An illuminated leaf from a Gulistan of Sa’di, the borders attributed to Sultan Muhammad, Persia, Tabriz, Safavid, circa 1525-40

Ex-private collection, Germany, by 1983

Thence by descent

The present leaf and the following lot both originate from a manuscript with illuminated margins of exquisite quality and remarkable imagination. The manuscript was the product of multiple artists, but the present leaves are of a comparably fine quality to those attributed by Cary Welch and others to Sultan Muhammad, the great Safavid master of Shah Tahmasp's atelier (Welch 1979, no.46; Canby 1999, fig.42; Paris 2001, no.71, p.106). For a detailed discussion of the history of this enigmatic manuscript, see the entry to a leaf formerly in the collection of Stuart Cary Welch, sold in these rooms, 6 April 2011, lot 74.

In his entry for the leaf mentioned above, Stuart Cary Welch writes that in Iran “calligraphers, artists, illuminators, and papermakers collaborated … to create books as delightful to view and touch as to read” (Welch 1979, no.46). The intentional placement of the vignettes here creates individual but interconnected scenes, the mischievous wolf spotting the gazelles in the lower margin before taking off in chase in the upper section. The spirited brushwork enlivens the spectacle, particularly notable in the rendering of the wolf whose windblown coat conveys its great speed.

For a further discussion of the manuscript from which these leaves originate, see the following lot.