Location: Current whereabouts unknown
Mount: Orange mount (now faded) with gold 31.8 x 21.0 cm. Blue collar.
Written surface: not available
Painting: not available
Text references: J.K., p.438 lines 13 to 15.

Date of this event: nowruz 920/ March 1514.
Esmāʿil's eldest son Ṭahmāsp was born 26 ẔuʾḤejja 919/ 22 February 919, a little less than one month before Nowruz 920 (Savory, Safavids_1980, p.51). Accordingly, on Nowruz 920 Esmāʿil celebrated not only the re-birth of Spring, but the birth of his own child and successor. The location of the was somewhere between the Isfahan and Saveh.

Shah Esmāʿil sits, in a white ceremonial robe, on a carpet before a small garden pavilion. An off white doorway withing a white facade frames him perfectly so that he stands out as the dominat figure in the composition. A ceremonial swordbearer stands behind him. Two musicians in the right foreground, and condiments spread on the floor convey the festive quality of the scene. Five emirs and one religious figure are in attendance seated or standing on the left or left foreground. A tiled pavillion serves as a backdrop for the shah, and off to the left of the composition in the background is a garden with some trees. One line of calligraphy above and another below the painting. Painting not signed or dated.

Painting references:
Skinner Auctioneers (Boston) on-line sale catalog, sale 2317, 29 April 2006, Lot 79.

Photo after Skinner Auctioneers.

Robert Eng
Last Updated: September 26, 2012 | Originally published: September 26, 2012