Calligraphic Composition in Découpage

Location: Iran or India

Materials: ink, gold and opaque watercolour on paper; mounted on card

Dimensions: 23.9 x 13.8cm (main panel); 35 x 22.2 (page)

Accession Number: CAL 117

Other Notes:

The text, a poem in Arabic, was cut-out from a sheet of pink paper which was then pasted down onto a sheet of pale blue paper, so the words appear in blue on a pink ground. The colophon, which is also in découpage, is in the lower triangle.

Script:

cut-out text and border panels executed in nasta‘liq script

Bibliography:

N.F. Safwat, The Art of the Pen. Calligraphy of the 14th to 20th Centuries, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, volume V, London 1996, cat.135, pp.195–6.