Shahpour Pouyan b. 1979
After Mohammed and Moses, 2017
Miniature on Japanese rice paper
53 x 47 cm
20 7/8 x 18 1/2 in
20 7/8 x 18 1/2 in
Copyright The Artist
Made after a unique and highly unusual manuscript in the Bibliotheque National in Paris, the miniature continues a series began in 2008, other examples of which are in The Met,...
Made after a unique and highly unusual manuscript in the Bibliotheque National in Paris, the miniature continues a series began in 2008, other examples of which are in The Met, The British Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The artwork reproduces the illustrated pages of an illuminated Mi’rajnama (Ascent of the Prophet) manuscript made in Timurid Herat and written in the Chaghatay Turkish language in an Uighur script - as culturally diverse as was possible in the 15th century. Pouyan digitally and manually manipulates the image to remove the figures and their attributes. Without their protagonists, what is left are arresting monochrome skyscapes of saturated blue, resembling colour field paintings in miniature.