"Bahram Gur's Skill with the Bow", Folio 17v from a Haft Paikar (Seven Portraits) of the Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja
Depicting the Persian hero Bahram Gur hunting with his harp‑playing companion Azada, this painting is one of five illustrations created for a fifteenth-century manuscript of Nizami’s Haft Paikar (Seven Portraits). The manuscript was produced in the celebrated kitabkhana (workshop) established by the Timurid prince Baisunghur (r. ca. 1420–33) during his governorship at Herat. This important workshop created some of the canonical illustrations to Nizami’s text—immediately recognizable, repeated, and emulated over the subsequent centuries.
Artwork Details
- Title: "Bahram Gur's Skill with the Bow", Folio 17v from a Haft Paikar (Seven Portraits) of the Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami of Ganja
- Author: Nizami (present-day Azerbaijan, Ganja 1141–1209 Ganja)
- Calligrapher: Maulana Azhar (died 1475/76)
- Date: ca. 1430
- Geography: Made in present-day Afghanistan, Herat
- Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Painting: H. 7 13/16 in. (19.8 cm)
W. 6 3/4 in. (17.1 cm)
Page: H. 11 in. (27.9 cm)
W. 7 3/16 in. (18.3 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: 13.228.13.3
- Curatorial Department: Islamic Art
Audio
6704. Overview: Foils from the Haft Paikar, Part 1
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Multiple artists/makers
dated 931 AH/1524–25 CE
Nizami
16th century
Nizami
ca. 1625–30
Nizami
ca. 1620–30
Nizami
ca. 1620–30
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