SIGNED MUHAMMAD 'ALI, MUGHAL NORTH INDIA, FIRST QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

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BAHMAN ASKS FOR KATAYUN'S HAND IN MARRIAGE
SIGNED MUHAMMAD 'ALI, MUGHAL NORTH INDIA, FIRST QUARTER 17TH CENTURY

An illustration to a Bahmannama interpolated into a Shahnama of Firdawsi, gouache heightened with gold on paper, Bahman sits enthroned beneath a canopy in a landscape composing a letter to the King of Kashmir, asking for the hand of his daughter, Katayun, around them various figures in colourful robes look on including a scribe who takes notes and a figure wearing a European hat, signed in the steps towards the bottom of the painting, above and below a line of black nasta'liq arranged in four columns with double gold intercolumnar rule, verso with 27ll. of black nasta'liq similarly arranged, one heading in red, later mounted between gold and polychrome Safavid minor border on wide pink margins with gold floral illumination
Painting 6 x 3 7/8in. (15.3 x 9.8cm.); folio 18 7/8 x 14 1/8in. (47.9 x 36cm.)

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Lot Essay

The figures depicted in our present work draped in flowing textiles with quite sharp contours are remarkably similar to those depicted by an artist known as 'Ali Quli who was active during the first quarter of the 17th century. Like our present painting, his works illustrate features of earlier Akbar era painting but used remarkably strong pigments (Linda York Leach, Mughal and other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, No. 5.317).

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