Three leaves from a Khamseh of Nizami

TURKMAN AT SHIRAZ, LATE 15TH CENTURY

Details

Three leaves from a Khamseh of Nizami
Turkman at Shiraz, late 15th Century
Gouache heightened with gold on paper, two with miniatures, one of these depicting Farhad carrying Shirin on her weary horse, the other with Khusrau visiting Shirin at her house, the third with an illuminated title page, black nasta'liq arranged in four columns between gold rules, versos of miniatures with full pages of text, faces retouched, light staining and flaking
Leaf 9½ x 6½in. (24 x 16.5cm.) (3)

Lot Essay

The two miniatures are versions of those in the Khamseh in St. Petersburg created for Shah Rukh at Herat in 1431 (Adamova, A.: Persian Painting and Drawing from the Hermitage, St. Petersburg, 1996, nos and 1/7, pp.106-109). The first of the two compositions in particular is very close indeed to that of our miniature.
Ours are in the "brownish" style of Shiraz, in this instance imitating the Herat prototype. For another miniature in this style see lot 120.

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