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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

Verification Level

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