Folio from Divan (collected poems) by Sultan Husayn Mirza (d.1506)

Detached folio from a dispersed copy of the Divan (collected poems) by Sultan Husayn Mirza; Eastern Turkish in white nasta’liq script with the title in an illuminated band; verses of poem executed in qat’ (cut-out technique); one of a group of two folios (with F.1929.66).
Border: Folio is mounted on a green ground, set in red, gold, blue and white rulings on gold-sprinkled paper.

Maker(s)
Author: Sultan Husayn Mirza (1470-1506)
Historical period(s)
Timurid period, ca. 1490
Medium
Ink and color on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 23.8 x 15 cm (9 3/8 x 5 7/8 in)
Geography
Afghanistan, Herat
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1929.67
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Manuscript
Type

Manuscript folio

Keywords
Afghanistan, illumination, nasta'liq script, Timurid period (1378 - 1506)
Provenance
Provenance research underway.
Description

Detached folio from a dispersed copy of the Divan (collected poems) by Sultan Husayn Mirza; Eastern Turkish in white nasta'liq script with the title in an illuminated band; verses of poem executed in qat' (cut-out technique); one of a group of two folios (with F.1929.66).
Border: Folio is mounted on a green ground, set in red, gold, blue and white rulings on gold-sprinkled paper.

Label

Written in Turkish, this elegant folio in nasta'liq is from a copy of the collected works of the last Timurid ruler, Sultan Husayn Bayqara. It is executed in a complicated technique known as qata'i (decoupage). Instead of writing in ink, individual letters are cut out of different colored paper and pasted on a contrasting background. The art of decoupage, which originated in late fifteenth-century Herat, required tremendous skill, dexterity, and imagination

Collection Area(s)
Arts of the Islamic World
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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