Kai Kavus ascends to the sky on his flying throne
Folio from a Shahnama
Bijapur, circa 1610
Ink, opaque watercolour and gold on gold-sprinkled paper, verso with two captions in red on gold ground; and a further detached folio, unillustrated, each with four columns of nasta’liq divided by gold rules; re-margined
5 1/5 by 2 ¾ in.; 13.2 by 7 cm. painting
8 by 4 ¾ in.; 20.3 by 12.1 cm. folio
Provenance
Spink & Son, London, 1970s
D.B. Robertson, London, 1970s-90s
Private collection, London, by descent until 2018
The theme of this painting is ‘Kai Kavus ascends to the sky’, which is taken from the story of a king who while hunting was approached by a devil (div), disguised as a handsome youth, who declared that such was his might that he should reign from the heavens. Kai Kavus got his servants to build him a golden throne, in which he ascended to the skies, but, despite the meat bait seen above, disaster struck when the birds tired and the throne crashed to the ground.
A BIJAPUR SHAHNAMA
Approximately two dozen folios are known from this apparently unique manuscript, which depicts traditional Shahnama themes in a distinctively Bijapur style.
Others from this manuscript are in the San Diego Museum of Art, Williams College Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Victoria & Albert Museum, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and Cleveland Museum of Art. In addition, four folios from this manuscript are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Two further folios were sold at Christie’s, New York, 19 March 2015, lot 227.