MATERIALS

Materials

Miniature Painting

Miniature Painting

Islamic miniature painting is generally understood to mean small paintings that are or once were part of a manuscript, used as a frontispiece or an illustration for a text. Drawings and individual paintings have, however, also been preserved. They were either sketches or were intended to be placed as independent works of art in an album.

The miniatures usually had a paper base, but cardboard and in rare cases cotton or silk cloth were also used. The brilliant colors are usually opaque.

The oldest preserved miniature paintings were made in around the year 1000, but not until around 1200 were they found in larger numbers. Islamic miniature painting is often categorized rather summarily into four regional schools: the Arab, the Persian, the Indian, and the Ottoman Turkish.

EXPLORE

EXPLORE
Close-item Close-overlay
ISLAMIC ART: MINIATURE PAINTING

Islamic Art: Miniature painting

Item no. 2 of 50
Btn-link Link to this page Btn-print Print this page

Volume 19 from a copy of Abu’l-Faraj al-Isfahani’s Kitab al-Aghani

Iraq, Mosul; 610 H = 1219
H: 28.5; W: 21.5 cm

The Book of Songs is an anthology of early Arabic poetry that not only has literary value, but is also important from a cultural historical point of view. This copy originally consisted of 20 volumes and was made by Muhammad ibn Abi Talib al-Badri, probably for the ruler of Mosul, Badr al-Din Lulu, whose name can be found on the horseman’s tiraz band.

The painting is among the oldest preserved from the Islamic world, and even though the human figures are the Turkish-Mongol type found in Persian art, there are also clear elements with Antique, Christian, and local Arabic origins. An example is the use of hovering genii, familiar from Antiquity. Similar motifs are found in contemporary figurative coins.

Loan from the Royal Library.

Inv. no. D 1/1990