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Lot Essay
The illustrations in this manuscript include:
1. Sultan Sanjar and the Old Woman
2. The tyrannical king and the truthful man
3. The ministers plead with Hurmuzd to forgive the youthful Khusrau
4. Shirin gazes at the portrait of Khusrau
5. Khusraw spies on Shirin bathing
6. Khusraw shoots the lion in the pleasure grounds
7. Khusraw, Shirin, Shapur and Shapur's daughters entertain each other with stories
8. The battle between Khusraw and Bahram Chubineh
9. Farhad before the veiled Shirin
10. Farhad lifts Shirin and her horse on his shoulders
11. Khusrau and Shirin communicate through Barbad and Nakisa
12. Battle between the tribes of Layla and Majnun
13. Majnun frees the deer
14. Majnun is visited by his father
15. Majnun is visited by his mother
16. Bahram Gur shoots a lion
17. Bahram Gur wrestles with two lions to gain the crown
18. Bahram Gur in the Black Pavilion
19. Bahram Gur in the Yellow Pavilion
20. Bahram Gur in the Red Pavilion
21. Bahram Gur in the Turquoise Pavilion
22. Bahram Gur in the Sandalwood Pavilion
23. Bahram Gur in the White Pavilion
24. Bahram Gur in the Green Pavilion
25. Iskandar's army fights the Zangi army
26. Iskandar sees the two partridges out hunting and becomes reluctant to fight Dara
27. Iskandar comforts the dying Dara
28. The punishment of the two officers who betrayed Dara
29. Nushabeh shows Iskandar his own portrait
30. Mani paints a dead dog on the Chinese pool of crystal
31. Iskandar and the Chinese slave girl
32. Iskandar discusses creation with the seven philosophers
33. Iskandar watches the sirens bathing
17th century Kashmir served as a centre for the exchange of artistic influences from the Mughal and Safavid courts and beyond. Officially under Mughal rule, the Kashmir valley served as an occasional pleasure resort for the early Emperors. The lack of a permanent Mughal imperial base in the valley in the 17th century may account for the fact that there appears not to be a definitive and easily identifiable native Kashmiri school of painting from this period. The itinerant nature of the Imperial court suggests that artists working in or originating from Kashmir were constantly on the move with the court. Our manuscript provides a rare window into a hybrid style of painting associated with the Kashmir valley during the first quarter of the 17th century.
A striking feature found throughout the illustrations in this manuscript are the rock formations which are divided into multiple small rounded sections with delicate shading. Painting 26 from our manuscript which has two large rock formations which are painted in a vibrant purple and jut upwards into the horizon are very closely related to those in a painting of a ‘Prince Visits an Ascetic during a Hunt’ attributed to Kashmir, circa 1650, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, (inv. 1995.267; Pratapaditya Pal, The Arts of Kashmir, Asia Society 2007, Fig.167, p.156). Our manuscript and the painting in Chicago also share a similar Kashmiri feature of mutli-coloured rounded boulders scattered throughout the landscape.
The atelier which produced the paintings for our manuscript was also clearly influenced by the Mughal fashion for interpreting European prints and figures. Painting 30 depicts two clusters of an architectural backdrop along the upper horizon. Many of the buildings, with their neo-classical features reminiscent of European architecture, are juxtaposed with more Mughal-inspired domed structures with pointed finials. Paintings 20 and 32 both have stylised bust portraits of European style women with short cropped exposed hair and wearing pearl necklaces and bracelets. This demonstrates that the artists who illustrated our manuscript had access to other paintings produced at the Mughal court which had been influenced by European artistic conventions.
The Mughal Emperor Akbar is recorded as having employed several artists who worked in his atelier who carried the epithet ‘Kashmiri’. The artists included Kamal, Muhammad, Isma’il, Ya’qub and most notably Haidar Kashmiri who worked on copies of the Baburnama and the Timurnama for the Emperor and were mostly active in the years between 1580- 1600 (Linda York Leach, 'Painting in Kashmir from 1600 to 1650', Facets of Indian Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982, p. 124). Haidar Kashmiri produced an illustration for a now dispersed Shahnama manuscript dated to circa 1600 which shares a similarly arresting scene of conflict with comparable battling figures depicted with three quarter profiles and rounded khulakhud style helmets - very similar to those in painting 8. The painting by Haidar which was formerly in the Benkaim collection and recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Fine Art was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 20 September 1985, lot 376. Haidar painted in the foreground a groom in profile leading a horse set against the backdrop of a high city wall, which is a feature common to many Mughal court paintings of the Akbari period. This feature not shared by our manuscript shows that the atelier which produced our manuscript was more connected to Kashmiri styles than that of the Mughal court. Yet both the Haidar painting and the illustrations in our manuscript share the same bright palette distinguished by the strong pink, purple and bright green pigments, features which Linda York Leach identified as Kashmiri in origin.
The paintings in our manuscript were also influenced by artists trained in Central Asia. Similar cross influence is typified by the work of Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi who was active in Kashmir in the mid-17th century. He painted with a strong palette of pigments similar to those found in our manuscript and incorporated hybrid features of Iranian and Central Asian origin. A sufi scene attributed to Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi dated to the equivalent of 1651 depicts an architectural setting which is very similar to painting 7 in our manuscript, (Linda York Leach, op.cit. 1982, fig.2, p.125). Both depict layered constructions with multiple domes and awnings which appear stacked on top of each other in a very colourful collage. The forms of the domes and the awnings are somewhere between Mughal and Safavid styles.
The range of headgear in our manuscript also shows clear influence of Safavid fashions. The celebrated Mughal court artist Bishandas was sent by Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r.1605- 27) to the Safavid court of Shah Abbas (r.1588 -1629) with the specific aim of producing pictures of the Safavid Imperial family and court. Bishindas is recorded as having returned to India from Iran in 1619 at the time our manuscript was copied. Painting 31 in our manuscript contains a portrait of Alexander portrayed as Shah Abbas wearing a distinctive wide Astrakhan cap. This closely follows a portrait of Shah Abbas with the Mughal ambassador Khan ‘Alam meeting in a landscape now mounted on a page of the late Shah Jahan album and dated to circa 1620 (Boston Museum of Fine Arts, no.14.655; Asok Kumar Das, ‘Bishandas’, Masters of Indian Painting, Zurich, 2011, fig.8, p.270). A further striking example of Safavid influence is painting 18 in which Bahram Gur is depicted wearing an archaic qizilbash turban complete with a red baton. The female figures in this painting are depicted in a three-quarter profile which is also reminiscent of the style of Bishandas. It is probable that Bishandas as he travelled back to Agra might have shared some of his newer works with artists working in a regional court. This would explain how Safavid imagery could have entered our manuscript almost at the same time that Bishandas was known to have been travelling back from Isfahan to Agra.
Our manuscript is a wonderful illustration of a melting pot of different styles which forms a link between itinerant artists like Haidar Kashmiri and the later Central Asian and Safavid inspired artists such as Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi and Bishandas. This unique hybrid of painting could be termed Kashmiri but it must be remembered that it was produced in a very Mughal dominated context. The Mughal Emperor Jahangir was recorded as having visited Kashmir in 1620 and it is possible that our present manuscript was commissioned in the context of this Imperial visit to the region. The range of visual influences and the quality of the both the paper and the calligraphy indicates that our manuscript was produced in a wealthy regional centre which was clearly in close contact with the Imperial court at Agra as well as having access to an impressive library from which all of these rich visual references have been sourced.
1. Sultan Sanjar and the Old Woman
2. The tyrannical king and the truthful man
3. The ministers plead with Hurmuzd to forgive the youthful Khusrau
4. Shirin gazes at the portrait of Khusrau
5. Khusraw spies on Shirin bathing
6. Khusraw shoots the lion in the pleasure grounds
7. Khusraw, Shirin, Shapur and Shapur's daughters entertain each other with stories
8. The battle between Khusraw and Bahram Chubineh
9. Farhad before the veiled Shirin
10. Farhad lifts Shirin and her horse on his shoulders
11. Khusrau and Shirin communicate through Barbad and Nakisa
12. Battle between the tribes of Layla and Majnun
13. Majnun frees the deer
14. Majnun is visited by his father
15. Majnun is visited by his mother
16. Bahram Gur shoots a lion
17. Bahram Gur wrestles with two lions to gain the crown
18. Bahram Gur in the Black Pavilion
19. Bahram Gur in the Yellow Pavilion
20. Bahram Gur in the Red Pavilion
21. Bahram Gur in the Turquoise Pavilion
22. Bahram Gur in the Sandalwood Pavilion
23. Bahram Gur in the White Pavilion
24. Bahram Gur in the Green Pavilion
25. Iskandar's army fights the Zangi army
26. Iskandar sees the two partridges out hunting and becomes reluctant to fight Dara
27. Iskandar comforts the dying Dara
28. The punishment of the two officers who betrayed Dara
29. Nushabeh shows Iskandar his own portrait
30. Mani paints a dead dog on the Chinese pool of crystal
31. Iskandar and the Chinese slave girl
32. Iskandar discusses creation with the seven philosophers
33. Iskandar watches the sirens bathing
17th century Kashmir served as a centre for the exchange of artistic influences from the Mughal and Safavid courts and beyond. Officially under Mughal rule, the Kashmir valley served as an occasional pleasure resort for the early Emperors. The lack of a permanent Mughal imperial base in the valley in the 17th century may account for the fact that there appears not to be a definitive and easily identifiable native Kashmiri school of painting from this period. The itinerant nature of the Imperial court suggests that artists working in or originating from Kashmir were constantly on the move with the court. Our manuscript provides a rare window into a hybrid style of painting associated with the Kashmir valley during the first quarter of the 17th century.
A striking feature found throughout the illustrations in this manuscript are the rock formations which are divided into multiple small rounded sections with delicate shading. Painting 26 from our manuscript which has two large rock formations which are painted in a vibrant purple and jut upwards into the horizon are very closely related to those in a painting of a ‘Prince Visits an Ascetic during a Hunt’ attributed to Kashmir, circa 1650, in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, (inv. 1995.267; Pratapaditya Pal, The Arts of Kashmir, Asia Society 2007, Fig.167, p.156). Our manuscript and the painting in Chicago also share a similar Kashmiri feature of mutli-coloured rounded boulders scattered throughout the landscape.
The atelier which produced the paintings for our manuscript was also clearly influenced by the Mughal fashion for interpreting European prints and figures. Painting 30 depicts two clusters of an architectural backdrop along the upper horizon. Many of the buildings, with their neo-classical features reminiscent of European architecture, are juxtaposed with more Mughal-inspired domed structures with pointed finials. Paintings 20 and 32 both have stylised bust portraits of European style women with short cropped exposed hair and wearing pearl necklaces and bracelets. This demonstrates that the artists who illustrated our manuscript had access to other paintings produced at the Mughal court which had been influenced by European artistic conventions.
The Mughal Emperor Akbar is recorded as having employed several artists who worked in his atelier who carried the epithet ‘Kashmiri’. The artists included Kamal, Muhammad, Isma’il, Ya’qub and most notably Haidar Kashmiri who worked on copies of the Baburnama and the Timurnama for the Emperor and were mostly active in the years between 1580- 1600 (Linda York Leach, 'Painting in Kashmir from 1600 to 1650', Facets of Indian Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982, p. 124). Haidar Kashmiri produced an illustration for a now dispersed Shahnama manuscript dated to circa 1600 which shares a similarly arresting scene of conflict with comparable battling figures depicted with three quarter profiles and rounded khulakhud style helmets - very similar to those in painting 8. The painting by Haidar which was formerly in the Benkaim collection and recently acquired by the Cleveland Museum of Fine Art was sold at Sotheby’s New York, 20 September 1985, lot 376. Haidar painted in the foreground a groom in profile leading a horse set against the backdrop of a high city wall, which is a feature common to many Mughal court paintings of the Akbari period. This feature not shared by our manuscript shows that the atelier which produced our manuscript was more connected to Kashmiri styles than that of the Mughal court. Yet both the Haidar painting and the illustrations in our manuscript share the same bright palette distinguished by the strong pink, purple and bright green pigments, features which Linda York Leach identified as Kashmiri in origin.
The paintings in our manuscript were also influenced by artists trained in Central Asia. Similar cross influence is typified by the work of Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi who was active in Kashmir in the mid-17th century. He painted with a strong palette of pigments similar to those found in our manuscript and incorporated hybrid features of Iranian and Central Asian origin. A sufi scene attributed to Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi dated to the equivalent of 1651 depicts an architectural setting which is very similar to painting 7 in our manuscript, (Linda York Leach, op.cit. 1982, fig.2, p.125). Both depict layered constructions with multiple domes and awnings which appear stacked on top of each other in a very colourful collage. The forms of the domes and the awnings are somewhere between Mughal and Safavid styles.
The range of headgear in our manuscript also shows clear influence of Safavid fashions. The celebrated Mughal court artist Bishandas was sent by Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r.1605- 27) to the Safavid court of Shah Abbas (r.1588 -1629) with the specific aim of producing pictures of the Safavid Imperial family and court. Bishindas is recorded as having returned to India from Iran in 1619 at the time our manuscript was copied. Painting 31 in our manuscript contains a portrait of Alexander portrayed as Shah Abbas wearing a distinctive wide Astrakhan cap. This closely follows a portrait of Shah Abbas with the Mughal ambassador Khan ‘Alam meeting in a landscape now mounted on a page of the late Shah Jahan album and dated to circa 1620 (Boston Museum of Fine Arts, no.14.655; Asok Kumar Das, ‘Bishandas’, Masters of Indian Painting, Zurich, 2011, fig.8, p.270). A further striking example of Safavid influence is painting 18 in which Bahram Gur is depicted wearing an archaic qizilbash turban complete with a red baton. The female figures in this painting are depicted in a three-quarter profile which is also reminiscent of the style of Bishandas. It is probable that Bishandas as he travelled back to Agra might have shared some of his newer works with artists working in a regional court. This would explain how Safavid imagery could have entered our manuscript almost at the same time that Bishandas was known to have been travelling back from Isfahan to Agra.
Our manuscript is a wonderful illustration of a melting pot of different styles which forms a link between itinerant artists like Haidar Kashmiri and the later Central Asian and Safavid inspired artists such as Muhammad Nadir Samarqandi and Bishandas. This unique hybrid of painting could be termed Kashmiri but it must be remembered that it was produced in a very Mughal dominated context. The Mughal Emperor Jahangir was recorded as having visited Kashmir in 1620 and it is possible that our present manuscript was commissioned in the context of this Imperial visit to the region. The range of visual influences and the quality of the both the paper and the calligraphy indicates that our manuscript was produced in a wealthy regional centre which was clearly in close contact with the Imperial court at Agra as well as having access to an impressive library from which all of these rich visual references have been sourced.