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Lot Essay
The following two lots belong to a Khamsa of Nizami Ganjavi and illustrate scenes from the story Layla u Majnun. Nizami drew his story from a precedent of 5th century Arab literature, hence we see the father of Layla with his turban tied under the chin in the Arab fashion.
Both paintings have strong colours, rich floral grounds and well defined rocks which suggest them to be painted in Shiraz in the mid-16th century. These features are very similar to those of a Khamsa illustrated in 1560-1 by Khayrullah b. Husayn Gulabi Shustari for Qasim 'Ali Durghut-oghli which has been assigned by scholars to Shiraz (An Annotated and Illustrated checklist of the Vever Collection, p.228). Basil Robinson commented that this type of painting was typical of the transition from late Turkman to early Safavid painting in Shiraz (A.Adamova & M.Bayani, Persian Painting: The Arts of the Book and Portraiture, The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, London 2015, p.335). Similar paintings illustrating the Khamsa attributed to Shiraz from the mid-16th century have been sold in these Rooms 12 October 2004, lot 181, and 23 April 2015, lot 44 whilst a spectacular Shahnameh of the same school was sold in these Rooms 25 April 1995, lot 62.
Both paintings have strong colours, rich floral grounds and well defined rocks which suggest them to be painted in Shiraz in the mid-16th century. These features are very similar to those of a Khamsa illustrated in 1560-1 by Khayrullah b. Husayn Gulabi Shustari for Qasim 'Ali Durghut-oghli which has been assigned by scholars to Shiraz (An Annotated and Illustrated checklist of the Vever Collection, p.228). Basil Robinson commented that this type of painting was typical of the transition from late Turkman to early Safavid painting in Shiraz (A.Adamova & M.Bayani, Persian Painting: The Arts of the Book and Portraiture, The al-Sabah Collection, Kuwait, London 2015, p.335). Similar paintings illustrating the Khamsa attributed to Shiraz from the mid-16th century have been sold in these Rooms 12 October 2004, lot 181, and 23 April 2015, lot 44 whilst a spectacular Shahnameh of the same school was sold in these Rooms 25 April 1995, lot 62.