Lot Essay
The prototype manuscript of this work in this style is in the Freer Gallery, Washington (Ettinghausen, R.: Arab Painting, New York, 1977, pp.178-9 and cover illustration). This illustration shows an almost identical depiction of the archangel Israfil. Another very similar angel is in another copy of the same work in the Library of Academic Sciences, St. Petersburg (Pope, A.U.: A Survey of Persian Art, Oxford, 1938, pl.854a and b). Further copies of this period are in the Chester Beatty Library, the Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, and the New York Public Library.