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Lot Essay
This folio comes from an album now known as the St. Petersburg Muraqqa’. The album was composed of Indian paintings bought to Iran by Nadir Shah following his sack of Delhi in 1739. There the paintings were all given borders, and almost all backed by panels of calligraphy by the master scribe Mir 'Imad al-Hassani. The album was obtained in 1909 by the Russian Aulic Councillor Ostrogradsky from Jews in Tehran who had in turn purchased it from the Royal Library after which it was presented to the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg (Francesca von Habsburg et al., The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Lugano, 1996, p.20). At that stage the manuscript contained exactly 100 leaves. In 1912 the Metropolitan Museum purchased one leaf which appears to be the earliest provenance on any of the leaves outside Russia. In 1931 six of the best folios were sold to the Freer Gallery.
Three artists were known to work on the decoration and composition of St. Petersburg Muraqqa’ in the mid-18th century - Muhammad Hadi, Muhammad Baqir and Muhammad Sadiq. Most of the work of decorating the album was done by Muhammad Hadi, the artist who signed the gold illuminated margins of this mashq, which is dated AH 1172/1758-59 AD. Although little is known of the life and work of Muhammad Hadi, research done by B.W. Robinson confirms that he was seen in Shiraz on the 10th September 1821 by the English traveller Claudius Rich who described him as a very old man who no longer practiced his art (B.W. Robinson, Persian Miniatures from Collections in the British Isles, 1967, cat.no.94, p.78). It is worth mentioning that he also described him as amongst "the most distinguished artists in Persia, passionately fond of flowers" and that it was "almost impossible to procure a specimen of his pencil. They are bought up at any price by the Persians" (Robinson, op.cit., p.78). If the two Muhammad Hadi's are the same, then he would indeed have been over ninety years old on Rich's sighting, and probably relatively young when he undertook the commission for this album although already with the status to have been invited to take part in such a project (von Habsburg, op.cit., p.27). Diba records him as an illuminator who specialized in floral designs. He is also known to have worked on a number of other works including a qalamadan which was formerly in the Niyavaran Palace Collection and which is dated AH 1148/1735-36 AD and many single leaves of narcissus, carnations and roses (Layla S. Diba, "Persian Painting in the Eighteenth Century", Muqarnas, Vol. VI, p.154).
The St. Petersburg Muraqqa’ contained calligraphic folios that were the work of only one calligrapher, Mir Imad al-Hassani, who signed this folio. Mir 'Imad al-Hassani was born around the year AH 961/1553-4 AD in Qazwin, the capital of Safavid Iran. He moved to Tabriz where he was apprenticed to the master Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi, moving back to the capital on completion of his studies in AH 981/1573-4 AD. He became an itinerant craftsman, as was the custom among his profession, accepting commissions as he moved from one town to the next. Later in life he set out for the Hajj and remained in the region for several years, working in Aleppo before returning to Iran in AH 1005/1596-7 AD. His great rival as court calligrapher, 'Ali Reza-i Abassi, gradually replaced him in the Shah's favour and, in the increasingly extreme Shi'ite environment of the court of Shah 'Abbas, he was accused of Sufism and Sunnism. He was murdered in AH 1024/1615 AD by an agent of the Shah.
Three artists were known to work on the decoration and composition of St. Petersburg Muraqqa’ in the mid-18th century - Muhammad Hadi, Muhammad Baqir and Muhammad Sadiq. Most of the work of decorating the album was done by Muhammad Hadi, the artist who signed the gold illuminated margins of this mashq, which is dated AH 1172/1758-59 AD. Although little is known of the life and work of Muhammad Hadi, research done by B.W. Robinson confirms that he was seen in Shiraz on the 10th September 1821 by the English traveller Claudius Rich who described him as a very old man who no longer practiced his art (B.W. Robinson, Persian Miniatures from Collections in the British Isles, 1967, cat.no.94, p.78). It is worth mentioning that he also described him as amongst "the most distinguished artists in Persia, passionately fond of flowers" and that it was "almost impossible to procure a specimen of his pencil. They are bought up at any price by the Persians" (Robinson, op.cit., p.78). If the two Muhammad Hadi's are the same, then he would indeed have been over ninety years old on Rich's sighting, and probably relatively young when he undertook the commission for this album although already with the status to have been invited to take part in such a project (von Habsburg, op.cit., p.27). Diba records him as an illuminator who specialized in floral designs. He is also known to have worked on a number of other works including a qalamadan which was formerly in the Niyavaran Palace Collection and which is dated AH 1148/1735-36 AD and many single leaves of narcissus, carnations and roses (Layla S. Diba, "Persian Painting in the Eighteenth Century", Muqarnas, Vol. VI, p.154).
The St. Petersburg Muraqqa’ contained calligraphic folios that were the work of only one calligrapher, Mir Imad al-Hassani, who signed this folio. Mir 'Imad al-Hassani was born around the year AH 961/1553-4 AD in Qazwin, the capital of Safavid Iran. He moved to Tabriz where he was apprenticed to the master Muhammad Husayn Tabrizi, moving back to the capital on completion of his studies in AH 981/1573-4 AD. He became an itinerant craftsman, as was the custom among his profession, accepting commissions as he moved from one town to the next. Later in life he set out for the Hajj and remained in the region for several years, working in Aleppo before returning to Iran in AH 1005/1596-7 AD. His great rival as court calligrapher, 'Ali Reza-i Abassi, gradually replaced him in the Shah's favour and, in the increasingly extreme Shi'ite environment of the court of Shah 'Abbas, he was accused of Sufism and Sunnism. He was murdered in AH 1024/1615 AD by an agent of the Shah.