Lot 15
THREE ILLUSTRATIONS FROM A DISPERSED SHAHNAMA
PERSIA, 16TH CENTURY
Auction: 09 December 2026 from 14:00 GMT
Description
gouache on fine-quality European laid paper, depicting a battle scene, another battle scene involving Rustam, and a game of polo before a king
Dimensions
each 28.6cm x 19.8cm
Provenance
Acquired, Dominic Winter Book Auctions, 17 June 2009, lot 458.
Private UK collection.
Footnote
These three scenes from the Shahnama or its offshoots are unusual in that they do not feature any text. This makes identifying the exact stories which they illustrate very difficult, especially in the case of the generic battle scene which could illustrate any one of the many military clashes in these texts. However, the appearance of the great hero Rustam with his distinctive leopard helmet and tiger-skin garment in the second painting helps to identify the Shahnama as the probable source of these images. This suggests that the scene depicted in the third painting could either be Siyavush playing polo before Afrasiyab, or possibly Ardashir recognising his son Shapur by his prowess at the game.
The absence of text on either the front or back of these folios suggests that they were made for a purpose other than inclusion in a manuscript, perhaps as preparations for wall paintings or to aid in storytelling. The paintings themselves do not provide many clues to their place of production, although the undifferentiated ground in a single colour with small plants, lightly shaded rocks at the upper edges of the landscape, and sketchily drawn faces are somewhat reminiscent of a Shahnama manuscript now in the John Rylands Library (inv. no. Persian MS 910), which is dated 978/1570. Comparison can be made with the depiction of Rustam in the second painting here and his appearance on folio 94b of the Rylands manuscript (see Robinson, B.W., Persian Paintings in the John Rylands Library: A Descriptive Catalogue, Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications: 1980, p. 127), which might suggest a similar dating for the present example. Two comparable paintings dated to c. 1600, although with text, were recently sold at Christie’s (Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds including Rugs and Carpets, London, 30 April 2026 lot 67).