Nizami | "Farhad Carves a Milk Channel for Shirin", Folio 74 from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja

Title: "Farhad Carves a Milk Channel for Shirin", Folio 74 from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja

Author: Nizami (present-day Azerbaijan, Ganja 1141–1209 Ganja)

Calligrapher: Sultan Muhammad Nur (Iranian, ca. 1472–ca. 1536)

Calligrapher: Mahmud Muzahib (Iranian, ca. 1500–1560)

Artist: Painting by Shaikh Zada (Iranian, active 1510–1550)

Date: 931 AH/1524–25 CE

Geography: Made in present-day Afghanistan, Herat

Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Dimensions: Painting: H. 8 3/8 in. (21.3 cm)
W. 5 1/16 in. (12.9 cm)
Page: H. 12 5/8 in. (32.1 cm)
W. 8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm)
Mat: H. 19 1/4 in. (48.9 cm)
W. 14 1/4 in. (36.2 cm)

Classification: Codices

Credit Line: Gift of Alexander Smith Cochran, 1913

Object Number: 13.228.7.5

Shirin Visiting Farhad; folio 74 recto

Farhad, the stoneworker, cut a channel from the upland pastures to the palace of Shirin so that she could have fresh milk every day.His consuming love for her drove him to complete it in a month. In the miniature the channel is shown in bird's-eye view, following the custom in Persian painting of presenting every object or part of the composition in its most easily perceived aspect. Seen in this way it also forms a most effective barrier, emphasized by the width of the angular pool, between the priviliged princess sumptuously adorned and the humble craftsman surrounded by the simple tools of his trade. While meticulously drawn, the principal figures in the composition seem somewhat frozen in place compared to the lyric rhythms of the rocks in the background topped by a pair of partridges and an ibex, and alive with hidden animal and human faces. The rocks seem to curl around the ladies of Shirin as if to prevent them from intruding further on the scene.

This miniature and the following one from the same manuscript are in the style of the artist Shaykh Zadeh.

Marie Lukens Swietochowski in [Berlin 1981]

F. R. Martin (Swedish), Sweden; Alexander Smith Cochran, Yonkers, NY (until 1913; gifted to MMA)

Valentiner, William Reinhold. "The Cochran Collection of Persian Manuscripts." Museum of Metropolitan Art Bulletin, old series, vol. 8 (1913). pp. 80–86.

Chelkowski, Peter J. "Tales from the Khamseh of Nizami." In Mirror of the Invisible World. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. pp. 36–37, ill. no. 3 (color).

"Masterpieces from The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York." In The Arts of Islam. Berlin, 1981. no. 71, pp. 180–81, ill. (b/w).

Brend, Barbara. "Illustrations to Amir Khusrau's Khamsa." In Perspectives on Persian Painting. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003. p. 190.