- Identification and Creation
-
- Object Number
- 1958.260
- People
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Muhammad Kazim ibn Najaf `Ali
- Title
- Pen box with scenes from Nizami's tale of Bahram Gur and the Seven Princesses
- Classification
- Artists' Tools
- Work Type
- pen box
- Date
- 1276 H (1859-60)
- Places
- Creation Place: Middle East, Iran
- Period
- Qajar period
- Culture
- Persian
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/216472
- Physical Descriptions
-
- Medium
- Watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard
- Dimensions
- 4.1 x 4 x 24 cm (1 5/8 x 1 9/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
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- Signed: Signed by Muhammad Kazim
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inscription:
Raqm-i kamtarīn Muḥammad Kaẓim sana 1296
Painted by the most humble Muhammad Kazim, [in the] year 1859-60
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of John Goelet
- Accession Year
- 1958
- Object Number
- 1958.260
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Descriptions
-
- Description
- Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with three tri-lobed cartouches alternating with two oval medallions. The tri-lobed cartouches contain figural vignettes, and the oval medallions contain female portrait busts. The sides are similarly composed, with a central portrait medallion flanked by tri-lobed cartouches. The seven cartouches each contain a vignette of the Sasanian king Bahram Gur being entertained by one of the seven princesses whom he visits sequentially in the 12th century Persian poem Haft paykar (Seven Beauties) by Nizami. Inscriptions in small oblong panels identify each princess by the color of her pavilion. The base is painted with a gold arabesque on a red ground.
- Publication History
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Rahim Habibeh, Inscription As Art In the World of Islam - Unity In Diversity, exh. cat., Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY, 1996), paeg 46/figure 1
David Roxburgh, ed., An Album of Artists' Drawings from Qajar Iran, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), p. 99
David Roxburgh and Mary McWilliams, ed., Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2017), pp. 154-155, cat. 66
- Exhibition History
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Woven, Hammered, and Thrown: Textiles and Objects from the Islamic World, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 06/22/1991 - 08/18/1991
The Tablet and the Pen: Drawings from the Islamic World, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 02/18/2006 - 07/23/2006
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This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu