SAFAVID SHIRAZ, IRAN, EARLY 16TH CENTURY

These two illustrations depict the first and last princesses visited by Bahram Gur during his week long tour around the various pavilions. On Saturday, Bahram visits the Black pavilion to listen to the story told by the Indian Princess, daughter of the King of the first Clime. This visit can be seen as black in mood as well as colour, full of subversive jokes and sexual frustration. The black panels of architecture which frame the scene are particularly striking, with highlights in gold really indulging the viewer.
On the seventh day, Friday, Bahram Gur goes to the white Pavilion to enjoy the company of the Iranian princess, daughter of the King of the Seventh Clime. Here the colour is significant for several reasons. Firstly, with Friday being the holy day of prayer, it is appropriate that the colour is white, denoting purity. Secondly, from a Sufi understanding of the text, white is the colour of annihilation in the love of God and union with him. Hence, by achieving this, Bahram is at the culmination of his spiritual journey. Again, a limited colour palette is used to great effect and we find a great sense of depth and movement despite the narrow vertical composition. It is also notable that the scrollwork frescoes on the back wall of the palace relate to those found in 16th century Safavid palaces at Na’in, close to Isfahan.
Both these works bear the hallmarks of Shirazi painting soon after the Safavid capture of the city. The fastidious attention to detail – such as the careful rendering of the gold flagons and ewers in the first illustration – is typically Safavid. However, hallmarks of the preceding Turkman style are still clearly evident. Bahram’s plump face and the use of single figures in doorways in the second illustration, along with the Arabic inscriptions in the blue and white tilework present in both, are very much of the Turkman commercial style.