Abstract
This chapter examines the role of Iran's patron kings and patron reformers as agents of change and continuity in the politics of modernity and colonialism. Iran's post-Safavid architecture can be described as a tabula rasa upon which various agents came to offer a working balance between rapid change and existing tradition. The chapter also examines the artistic production of the Zand (1750-1794), Qajar (1794-1925), and Pahlavi (1925-1979) dynasties through the premise of the negotiation between change and continuity that shaped the experience of modernity in Iran. It aims to reveal a wide range of rich revivalist practices in the post-Safavid periods that spoke to the ideological struggles of modernity. Purity in revival defined the Pahlavi project of nation building. While different in their ideological use, Pahlavi and late Qajar revivalisms were plugged into modernist discourses on race and taste that operated on epistemic differance and thus dominated definitions of artistic worth and signification.