A MINIATURE, THE RETURN OF THE KING, QAZVIN OR SHIRAZ

Ink and gouache on paper.This miniature depicts a scene of men surrounding a bearded king wearing a crown who stands above a noble man on a pink and blue rug with floral motif.On the left six male figures with white turbans and dressed in long tunics of orange and blue belted at the waist, with some also wearing short-sleeved outer tunics. On the right there are four similar figures in the similar clothes. The bottom-most figure of the scene rides an elegant blue horse that wears silver trappings. Two more courtiers at the bottom discuss the red berries growing on the three in front of them. Their dress and facial hairstyles provide great insight in to the fashions of 16th century Persia and tell of the richness of the empire.The whole scene is set amongst a delicately detailed wild garden filled with flowers in pinks, blues, whites, oranges and greens. 18.5 cm. by 15.1 cm.PROVENANCEPrivate collection, France Sotheby’s, London 23 April 1997.CATALOGUE NOTEThe work was probably produced in either Qazvin or Shiraz, both of which were important cities for manuscript illumination workshops in Safavid Iran and which produced some of the finest paintings throughout the empire. This image is one of the illustrations from a manuscript of Negarestan, the work written by Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ghaffari during the mid-16th century. Muhammad Ghaffari (died 1567/58 AD) was a writer of Persian history and poetry and was recognized for the pragmatic qualities of his work that often detailed the rise and fall of various empires. A work of the early Safavid dynasty in Iran, it describes the history of Islam from the time of the Prophet until the date of manuscript’s first composition in 1564 AD.