English: SHAH TAHMASP RECEIVING HUMAYUN
Important sign
in papier-mâché painted with polychrome gouache, and lacquered, representing the meeting of Humayun Shah Hindi and Shah Tahmasp Safavid copying the scene of the Chehel Sotoun, around a rich banquet animated by musicians and dancers. They are seated face to face, on their knees, inside a palace in front of three alcove windows which offer a perspective on a landscape planted with trees against a mountainous backdrop. Two panels written in Persian mention their identity. Members of their court stand behind and in front of them. Large border decorated with polybobed medallions populated with animals, princely couples or pastoral scenes, against a background of florets, plant stems and palmette scrolls.
(Small gaps in the pictorial layer, small retouches and restoration in a corner).
Iran, Pahlavi period, circa 1930.
A LARGE AND IMPRESSIVE PAPIER MÂCHE PAINTING, HUMAYUN SHAH HINDI MEETING SHAH TAHMASP SAFAWI, IRAN, CA. 1930.
93 X 68 CM (36 5/8 X 26 3/4 IN.)
From the 1870s following the creation of the School of Decorative Arts under Nasreddin Shah Qâjâr, numerous copies of the frescoes of the Chehel Sotoon palace in Isfahan were made by many artists, on different media. This tradition continued until around the 1940s. The first copies were made on papier-mâché and then some also on leather. In this very beautiful scene presented here, certain characters on the border have a clothing style that evokes the early years of the Pahlavi dynasty.