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拍品專文
This rare painting of the Archangel Gabriel comes from a dispersed copy of Qazvini’s Aja’ib al-Makhluqat or ‘Wonders of Creation’, most probably produced in Jalayrid Baghdad. Another folio from the same manuscript, depicting either the Archangel Israfil or Michael, is in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston (acc.no.14.538; published in Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, ‘Les Miniatures Orientales de la Collection Goloubew au Museum of Fine Arts de Boston’, Ars Asiatica, Paris and Brussels, 1929, no.7, pl.IV, p.16). A third, mounted in a 16th century album page, is in the Louvre (inv.MAO 149; L’Etrange et le Merveilleux en terres d’Islam, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2001, no.20, p.37). That folio is attributed to Iraq, 14th century. Like our painting the angel in the Louvre page is depicted against a gold ground his wings slightly breaking the narrow gold borders. All three figures wear similar gilt-heightened coloured robes, although those worn by our Archangel are by far the most elaborate.
With their courts in Tabriz and Baghdad, the Jalayrids were important patrons of the arts of the illustrated book. Survivals of Jalayrid painting are rare, but often have a distinct Byzantine flavour akin to that of late 13th to early 14th century Mamluk painting, but more robust. There are some features in this painting which feels very Persianate – the large eyes and heavy eyebrows, for instance, feel reminiscent of Iranian or Central Asian illustrations (see for instance a painting of ‘Rustam and Raskh treated by the Simurgh’, circa 1400 in the Topkapi Sarayi Library, H.21252, f.48a; Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn. D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles and Washington DC, 1989, fig.23, p.63). Adel T. Adamova and Manijeh Bayani write that in the manuscripts produced for the last Jalayrid ruler, Sultan Ahmad (r. 1382-1410), features which were to become the classical canons of fifteenth-century Persian painting emerge fully formed (Adamova and Bayani, Persian Painting. The Arts of the Book and Portraiture, London, 2015, p.159). It seems likely therefore that our manuscript was produced under the reign of this ruler.
Our Archangel, and those from the same series, are all drawn in fine red lines. This is similar to the drawing found in copy of the same text formerly in the Sarre Collection and now in the Freer Gallery (Richard Ettinghausen, Arab Painting, New York, 1977, p.178). The Freer manuscript is attributed to Iraq, circa 1370-80. The treatment of textiles on our painting and the Freer copy are similar, with folds of cloth delineated with quick lines. Many of the angels in the Freer manuscript displays robes, often the same sage green used in ours, decorated with sketchy gold highlights – again like those seen worn here by Gabriel. Ettinghausen suggests that the Freer manuscript betrays features, notably in the fashion in clothes and headgear, of the late Mongol style – betraying the fact that the manuscript was executed in the last period of Mongol rule when Iraq and Western Iran were governed by the Persianized Jalayrid sultans (Ettinghausen, op.cit., p.179).
Unlike the Freer manuscript, the text on our folio is copied in nasta’liq. Another copy of the Aja’ib al-Makhluqat, produced in the kitabkane of Sultan Ahmad Khan in AH 790/1388 AD, shares this feature with ours, again supporting a similar attribution for our folio (Pers.332; https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8422994d/f512.planchecontact.r=Suppl%C3%A9ment%20persan%20332).
With their courts in Tabriz and Baghdad, the Jalayrids were important patrons of the arts of the illustrated book. Survivals of Jalayrid painting are rare, but often have a distinct Byzantine flavour akin to that of late 13th to early 14th century Mamluk painting, but more robust. There are some features in this painting which feels very Persianate – the large eyes and heavy eyebrows, for instance, feel reminiscent of Iranian or Central Asian illustrations (see for instance a painting of ‘Rustam and Raskh treated by the Simurgh’, circa 1400 in the Topkapi Sarayi Library, H.21252, f.48a; Thomas W. Lentz and Glenn. D. Lowry, Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles and Washington DC, 1989, fig.23, p.63). Adel T. Adamova and Manijeh Bayani write that in the manuscripts produced for the last Jalayrid ruler, Sultan Ahmad (r. 1382-1410), features which were to become the classical canons of fifteenth-century Persian painting emerge fully formed (Adamova and Bayani, Persian Painting. The Arts of the Book and Portraiture, London, 2015, p.159). It seems likely therefore that our manuscript was produced under the reign of this ruler.
Our Archangel, and those from the same series, are all drawn in fine red lines. This is similar to the drawing found in copy of the same text formerly in the Sarre Collection and now in the Freer Gallery (Richard Ettinghausen, Arab Painting, New York, 1977, p.178). The Freer manuscript is attributed to Iraq, circa 1370-80. The treatment of textiles on our painting and the Freer copy are similar, with folds of cloth delineated with quick lines. Many of the angels in the Freer manuscript displays robes, often the same sage green used in ours, decorated with sketchy gold highlights – again like those seen worn here by Gabriel. Ettinghausen suggests that the Freer manuscript betrays features, notably in the fashion in clothes and headgear, of the late Mongol style – betraying the fact that the manuscript was executed in the last period of Mongol rule when Iraq and Western Iran were governed by the Persianized Jalayrid sultans (Ettinghausen, op.cit., p.179).
Unlike the Freer manuscript, the text on our folio is copied in nasta’liq. Another copy of the Aja’ib al-Makhluqat, produced in the kitabkane of Sultan Ahmad Khan in AH 790/1388 AD, shares this feature with ours, again supporting a similar attribution for our folio (Pers.332; https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8422994d/f512.planchecontact.r=Suppl%C3%A9ment%20persan%20332).