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Lot Essay
There are a number of Bukhara figural paintings which place figures in open space on an uncoloured paper ground, but below illuminated arched spandrels (see for example one signed by Mahmud Muzahhib in the Museum of the Shrine, Mashhad; Laurence Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson and Basil Grey, Persian Miniature Painting, New York, 1971 reprint, no.104(a), pl.LXXVI; another, with fully illuminated spandrels by the same artist is in a private US Collection). The placing of the present figure on a folded felt rug is an unusual feature for Bukhara paintings; it however a support that is depicted a number of times for princes, including in the remarkable portrait of the Reclining Prince by Aqa Mirak in the Freer Gallery (Glenn D. Lowry with Susan Namazee, Islamic Arts of the Book from the Vever Collection, Washington D.C, 1988, pl.65, pp.194-5).
This placing is also very similar to that used in his self-portrait by the Persian artist Mir Sayyed 'Ali who ended up working at the Mughal court in India (Susan Stronge, Made for Mughal Emperors, Royal Treasures from Hindustan, New York, 2010, pl.59, p.87 among other publications). The arabesques of the central medallion in the present painting are more accurately worked than in the Mir Sayyed 'Ali portrait, as one would expect of a painting from Bukhara with its emphasis on surface decoration at this period. In both paintings the main compartments around the edge of the felt rug contain verses; here the left hand cartouches contain the identification of the sitter and the attribution to Wali, where on the Mir Sayyed Ali portrait the identification is in the letter he has written in front of him on the ground. The artist here, Wali, cannot however be identified with the contemporaneous painter of that name who worked in Qazvin; this is not his delicate nim qalam delicate style at all (See Sotheby's London, 15 October 1997, lot 57). It must be the work of another artist of the same name. This is certainly a fanciful portrait of Sultan Husayn Baiqara, but it was painted at a time when there would still be a few people alive who could remember him. This great patron of the arts is depicted in a relaxed pose; only the large feathers in his turban indicate his elevated rank. The sultan was a noted patron of musicians as well as artists; the music at his court is very well described at some length in the Baburnama as well as in other sources. This is a very rare and delightfully informal portrait of the hugely influential patron and ruler.
This placing is also very similar to that used in his self-portrait by the Persian artist Mir Sayyed 'Ali who ended up working at the Mughal court in India (Susan Stronge, Made for Mughal Emperors, Royal Treasures from Hindustan, New York, 2010, pl.59, p.87 among other publications). The arabesques of the central medallion in the present painting are more accurately worked than in the Mir Sayyed 'Ali portrait, as one would expect of a painting from Bukhara with its emphasis on surface decoration at this period. In both paintings the main compartments around the edge of the felt rug contain verses; here the left hand cartouches contain the identification of the sitter and the attribution to Wali, where on the Mir Sayyed Ali portrait the identification is in the letter he has written in front of him on the ground. The artist here, Wali, cannot however be identified with the contemporaneous painter of that name who worked in Qazvin; this is not his delicate nim qalam delicate style at all (See Sotheby's London, 15 October 1997, lot 57). It must be the work of another artist of the same name. This is certainly a fanciful portrait of Sultan Husayn Baiqara, but it was painted at a time when there would still be a few people alive who could remember him. This great patron of the arts is depicted in a relaxed pose; only the large feathers in his turban indicate his elevated rank. The sultan was a noted patron of musicians as well as artists; the music at his court is very well described at some length in the Baburnama as well as in other sources. This is a very rare and delightfully informal portrait of the hugely influential patron and ruler.