Prince and lady under flowering branch

Unknown (Persian)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

ca. 1420-1440

Height:

44.3 cm  (17 7/16 in.)

Width:

30.0 cm  (11 13/16 in.)

Technique / Medium:

ink, color, and gold on silk, with paper borders

School:

Timurid

Description

The illustration of the verso of this album page includes a woman playing a bowed spike-fiddle string instrument (kamanche?).
Commentary from museum website: Album page from 1544–55 album made for Prince Bahram Mirza (1517–1549). On the recto are verses of Persian poetry by calligrapher Sultan Muhammad Nur (d. 1533-4) and three contemporary illuminators. On the verso is mounted a fifteenth-century painting on silk, depicting a prince and his consort seated on a rug, flanked by male servant and female musician. Above the human group, in much larger scale, a blue bird on a flowering branch, painted in Chinese style, peers downwards.

Iconclass

44B15121
prince
44B1511
queen, empress, etc. (wife of a ruler)
42F5
house personnel, servants
48C721
musician at work
48C7521
one person playing string instrument (bowed)

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Kamanche [3169]

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Notes

Recto early 16th century; verso about 1420–40; mounted in album about 1544–45

RIdIM record id

6060