art On Exhibition at Fogg Museum With Valuable Sculpture Pieces Dating Back to 2500 B. C.

Some of the treasures of Persian miniature painting and pottery are now on exhibit at the Fogg Museum, loaned by the Pierpont Morgan Library and other famous collections.

The display includes a few of the best known masterpieces of Persian manuscript illumination, as well as 40 to 50 examples of glazed and luster wares decorated for the most part with brilliantly colored ornament and drawing.

With some pieces dating back to 2500 B. C., the exhibit has been arranged to show the development of Persian arts for nearly fifty centuries.

The most highly prized item is the Morgan loan, a thirteenth century bestiary, the "Description of Animals" of Ibn Bakhtishu, the earliest known manuscript of the Mongol period of Persian art. The book was copied for the Emperor Ghazan Khan, of the Genghis Khan dynasty, and contains 94 colored drawings of animal subjects.

Another item is the so-called "Zafarnams," a history of the conqueror Tamurlane, completed in the fifteenth century, and containing the signatures of three of Persia's great emperors, Akbar, Jahangir, and Shah Jahan. The volume contains six double-page paintings by Bihzad, greatest of Persian miniature artists. It is a loan from Robert Garrett, of Baltimore.

Other manuscript treasures include depictions of the battles and adventures of the here Rustam; curious drawings of early automatic inventions; scenes from daily life and portraits.

These are from the collections of Philip Hofer, of New York City; Mr. Charles B. Hayt, of Cambridge; Dr. Benjamin Rowland, Harvard; the University Museum, Philadelphia; and particularly the firm of Dikran Kelekian, as well as those of Kirkor Minassian, H. Kevorkian, and Parish-Watson, New York.

The oldest item in the exhibit is a, Sumerian head of a warrior in stone, dated about 2500 B. C. Other items in the sculpture and ceramics gallery include stone reliefs from the stairway at Persepolis of about 500 B. C.; and a green terra cotta lion of about 1500 B. C. from Nuzi, one of the earliest known examples of finely developed glaze technique.

There are heavy blue and green glazed wares, including dishes, bowls, bottles, and ewers, with floral and bird ornaments; and luster wares decorated with human figures, animals, and battle scenes.