Khusrau brought before his father Hurmuzd; from the Khamza of Nizami

Description

This brilliantly-colored page is from an illustrated manuscript of an anthology of poems by Nizami (the 'Khamsa' or Quartet of Nizami), formerly in the collection of the Kervorkian Foundation. The slender youth at the lower right, dressed in a tunic of deep scarlet, is Khusrau. His father Hurmuzd, in a gown of orange, sits on a throne at the upper left, his left hand extended as though to indicate his willingness to listen to the two white-bearded counselors who plead Khusrau's case. The setting is a tiled interior room, furnished with imported Chinese blue-and-white ceramics and with an open window looking upon a garden. A guard stands in the doorway at the right edge of the composition. Dating from the mid-15th century, the work belongs stylistically to a group of paintings done under Turkish patronage in Iran, designated "Turkman style."