MONUMENTAL FOLIO DE CORAN Á BANDEAUX BLEU ET OR - Lot 149

Lot 149
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MONUMENTAL FOLIO DE CORAN Á BANDEAUX BLEU ET OR - Lot 149
MONUMENTAL FOLIO DE CORAN Á BANDEAUX BLEU ET OR IRAN, SAFAVID ART, 16th CENTURY Sura VII (al-'arâf), verses 65-79. Very large manuscript page on paper, 12 lines of text per page separated by red bands, in alternating blue and gold ink, in muhaqqaq in reserve in clouds, black vocalisation and red reading signs, in vermilion, brown, gold, red and blue framing. Polychrome poly-lobed marginal medallions on a blue and gold background. A MONUMENTAL QUR'AN FOLIO, PERSIA, SAFAVID, 16TH CENTURY. Text size: 30 x 19 cm; page size: 54 x 36 cm This superb Qur'anic folio with its majestic two-coloured muhaqqaq script comes from a luxurious copy, now dispersed, which is characteristic of Qur'ans executed in Shiraz in the middle and second half of the 16th century. The arrangement of the Qur'anic text in panelled lines was not usual at that time, and would become more frequent from the 18th century onwards in Iran and India, often accompanied by an interlinear transcription. The exceptionally large size and the use of gold and lapiz blue pigments indicate the importance attached to the execution of this manuscript. Manuscripts executed in Shiraz from the late 15th century onwards are known to be relatively large, measuring around 45-50 cm in height, and this leaf comes from an even larger Qur'an. There are a few rare examples of gigantic Shirazi Qur'ans, "presentation" rather than "reading" manuscripts, specially commissioned by Safavid or Ottoman patrons, such as the one for the Eyüp Sultan shrine in Istanbul, which measures 87 x 57 cm, also written in two colours - black and gold - and now kept in the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts in Istanbul (exhibition catalogue by Massumeh Farhad and Simon Rettig, The art of the Qur'an: Treasures from the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts. Istanbul, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C., 2016, cat. 52, p. 304, inv. no. TIEM 531). The sheet presented here can be compared with another Shirazi Qur'an of smaller size (written area: 25 x 15.7 cm; page: 42 x 29 cm approx.), several of whose sheets were dispersed at public sale, and one is kept at the Nour Foundation (David James, After Timur, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume III, Oxford University Press and Azimuth Editions, 1992, cat. 42, p. 170). Both Qur'ans share the same pattern of twelve alternating lines of text (black and gold on coloured backgrounds in the case of the Nur Foundation Qur'an), and also have exactly the same marginal medallions. Only the rosettes at the end of the verses and the colours of the frames differ. Nevertheless, the size of the folio presented here, even more monumental, attests to a more prestigious copy. Expert : L.S.
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