1958.260: Pen box with scenes from Nizami's tale of Bahram Gur and the Seven Princesses

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1958.260

People

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

1878-1879

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

• Signed: Signed by Muhammad Kazim
• inscription:
  Raqm-i kamtarīn Muḥammad Kaẓim sana 1296
  
  Painted by the most humble Muhammad Kazim, [in the] year 1859-60

Acquisition and Rights

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

Permissions

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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 inscriptions under the medallion portrait on the left identify the artist Muhammad Kazim and the date 1296 H. (1878-1879). 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

• 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

• 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
• Technologies of the Image: Art in 19th-Century Iran, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 08/26/2017 - 01/07/2018

Verification Level