The transition between late–Timurid and early–Abū’l-Khairid illustrated manuscripts ca. 1490–1528
Online ZOOM lecture by Jaimee Comstock-Skipp | University of Oxford
Abstract Art historians have long lumped together Timurid manuscript illustrations from the late 15th century as either belonging to “the school of Bihzad” or simply “the Herat school” of painting. However, whether this site or style was localized in a single workshop remains to be seen. The article will unpack what is meant by “Bihzadian” and the “Herat school” in the late-Timurid period, and its reverberations and reiterations in the arts associated with the subsequent Abū’l-Khairid dynasty administering the centers formerly held by the Timurids in Transoxiana.
The discussion will distinguish one discernible idiom scholars have attributed to Bihzad, or to those in his circle, or to copyists working in this mode. Here nicknamed the “Chubby Figure” style, illustrations executed in this manner adorn Persian-language manuscripts that were written out between 1436–1523.
When present, colophons are not helpful in determining the manuscripts’ full provenance including textual and visual components completed at different times. The Chubby Figure style took its original form in elite manuscripts illustrated in 1490s Herat, and practitioners continued operating in the idiom within two decades after the broader Timurid collapse in 1507. The manuscripts demonstrate how artisans and styles that are often classified as late-Timurid Herat also operated in early Abū’l-Khairid contexts and Tashkent-based workshops through the 1520s.
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Poster (PDF)
This is the 1st lecture in the webinar series for the academic year 2024-25 - organised by the NoMansLand research project (FWF Y 1232) dedicated to the study of Islamic manuscripts in pre-modern Iran and Central Asia.
Convenor: Project team "Nomads' Manuscripts Landscape"
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For a list of upcoming lectures in the webinar series, please see Webinar series "Pre-modern Islamic manuscripts"