SCHOOL OF REZA 'ABBASI, PROBABLY QAZVIN, SAFAVID IRAN, LAST QUARTER 16TH CENTURY

Details

A RULER IN A LANDSCAPE
SCHOOL OF REZA 'ABBASI, PROBABLY QAZVIN, SAFAVID IRAN, LAST QUARTER 16TH CENTURY
Gouache heightened with gold on paper, a turbanned royal figure sits beneath a tented canopy being served refreshments as musicians and revelers entertain in the foreground, with attribution raqm-i kamtarin Reza-i 'Abbasi in the right margin, laid down within later gold and polychrome illuminated floral border on wide gold margins with later owner's signature and seal, mounted on card, minor areas of rubbing
Painting 9 x 5½in. (23 x 14cm.); folio 14½ x 10¼in. (37 x 26.2cm.)

Brought to you by

Sara Plumbly

splumbly@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2372

Lot Essay

The figures depicted in our painting with their large turbans and the many flowering plants on the green ground are similar to illustrations produced by an unknown artist who worked on Shah Abbas' 1587-97 Shahnama manuscript produced at Qazvin. Our painting is most similar to one of the unattributed paintings in that manuscript. Reza 'Abbasi and his contemporary Sadiqi Beg are recorded as working on the 1587-97 Shahnama together with a number of unrecorded artists, (Anthony Welch, Artists for the Shah: Late Sixteenth-Century Painting at the Imperial Court of Iran, London, 1976, fig.41).

More from Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including a Private Collection Donated to Benefit The University of Oxford, Part IV

View All