pink tinted paper

Ingredients

pink tinted paper, Chinese papers

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The papers are described as being imported from China (p. 149). They are characterized as stiff, heavy, and surprisingly colorful (p. 152). According to fifteenth-century calligrapher Sulṭān ʿAlī Mashhadī, Chinese paper is excellent and enhances good writing; he notes that writing on slightly tinted (nīm-rang) paper is suitable and restful to the eye (p. 153, 154). The paper is further polished before gaining texts and being gathered into codices (p. 152).

Evidence

"Penned in gold and silver on pink tinted paper are shimmering images of real and fantastic creatures including dragons and sīmurghs (mythical bird in Persian culture), and cranes moving amongst curving trees, flowers, other foliage and circular, flame-like clouds."

Remarks

The paper serves as a visual and physical support for Persian literary texts. The author notes that these Chinese papers are 'visually unstable' because their gilded imagery is often cut and turned on its side, revealing fragments of larger landscapes (p. 152). The paper's fluctuating sensory appeal is meant to physically embody a concept of ideal beauty that is only momentarily perceivable (p. 163).