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拍品專文
'Abdullah was a leading artist at the court of the Shaybanid ruler 'Abd al-Aziz (r.1540-49) in Bukhara. According to the Turkish author 'Ali, 'Abdullah was a pupil of Shaykh Zadeh, who in turn had been a pupil of the renowned Timurid master Bihzad (Ivan Stchoukine, Les Peinturesr des Manuscrits Safavis de 1502 à 1587, Paris, 1959, p.27). Binyon, Wilkinson and Gray note that his work is closely related to that of Mahmud Muzahhib (Laurence Binyon, J.V.S. Wilkinson and Basil Gray, Persian Miniature Painting, New York 1971 reprint, no.114, p.125). A painting signed 'Abdullah, formerly in the Vever Collection depicts a Prince and Princess in embrace (Glen D. Lowry and Milo Cleveland Beach, An Annotated Checklist of the Vever Collection, Washington, 1988, no.351, pp.301-02). The princess wears a black robe elegantly embroidered with cloudbands and scrolling vine issuing fleshy flowerheads with alternately coloured petals. Very similar illumination decorates the embroidered borders of our camel's saddlecloths, particularly that on black ground. Other paintings by 'Abdullah include a miniature dated AH 972/1564 AD in an earlier manuscript sold Sotheby's, 25 October 1921, lot 180. Stchoukine also suggested that a painting dated AH 99[0]/1582 AD in a copy of the Diwan of Shah Isma'il Safavi was by him (Anthony Welch and Stuart Cary Welch, Arts of the Islamic Book. The Collection of Sadruddin Aga Khan, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1982, no.30, pp.94-98). However that miniature is on a different scale from his other known paintings and is likely to be the work of another master with the same name.
Whilst talking about 'Abdullah's contemporary, Mahmud Muzahhib, Ashrafi-Aini, among many plaudits, comments that he was "a brilliant miniaturist [who] followed in the footsteps of Bihzad's compositions in their general structure, but each time sought to introduce his own scheme of rearrangement and changes. He did it skilfully, never disturbing the general harmony and inner rhythm and order" (Mukaddema Mukhtarovna Ashrafi-Aini, 'The School of Bukhara to c.1550 in Basil Gray (gen.ed.), Arts of the Book in Central Asia, Paris and London 1979, p.270). This can also be said of 'Abdullah, who is recorded as the student of the student of the master Bihzad himself. Our miniature, of two camels fighting, finds a direct model in a painting by Bihzad, dated to circa 1525, now in the Gulestan Museum (published Binyon et.al., op.cit., no.132, pl.LXXXVII, p.131). In Bihzad's painting the two camels, locked together in fierce combat, are joined by their keepers who endeavor to separate them. A calligraphic cartouche above includes verses from Qur'an LXXXVIII, sura al-ghashiyah, v.17, 'Will they not regard the camels how they were created', as well as a signature which states that the artist was 70 years old when he copied it. The subject later became popular and was used as a model in Persian and Mughal painting alike - one example was copied for the Emperor Jahangir by the artist Nanha (Binyon et.al., op.cit., pl.LXXXVIII, p.131). Our painting however is a version of the subject painted relatively soon after the original by a masterly painter who learnt from a student of Bihzad himself.
Whilst talking about 'Abdullah's contemporary, Mahmud Muzahhib, Ashrafi-Aini, among many plaudits, comments that he was "a brilliant miniaturist [who] followed in the footsteps of Bihzad's compositions in their general structure, but each time sought to introduce his own scheme of rearrangement and changes. He did it skilfully, never disturbing the general harmony and inner rhythm and order" (Mukaddema Mukhtarovna Ashrafi-Aini, 'The School of Bukhara to c.1550 in Basil Gray (gen.ed.), Arts of the Book in Central Asia, Paris and London 1979, p.270). This can also be said of 'Abdullah, who is recorded as the student of the student of the master Bihzad himself. Our miniature, of two camels fighting, finds a direct model in a painting by Bihzad, dated to circa 1525, now in the Gulestan Museum (published Binyon et.al., op.cit., no.132, pl.LXXXVII, p.131). In Bihzad's painting the two camels, locked together in fierce combat, are joined by their keepers who endeavor to separate them. A calligraphic cartouche above includes verses from Qur'an LXXXVIII, sura al-ghashiyah, v.17, 'Will they not regard the camels how they were created', as well as a signature which states that the artist was 70 years old when he copied it. The subject later became popular and was used as a model in Persian and Mughal painting alike - one example was copied for the Emperor Jahangir by the artist Nanha (Binyon et.al., op.cit., pl.LXXXVIII, p.131). Our painting however is a version of the subject painted relatively soon after the original by a masterly painter who learnt from a student of Bihzad himself.