An Ottoman Illustrated Scroll depicting the Day of Judgement, Turkey or Syria, late 17th/18th century

Gouache on paper, of long rectangular form, painted in pink, orange, green, light blue, yellow, dark red and brown tones, depicting scenes from the last judgement including heaven and hell, illustrated in a sequence from right to left and featuring two main figures, with a frame of floral scrolls, mounted in a glass frame   

In fairly good condition, some creases where scroll was rolled, some staining across edges and near areas of crease, some rubbing consistent with format of scroll and age, as viewed.
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Depicting the fate of souls at the Last Judgement, including archangels, the blessed (on the right) and the damned (on the left) with the angel Israfil in the centre, the sounder of the trumpet, the present piece represents a rare large format eschatological illustration reflecting both Armenian and Persian influences. The scroll to hand is most likely based on Shaykh Ahmad Misri's Qanun al-Dunya wa 'Aja'inna ('The Order of the World and Her Wonders'), another version of which can be found in the Topkapi Saray Museum, dated to 1563 from Egypt or Syria (see R. Ettinghausen, Arab Painting, Cleveland, 1962, p.180). A number of similarities exist between the present illustration and that of the Topkapi manuscript, particularly in the abstract manner the architectural space is rendered, and the flatness of the figures.

A further comparison to the present work, and one which provides us with a likely date of production, is another illustrated scroll acquired by the cartographer and explorer Carsten Niebuhr in 1765 on his Arabian voyage that took him from Copenhagan to India, via Turkey, Egypt and Iraq (1761-67). The scroll, from Karbala, depicts the Shi'a shrines and is closely comparable in style and palette to the present piece (see B. Dam-Mikkelsen and T. Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in The Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800, Copenhagen, 1980, pp.82-83, no.EEa1). The present work's floral decoration alse has a paricularly Armenian feel to it, and is reminiscent of ceramic decoration from Kutahya.The large format of the scroll suggests that it was intended for a large room, possibly as a teaching aid.