In the Turco-Persian courts, the collected Chinese scroll paintings were, rather than being considered inviolable works of art, subject to conscious material and formal alteration at the hands of princely viewers and their court painters. A scrutiny of the metamorphosis of Chinese paintings in the Timurid/Turkmen and Safavid albums reveals the processual aspects of integrating Chinese painting as cultural object into the indigenous artistic format and visual lexicon, which mediated the relationship between the paintings and its Persianate audience.
