The early works of the Tabrīz school were characterized by light, feathery brushstrokes, gentle rather than bright Persian colouring, and an attempt to create the illusion of spatiality. An example is a painting (dated 1330–40) from the Persian poet Ferdowsī's epic Shāh-nāmeh (“Book of Kings”) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. The illustration of the funeral of the ruler Esfandeyār conveys a degree of pathos unequaled in Persian art. Space and depth are suggested by the placement of the large number of figures on various levels, one above the other, a technique brought to Central Asia by the Mongols. A later illustration of the same text (1380) in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Mass., shows a maturing of the Tabrīz school. It is a scene of the Sāsānian prince Bahrām Gūr after having killed a wolf, done in brilliant hues reminiscent of Mesopotamian painting. The attempt to create three dimensions is highly successful, as is the combination of ceremonial symbolism and realistic detail.

The Tabrīz school reached its apogee just as the Il-Khans were being vanquished by the Timurids (1370–1506), the dynasty of the Islāmic conqueror Timur. The school continued to be active in this period, though it was overshadowed by the workshops in Shīrāz and Herāt (see Shīrāz school; Herāt school). When the Ṣafavids came to power at the beginning of the 16th century, however, the ruler Shāh Esmāʿīl brought the master of the Herāt school, Behzād, to Tabrīz, and the school was revived with a radical change in style. The figures were individuals rather than types, and the colours were graded in marvelously subtle shades. Following the removal of the Ṣafavid court from Tabrīz, the school began to decline, and the Kazvin and Eṣfahān schools (see Eṣfahān school) then became the centres of painting in Iran.