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Manuscript K

A single leaf from a manuscript, with a painting and no accompanying text. The iconography is insufficient to identify the subject other than to reveal that it is a banquet scene, perhaps even a wedding banquet as Kubicova has suggested, involving a young prince and princess in the female apartments. Comparison can be made between it and the right hand page of a double frontispiece painted by Moʿin for a Shahnama (cf. Manuscript C, folio 1v) in 1656, with which it is compositionally almost identical. This suggests that the original purpose of this illustration was also a frontispiece. Except for one major change - the sage in Manuscript C has been here replaced by a young prince - and other slight variations of minutia, the two compositions are identical down to the number of personages, their placement, the poses, the buildings, trees, and even the same number of vessels positioned identically.

Location:
Kubicova states that the page is in The Archaeological Museum in Tehran. However, the Iran Bastam claims that the painting is not in their collection.

Dating:
Circa 1655-60.

Bibliography:
Kubicova, PM_1960, plate 37 (in color), and p.68-69.
Stchoukine, SA_1964, p.66 (not ill.).

Robert Eng
Last Updated: April 26, 2011 | Originally published: April 26, 2011