Gold headpiece and blue floral scrollwork frame lines of black verse

A cream page carries three illuminated panels: a gold cartouche inscribed with the title in grey script, set within a scrolling blue-and-gold floral ground; a central cream panel of six lines of black nasta'liq verse framed by narrow gilt-ruled margins of blue arabesque; and a matching lower gold cartouche of grey script within blue-and-gold scrollwork. Small blue floral sprigs are scattered in the plain outer margins, and the scrollwork combines gold, cobalt blue, red and pale pink flowerheads on delicate gold stems.

Persian miniature painting reached its height in the manuscript workshops of Herat, Tabriz, Shiraz and Isfahan between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries. Painted in opaque watercolour and gold on polished paper, a folio combined text, illumination and image on a single page, and the finest illustrated copies of the Shahnameh, the Khamsa of Nizami and the Conference of the Birds were commissioned by Timurid, Safavid and Mughal courts. Leaves from these dispersed manuscripts are held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Library, the Chester Beatty Library and the Freer Gallery of Art.

Printed as a museum-grade giclée on Hahnemühle fine art paper using 12-ink archival pigment printing. Available handframed in FSC-certified wood with optional float glass, or unframed. Ships worldwide with free delivery to 30+ countries.