.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The two heroes on this painting are Rustam-i Tur and Azar Barzin. They are characters in the early 12th century poem of Iranshah bin Abi al-Khayr, the Bahmannama or Story of Bahman. It is an epic related to the Shahnama, such as the other poems the Shabrangnama or the Garshaspnama and is often found interpolated with Firdawsi’s text (Charles Melville, Gabrielle van den Berg, Shahnama Studies: The Reception of Firdawsi’s Shahnama, Leiden, 2012, p.36). Bahman was Isfandiyar’s son who was killed by Rustam, one of the Shahnama’s principal heroes. Bahman sought revenge for the death of his father by pursuing Rustam’s descendants, including his grandson Azar Barzin whom he captures and sends to northern Iran. Azar Barzin is later freed by Rustam-i Tur and this is probably this event that our painting depicts. Azar Barzin rides the elephant, his arms restrained and attached to a heavy iron collar around his neck whilst Rustam-i Tur stands before him.
The composition and style of this painting are particularly striking. The two main figures are very large in the page but their proportions in respect to the elephant is freely interpreted. They are painted with opaque colours, in clear contrast with the lightly tinted landscape, painted with visible strokes (the sky particularly). The earthy palette is unusual, the figures are outlined in gold, and as the style of the figures ‘varies from Persian norms [it] suggest an origin in India’ (Brend and Melville, 2010, cat. 101, pp.232-233). The heavy-lidded eyes are Indian in manner. The type of arms and armour, such as the pointed vambraces worn by the soldiers, relate to Indian armour. On a page from the same manuscript in the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge, the tiger masks that appear on Rustam’s headdress and as the Black Div’s face somewhat recall artefacts made for Tipu Sultan of Mysore, whose royal symbol was a tiger. Tipu had an interest in the Shahnama as he owned at least two manuscripts of the epic. Brend and Melville tentatively suggest that ‘he may have commissioned a manuscript of the successor epic’ such as the Bahmannama, represented by our folio (op.cit., p.232). The scale and ambitious illustrations certainly point towards a wealthy or princely patron.
A small number of pages from this manuscript have been published. Two pages are in the Louvre, Paris (Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2012, cat.257, pp.432-433). These pages, together with the Fitzwilliam page, were presented by George Tabbagh. Another is in the Harvard University Museum (1948.61) and others were offered or sold at auction including Sotheby’s, 1 April 2009, lot 35 and Christie’s South Kensington, 11 April 2014, lot 37. Whilst most of these pages are from the Shahnama, the Fitzwilliam page is from a successor epic dealing with the Black Div whilst the page offered at Sotheby’s appears to be from the Bahmannama.
The composition and style of this painting are particularly striking. The two main figures are very large in the page but their proportions in respect to the elephant is freely interpreted. They are painted with opaque colours, in clear contrast with the lightly tinted landscape, painted with visible strokes (the sky particularly). The earthy palette is unusual, the figures are outlined in gold, and as the style of the figures ‘varies from Persian norms [it] suggest an origin in India’ (Brend and Melville, 2010, cat. 101, pp.232-233). The heavy-lidded eyes are Indian in manner. The type of arms and armour, such as the pointed vambraces worn by the soldiers, relate to Indian armour. On a page from the same manuscript in the Fitzwilliam museum, Cambridge, the tiger masks that appear on Rustam’s headdress and as the Black Div’s face somewhat recall artefacts made for Tipu Sultan of Mysore, whose royal symbol was a tiger. Tipu had an interest in the Shahnama as he owned at least two manuscripts of the epic. Brend and Melville tentatively suggest that ‘he may have commissioned a manuscript of the successor epic’ such as the Bahmannama, represented by our folio (op.cit., p.232). The scale and ambitious illustrations certainly point towards a wealthy or princely patron.
A small number of pages from this manuscript have been published. Two pages are in the Louvre, Paris (Islamic Art at the Musée du Louvre, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 2012, cat.257, pp.432-433). These pages, together with the Fitzwilliam page, were presented by George Tabbagh. Another is in the Harvard University Museum (1948.61) and others were offered or sold at auction including Sotheby’s, 1 April 2009, lot 35 and Christie’s South Kensington, 11 April 2014, lot 37. Whilst most of these pages are from the Shahnama, the Fitzwilliam page is from a successor epic dealing with the Black Div whilst the page offered at Sotheby’s appears to be from the Bahmannama.