Four young scholars in discussion, signed by Muhammad Murad Samarqandi, Persia, Safavid, Bukhara, early 17th century

gouache heightened with gold on paper, inner border of linked geometric cartouches filled with stretched flowing split palmettes, outer margins ruled in red and gold, filled with dense intertwining foliage interspersed with animals and figures riding, conversing and running, laid down on card

Sotheby's London, 10 October 1977, lot 129

Robert Skelton, 'Relations between Mughal and Central Asian painting in the seventeenth century', in J.Guy (ed.), Indian Art & Connoisseurship, Essays in Honour of Douglas Barrett, Middletown NJ, 1995, p.283, fig.4.  

In generally good overall condition, colours vivd, some minor areas of rubbing, abrasions to leaf edges, and stuck down on card, as viewed.
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inscriptions

raqm-i muhammad murad samarqandi

The present painting represents the work of a truly remarkable artist. One of only a handful of known works of Muhammad Murad Samarqandi, active in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, this illustrated leaf bears witness to this artist's inimitable and thoroughly individual style. In private hands since its sale in these rooms in 1977, this painting provides arguably the most impressive and complete example of his known works to date.

To a certain extent Muhammad Murad Samarqandi remains an enigma, and indeed his characteristic style of painting, almost caricatural in its irreverence and originality, sets him apart from his contemporaries. Robert Skelton, in his discussion of Mughal and Central Asian painting in the seventeenth century, has drawn attention to Samarqandi’s “mature style” which first appears in a copy of Sa’di’s Bustan in the Chester Beatty Library (Ms.Pers.297, f.159b). In both Samarqandi’s contributions to the manuscript his wildly imaginative style is clearly evident, especially in contrast to the efforts of his fellow artists Muhammad Sharif and Muhammad Darwish (see R. Skelton, ‘Relations between Mughal and Central Asian painting in the seventeenth century’, in J. Guy (ed.), Indian Art & Connoisseurship, NJ, 1995, p.279-81, figs.2 & 3). We can draw a number of comparisons with the present work and the second of his paintings in this manuscript (‘A picnic being prepared’), particularly the overtly expressive faces and movements of the figures, as well as the knotted tree emanating firecracker leaves and the gazelles perched on the rocks surmounting the whole scene (see ibid, p.291, pl.17).

The present work is one of three album pages recorded by Muhammad Murad Samarqandi, but the only one in which the artist is responsible for both the borders and the main image. The other two appear to once have formed a double-page opening, but are now separated and are in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington (S1986.304) and Louvre, Paris (OA 7109), the latter once owned by Demotte (published in F.R. Martin, The Miniature Painting and Painters of Persia, India and Turkey, vol.II, London, 1912, pl.263). The artist of the main image on both these pages is again Muhammad Sharif, a refined and confident effort, but in turning to the impassioned rhythm of the vibrant borders (considerably more crowded than the present leaf’s), Skelton notes that “…Whatever their relative status in the studio, there is no question as to who was the inspired master” (ibid, p.282).

Whilst the main image of the present leaf demonstrates Samarqandi’s dreamlike compositions and eccentric use of colour, it is his border decoration which is virtuosic in its execution. Demonstrating a deft hand in the mastery of the leafy arabesques, the artist has conveyed his sense of humour with the comic vignettes interspersed between the vines; in the lower margin a horseman points a reproachful finger at an attendant offering wine; the figure in the left margin strokes the feathers of his falcon whilst a hare with furrowed brow hides behind the stump of a tree, and the upper margin depicts a skipping youth playing a stringed instrument being chased by a companion on horseback. Amid these playful scenes perch screeching birds and intertwined dragons in combat.

There exist four further unsigned works which may also be the work of Muhammad Murad Samarqandi. These are as follows: a portrait of a ‘Puzzling Amir of Bukhara’ (published in S.C. Welch, Wonders of the Age, Harvard, 1979, pp.204-5, no.80, and attributed by Welch to Shaykh Muhammad); a study of a dervish in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, (in E. Blochet, Musulman Painting, London, 1929, pl.CLV); a further portrait in the BN of a dervish (on stilts) which bears a number of similarities to Samarqandi’s work in the treatment of the serpents and faces (ibid, pl.CC), and finally a drawing in the Fogg Art Museum known as the ‘Mystical Journey’ (published in A. Welch, Shah ‘Abbas & the Arts of Isfahan, New York, 1973, pp.92-3, no.59), for which Skelton suggests Muhammad Murad Samarqandi might also be a contender as draughtsman.