Pair of Book Covers Depicting Fath 'Ali Shah Hunting
Not on view
These lacquer panels depict Fath 'Ali Shah, second ruler of the Qajar dynasty (r. 1797–1834) and his sons and courtiers engaged in the royal pursuit of hunting. In one panel the shah and his sons are depicted as falconers and in the other the group is hunting stags. Attention has been lavished on the realistic rendition of the faces to the extent that it is possible to identify a few of the princes represented. Two of them may be Crown Prince 'Abbas Mirza (d. 1833), who was to succeed the shah, and prince Muhammad Ali Mirza. Here, the interest in naturalism is particularly noteworthy since the panel was most likely painted before the introduction of photography into Iran in circa 1844.
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