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Lot Essay
This is the only Persian painting that seems to have been mounted into the de Luynes album; one suspects it was the synergy of the subject matter with that of the majority of the Mughal paintings that attracted the patron to include it. The quality of the work is remarkable. While it is only partly coloured (nim qalam), it has wonderful subtleties such as the choice of slightly differing shades of soft grey for the mountains in the background.
The subject of this painting is one of which there are a number of surviving examples dating from the second half of the sixteenth century. A stunning example, the horseman turning in the saddle against a completely undecorated background, is by Qadimi, painted in Qazvin in around 1560 (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), The Hunt for Paradise, Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2003, no.4.38, pp.130-1). A classic Khurasan example, but with the horse formed of a composition of different figures and animals, is in the Reza Abbasi Museum, Tehran (Masterpieces of Persian Painting, exhibition catalogue, Tehran, 2005, p.515). The face is beautiful, but the details, particularly the background, are far less accomplished than those in our painting. A third example, lacking the grace of our figures and with hugely simplified background design, is attributed to Bokhara in the third quarter of the 16th century (B.W.Robinson, Persian Paintings in the India Office Library, London, 1976, no.894,m pp.175-177). This seems to have been a popular subject in the third quarter of the sixteenth century, with examples painted in a number of centres.
The style here is immediately reminiscent of that of Muhammadi, the much sought-after artist who was the subject of a monograph (B.W. Robinson, 'Muhammadi and the Khurasan Style', Iran XXX, 1992, pp.17-29; for further discussion please also see Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, pp.232-241). The present scene has many of his characteristics: the delicately toned people set against the gold detailed background, the pleasant almost smiling faces, the landscape with an upper slanting line of mountains with water, and a stream with rocks along the very foreground (Soudavar, op.cit., no.94, pp.240-241 for example).
There are however features that indicate it as probably the work of another, possibly slightly earlier artist, whose work may well have influenced Muhammadi. The painted areas have more colours than are normally found in his work, and they are finished to a higher degree than survives in any of his signed paintings - for example the gold in the saddle and saddle-cloth is pounced to enhance the way it glints. In addition the background is considerably denser worked, the tree much less conspicuous, and lacking the coloured birds inhabiting it, and the diagonals in the composition are not as strong. The horse is very close indeed to the horse in a depiction of Bahram Gur admonishing the shepherd who had hanged his dog, now in the British Museum, that is attributed to Tabriz circa 1545-50 (Sheila Canby, Persian Painting, London, 1993, frontispiece). Our turban has the spikiness of the trailing end that is noticeably lacking in the BM painting, but which is such a feature of Muhammadi's work and then remains a feature of later Persian painting. It seems probable that ours was painted in around 1550-1560, probably in Khurasan but showing the influence of painting in the capitals of Tabriz and Qazvin. It could possibly be an early formative and exquisitely finished work by Muhammadi.
The subject of this painting is one of which there are a number of surviving examples dating from the second half of the sixteenth century. A stunning example, the horseman turning in the saddle against a completely undecorated background, is by Qadimi, painted in Qazvin in around 1560 (Jon Thompson and Sheila R. Canby (eds.), The Hunt for Paradise, Court Arts of Safavid Iran 1501-1576, exhibition catalogue, Milan, 2003, no.4.38, pp.130-1). A classic Khurasan example, but with the horse formed of a composition of different figures and animals, is in the Reza Abbasi Museum, Tehran (Masterpieces of Persian Painting, exhibition catalogue, Tehran, 2005, p.515). The face is beautiful, but the details, particularly the background, are far less accomplished than those in our painting. A third example, lacking the grace of our figures and with hugely simplified background design, is attributed to Bokhara in the third quarter of the 16th century (B.W.Robinson, Persian Paintings in the India Office Library, London, 1976, no.894,m pp.175-177). This seems to have been a popular subject in the third quarter of the sixteenth century, with examples painted in a number of centres.
The style here is immediately reminiscent of that of Muhammadi, the much sought-after artist who was the subject of a monograph (B.W. Robinson, 'Muhammadi and the Khurasan Style', Iran XXX, 1992, pp.17-29; for further discussion please also see Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, pp.232-241). The present scene has many of his characteristics: the delicately toned people set against the gold detailed background, the pleasant almost smiling faces, the landscape with an upper slanting line of mountains with water, and a stream with rocks along the very foreground (Soudavar, op.cit., no.94, pp.240-241 for example).
There are however features that indicate it as probably the work of another, possibly slightly earlier artist, whose work may well have influenced Muhammadi. The painted areas have more colours than are normally found in his work, and they are finished to a higher degree than survives in any of his signed paintings - for example the gold in the saddle and saddle-cloth is pounced to enhance the way it glints. In addition the background is considerably denser worked, the tree much less conspicuous, and lacking the coloured birds inhabiting it, and the diagonals in the composition are not as strong. The horse is very close indeed to the horse in a depiction of Bahram Gur admonishing the shepherd who had hanged his dog, now in the British Museum, that is attributed to Tabriz circa 1545-50 (Sheila Canby, Persian Painting, London, 1993, frontispiece). Our turban has the spikiness of the trailing end that is noticeably lacking in the BM painting, but which is such a feature of Muhammadi's work and then remains a feature of later Persian painting. It seems probable that ours was painted in around 1550-1560, probably in Khurasan but showing the influence of painting in the capitals of Tabriz and Qazvin. It could possibly be an early formative and exquisitely finished work by Muhammadi.