A DECCANI CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM PAGE

CENTRAL INDIA, PROBABLY BIJAPUR, SECOND QUARTER OF THE 17TH CENTURY

Details

A DECCANI CALLIGRAPHIC ALBUM PAGE
CENTRAL INDIA, PROBABLY BIJAPUR, Second quarter of the 17TH CENTURY
With rectangular cartouches containing calligraphic inscription of Arabic verses, center with four cartouches with orange borders containing fine verses in naskh, bounded on both sides with further rectangular cartouches containing verses in naskh, bounded above and below by large cartouches with verses in thuluth, set on white and black marbled ground inside elegant predominantly blue marbled margins, Verso with central cartouche containing four lines of elegant nasta'liq Persian verses surrounded by ten cartouches containing further nasta'liq verses, also set inside predominantly blue marble margins, Arabic text containing verses from the al-burdah by al-busayri in celebration of the Prophet Muhammed's birthday
11 7/8 x 8¼ in. (30.2 x 20.9 cm.), painting
14¾ x 10½ in. (37.4 x 26.6 cm.), folio

Provenance

Doris Wiener Gallery, New York, 1970s

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Lot Essay

Mark Zebrowski in his seminal work on Deccani painting has attributed a whole group of marble paper album pages to the Deccan, (Mark Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, 1983). Not only were some of the best known pages of this type either acquired in the Deccan or are still in Deccani collections, but Zebrowkski also draws a comparison between the marbling and the mauve, blue and yellow clouds of many Deccani paintings, often painted in turbulent and swirling patterns (Zebrowski, op.cit., p137). A number of Deccani paintings are mounted in similar marbled margins are attributed by Zebrowski more specifically to Bijapur dating to the second quarter of the 17th century (Zebrowski, op.cit., no.90, p.114).

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