1530 (ca.), Aqa Mirak, Kai Khusrau's War Prizes Are Pledged For -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: In preparation for war with the Turanians, Kai Khusrau ordered treasures and armor to be brought forth from the royal treasury and promised as prizes to the winners of six feats of prowess in the coming hostilities. Trays of gems and armor sit on the ground before the king. The style of this painting is characteristic of the third director of the Shahnama project, Aqa Mirak. The harmony of the composition is achieved not only by balancing solids and voids but also through the distribution of ultramarine blue, orange-red, and light green across the image against a ground of light blue. The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp is arguably the most luxuriously illustrated manuscript of Firdausi's epic ever produced. Illustrating the 759 folios of text written in superb nasta'liq script are 258 paintings of exquisite quality and artistic originality. This project was realized at the royal atelier in Tabriz and involved the preeminent artists of the time. The pages on display represent the diversity of the manuscript's hands, styles, and themes. In 1568, Shah Tahmasp presented the manuscript to the Ottoman sultan Selim II, and in 1970, Arthur A. Houghton Jr. donated seventy-eight of its paintings to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1530 (ca.), Aqa Mirak, Kai Khusrau's War Prizes Are Pledged For -- Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
From the museum label: In preparation for war with the Turanians, Kai Khusrau ordered treasures and armor to be brought forth from the royal treasury and promised as prizes to the winners of six feats of prowess in the coming hostilities. Trays of gems and armor sit on the ground before the king. The style of this painting is characteristic of the third director of the Shahnama project, Aqa Mirak. The harmony of the composition is achieved not only by balancing solids and voids but also through the distribution of ultramarine blue, orange-red, and light green across the image against a ground of light blue. The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp is arguably the most luxuriously illustrated manuscript of Firdausi's epic ever produced. Illustrating the 759 folios of text written in superb nasta'liq script are 258 paintings of exquisite quality and artistic originality. This project was realized at the royal atelier in Tabriz and involved the preeminent artists of the time. The pages on display represent the diversity of the manuscript's hands, styles, and themes. In 1568, Shah Tahmasp presented the manuscript to the Ottoman sultan Selim II, and in 1970, Arthur A. Houghton Jr. donated seventy-eight of its paintings to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.