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.

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ISLAMIC ART: MINIATURE PAINTING

Islamic Art: Miniature painting

Item no. 9 of 50
1.4-20-2008-Muhammad-uden-sloer
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A copy of Nizami’s Makhzan al-asrar, the first book in his Khamsa. Copied by Mir Ali ibn al-Yasi al-Tabrizi al-Bawargi

Western Iran; 20th of Jumada al-awwal 790 H = 27th of May 1388
Each leaf: 18.6 × 12.3 cm

This frontispiece painting introduces a copy of the first book in the Persian poet Nizami’s Khamsa (Quintet).

The motif is the Prophet Muhammad’s mystical ascension to heaven (miraj) on the winged horse Buraq, accompanied by the archangel Gabriel.

Normally the Prophet Muhammad is depicted with his face veiled, out of respect for his holy person. In the 14th century, during the Mongol Il-Khanid dynasty and their successors and under the Timurids, however, the Prophet’s face is shown several times – a phenomenon that is also found in later, vernacular art.

Inv. no. 20/2008