Two Treasures of Herat Barbara Brend
Event details
The Khamsah (Quintet) of Nizami, composed in the 12th century, is one of the most frequently illustrated works of Persian literature. Its five books cover moral matters, romances, a frame story with seven dependent parts, and a life of Alexander the Great (Iskandar). The grandest manuscripts were made in and for libraries maintained by princes, though plainer volumes were also produced by independent workshops, presumably for sale. Illustrations to some episodes of the stories are found frequently but some more rarely.
Late 15th-century Herat, under Timurid rule, can be considered one of the classic periods of this art form. Barbara Brend, a specialist in the field of Persian painting, compares two manuscripts which, though copied some decades apart, were illustrated either in, or largely in, the 1490s under the rule of Sultan Husayn. The names of several artists of the period are known, among them the most celebrated being Bihzad. The illustrations in these manuscripts have attracted a number of attributions, the dates of their various inscriptions being unknown.
Join Barbara as she analyses the images, placing them in their historical and artistic context, and in doing so, pays tributes to their artists.
Why not attend 'Illumino: A History of Medieval Britain in Twelve Illuminated Manuscripts' and a drinks reception prior to this event?
Book sales
You can buy copies of many of our speakers’ books from Fox Lane Books, a local independent bookseller and Festival partner. In some cases, author signed bookplates are available too.
Annual Bruce Wannell Memorial Lecture
About the speaker
Dr Barbara Brend read French at the University of Cambridge, and later, moved by travel, took an MPhil and a PhD in Islamic Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London. She is an independent scholar but has been associated with the British Museum and British Library. She has taught a course in Islamic Art at the University of East Anglia; on Indian Painting at SOAS; and on both Indian and Islamic painting for Birkbeck College. Her principal research is into form and meaning in Persian and Mughal painting. Barbara curated the 2010 exhibition Epic of the Persian Kings at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and her books include Islamic Art (British Museum Press); The Emperor Akbar’s Khamsa of Nizami (British Library); Perspectives on Persian Painting: illustrations to Amir Khusrau’s Khamsah (RoutledgeCurzon); Muhammad Juki’s Shahnamah of Firdausi (Philip Wilson Publishers); with Charles Melville, Epic of the Persian Kings (I. B. Tauris); and Treasures of Herat: Two Timurid Khamsahs of Nizami Manuscripts (Gingko with British Library).
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