Partial Cataloge note: AN ILLUSTRATED FOLIO FROM SHA1H TAHMASP'S MONUMENTAL MANUSCRIPT OF THE SHAHNAMA, KNOWN AS THE 'HOUGHTON' SHAHNAMA From the Hashem Khosrovani Collection Lot 43 Kay Khusrow fetes Rustam under the jewel-tree, attributed to the artist Dust Muhammad. Folio 308 from Shah Tahmasp's Shahnama, Tabriz, c.1530 Miniature in gouache with gold on cream paper, text above in four columns of fine Nasta’liq script, double interlinear rules in gold, heading written in fine gold thuluth on a ground of pink cross-hatching within a finely illuminated panel, margins ruled in colors and gold, wide margins of gold-sprinkled cream paper, catchword in neat black Nasta’liq at lower left; reverse with 22 lines of text in four columns of fine Nasta’liq, heading in fine gold thuluth script within an illuminated panel, margins ruled in colors and gold, wide margins of gold-sprinkled cream paper in very good condition, miniature 163 by 172mm. text area 276 by 1 71mm., folio 471 by 319mm. Provenance: Commissioned for the Safavid emperor Shah Tahmasp c.1.525-40. Presented in 1568 to the Ottoman Sultan Selim II (r 1566-74). Collection of Baron Edmund de Rothschild, 1903-1934. By descent to Baron Maurice de Rothschild, 1934-1957. Arthur A Houghton Jr. 1958-1988. Christie's, London, 11th October 1988, lot 7. Exhibited: Musee des art decoratifs, Paris 1903, The Corning Museum of Glass, New York and the Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland. Published: Tales, no.15; Dickson and Welch, vol. II no.172. The Shahamana manuscript made for Shah Tahmasp of Persia (1514-1576, reigned 1524-1576) is universally acknowledged as one of the supreme illustrated manuscripts of any period or culture and among the greatest works of art in the world. The key to its brilliance lies in the 258 illustrations and Illumination, all executed between about 1520 and 1540 at a time when the art of Persian painting had reached its absolute zenith. Probably no other Persian work of art, save architecture, has ever involved such enormous expense or taken so much artists' time. No expense was spared on paper, pigments, gold leaf or artists' time, and for those twenty years it was the Shahnama which primarily occupied the Shah's entire atelier of master artists. Related work
For Further Reading: Thanks and best wishes, J. Barry O'Connell Jr. |
Persian Rugs the O'Connell Guides |
