"King Khusrau Sees Princess Shirin Bathing in a Pool" by Sultan Muhammad, Original 1940 Swiss Lithograph

Description

An excellent First Edition vintage offset lithograph, print, after Persian painting "Khusrau Sees Shirin Bathing in a Pool" by Sultan … more An excellent First Edition vintage offset lithograph, print, after Persian painting "Khusrau Sees Shirin Bathing in a Pool" by Sultan Muhammad. The original artwork is a page from a manuscript of the KHAMSA (Five Poems) of Nizami, copied in 1539-43 by Shah Mahmud Nishapuri at Tabriz for Shah Tahmasp, second ruler of the Safawi line (British Museum, London).

The romantic poem of Khusrau and Shirin was composed in 1175 A.D. It recounts the adventures of the Sasanian king Khusrau Parwiz and especially his love for Shirin, a princess of Armenia. Though he has heard of her beauty from the painter Shapur, Khusrau first sees her without knowing who she is while she is bathing in a pool as she journeys to Persia. He is bewildered by her beauty. Beside the pool is her famous black horse Shabdiz, faster than any in the world. At first Shirin is unaware of the young man gazing at her. She is filled with confusion when she notices him and he seeing it withdrew. She gathers together her clothes, jumps on her horse an gallops away.

Sultan Muhammad, if not a direct pupil of Bihzad (a famous Persian painter), at least shows himself a successor of his school. But he worked not at Herat but at the new Sawafi capital Tabriz. He was one of the foremost painters of the day. Writing in 1544, the year after the completion of the manuscript, Dust Muhammad calls him the zenith of the age. Delighting in luxuriance of vegetation and richness of detail, he may be seen, in the few works still surviving, to have developed dynamic compositions. He carries further the movement introduced into Persian miniatures by Bihzad.

This offset lithograph comes from an art folio published in Switzerland in 1940. Signed in the print. First Limited Edition. Printed on heavy wove paper, on one side. Numbered at the lower left corner. High-end quality. Gorgeous colors. Excellent condition - never framed. less