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Lot Essay
This large and unusual scroll depicts the fate of souls at the Last Judgement. The illustrated scenes are reminiscent of those often depicted in eschatological works such as the Falnamah, or ‘Book of Omens’, produced in Iran from the sixteenth century. It was a text which rapidly became popular in the Ottoman Empire and India. They are, however, rarely known to have been produced in large format scrolls, making this an unusual work probably made for display in a large room, possibly as a teaching aid.
The current depiction of the afterlife is probably based on Shaykh Ahmad Misri’s cosmological work Qanun al-dunya wa ‘Aja’ibha, ‘The Order of the World and Her Wonders’. An illustrated version of this manuscript from Egypt or Syria dated to 1563 is in the Topkapi Saray Museum (Richard Ettinghausen, Arab Painting, Cleveland, 1962, p.180). The paintings of the present scroll share many stylistic features with the Topkapi manuscript, including the flatness of figures and the abstract manner in which architectural space is depicted. Although earlier than our scroll, it certainly gives indication of the tradition in which it follows.
An illustrated scroll, almost two meters long and depicting Shi’a shrines was bought by the cartographer and explorer Carsten Niebuhr in 1765 in Ottoman Karbala. In terms of the naivety of the composition and the overall conceit of the drawing, it is very similar to ours (B. Dam-Mikkelsen and T. Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800, Copenhagen, 1980, no.EEa1, pp.82-83). The figures depicted on our scroll are, however, more closely paralleled in Iznik pottery of the early 17th century. The Angel Israfil is drawn here as if he has two noses, one seen face on and the other in profile. This unusual feature is found on an Iznik dish in the Ömer M. Koç collection, attributed to the period between 1625 and 1650 (Hülya Bilgi, Iznik. Ömer Koç Collection, Istanbul, 2015, pp.510-511, no.243). Similarly the zoomorphic figures that stand in a group on our scroll can be likened to that on an Iznik dish dated, perhaps ambitiously, to 1580 in the Musée national de la Renaissance (E.CI.8391; Frédéric Hitzel and Mireille Jacotin, Iznik. L’Aventure d’une Collection, Paris, 2005, p.299, no.443). On the basis of these combined comparables, a 17th century Ottoman provenance seems likely for our scroll, whether it be from Turkey, Syria or Iraq.
The current depiction of the afterlife is probably based on Shaykh Ahmad Misri’s cosmological work Qanun al-dunya wa ‘Aja’ibha, ‘The Order of the World and Her Wonders’. An illustrated version of this manuscript from Egypt or Syria dated to 1563 is in the Topkapi Saray Museum (Richard Ettinghausen, Arab Painting, Cleveland, 1962, p.180). The paintings of the present scroll share many stylistic features with the Topkapi manuscript, including the flatness of figures and the abstract manner in which architectural space is depicted. Although earlier than our scroll, it certainly gives indication of the tradition in which it follows.
An illustrated scroll, almost two meters long and depicting Shi’a shrines was bought by the cartographer and explorer Carsten Niebuhr in 1765 in Ottoman Karbala. In terms of the naivety of the composition and the overall conceit of the drawing, it is very similar to ours (B. Dam-Mikkelsen and T. Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800, Copenhagen, 1980, no.EEa1, pp.82-83). The figures depicted on our scroll are, however, more closely paralleled in Iznik pottery of the early 17th century. The Angel Israfil is drawn here as if he has two noses, one seen face on and the other in profile. This unusual feature is found on an Iznik dish in the Ömer M. Koç collection, attributed to the period between 1625 and 1650 (Hülya Bilgi, Iznik. Ömer Koç Collection, Istanbul, 2015, pp.510-511, no.243). Similarly the zoomorphic figures that stand in a group on our scroll can be likened to that on an Iznik dish dated, perhaps ambitiously, to 1580 in the Musée national de la Renaissance (E.CI.8391; Frédéric Hitzel and Mireille Jacotin, Iznik. L’Aventure d’une Collection, Paris, 2005, p.299, no.443). On the basis of these combined comparables, a 17th century Ottoman provenance seems likely for our scroll, whether it be from Turkey, Syria or Iraq.