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Album folio with Bahram Gur, the shepherd, and his dog
Safavid period
first half of 16th century
Object Place: Tabriz, Iran
Medium/Technique
Red and black chalk, ink, color, and gold on paper
Dimensions
Height x width: 45.4 × 30 cm (17 7/8 × 11 13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912 and by contribution
Accession Number14.589
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia, Islamic Art
ClassificationsBooks and manuscripts
DescriptionDrawing, probably for an illustration in a manuscript of the "Khamsa" ("Quintet") of Nizami, mounted as an album page. A couplet of unrelated text in the upper right and lower left corner.
InscriptionsPartially legible inscription at lower right attributes the composition to a Master Mir... ("'Amal-i Ustad Mir...") Possibly Mirza 'Ali.
The two lines pasted in the upper right and lower left of the drawing, by Amir Khusrau of Delhi:
Lutf-i tu anis-i mustmandan * qahr-i tu halak-i zormandan
Gar lutf kuni u gar kuni qahr * dar har du zi rahmatat buvad bahr
Your kindness is consolation to the poor; your wrath is the destruction of the mighty.
Whether you are kind or wrathful, in either case there is a share of your mercy.
The two lines pasted in the upper right and lower left of the drawing, by Amir Khusrau of Delhi:
Lutf-i tu anis-i mustmandan * qahr-i tu halak-i zormandan
Gar lutf kuni u gar kuni qahr * dar har du zi rahmatat buvad bahr
Your kindness is consolation to the poor; your wrath is the destruction of the mighty.
Whether you are kind or wrathful, in either case there is a share of your mercy.
ProvenanceBy 1912, Victor Goloubew (b. 1879 - d. 1945), Paris [see note 1]; 1914, sold by Goloubew through M. Meyer-Riefstahl to the MFA for $76,999.81 (total price for 14.532-700). (Accession Date: June 4, 1914)
NOTES:
[1] Victor Goloubew was born in Russia but lived in Paris by the time of this acquisition. He formed this collection of Persian and Indian miniature paintings and exhibited it at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from 1912 to 1914 (Paull, Florence Virginia. "The Goloubew Collection of Persian and Indian Paintings." Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin. Vol. XIII. No. 74. (February 1915) 1-16).
NOTES:
[1] Victor Goloubew was born in Russia but lived in Paris by the time of this acquisition. He formed this collection of Persian and Indian miniature paintings and exhibited it at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris from 1912 to 1914 (Paull, Florence Virginia. "The Goloubew Collection of Persian and Indian Paintings." Museum of Fine Arts Bulletin. Vol. XIII. No. 74. (February 1915) 1-16).