SOLOMON AND HIS COURT

TIMURID HERAT, SECOND QUARTER 15TH CENTURY

Details

SOLOMON AND HIS COURT
TIMURID HERAT, SECOND QUARTER 15TH CENTURY
Gouache heightened with gold on paper laid down on card, Solomon with a flaming nimbus sits on a raised throne with a large simurgh before him and with angels and to his left, the head of a dragon emerges from a rocky landscape in the top left hand corner, with stylised swirling polychrome clouds set in a golden sky, with four lines of elegant naskh above, folio with small repairs and slightly trimmed, with restored margins above and below
Painting 8 3/8 x 7 1/8in. (22.1 x 18.1cm.); folio 10¼ x 7 1/8in. (26 x 18.1cm.)

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Lot Essay

The style of the flowing naskh with its extended curved terminals is similar to the style of calligraphy found in the Majma' al-tawarikh of Hafiz Abru produced at the Timurid court in Herat in circa 1426 (Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, pp.64-66). The sculpted brightly coloured rocks and the curved flowering tree show more affinity with illustrated manuscripts of a slightly later period such as a Timurid Shahnama manuscript dated AH 845/1441-42 AD in the Art and History Trust Collection (Soudavar, op.cit., no.27, pp.71-77).

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