Calligraphic Composition in Découpage

Location: Ottoman Turkey

Materials: gold on tinted papers; pasted on card within borders of blue paper

Dimensions: 17.8 x 10.7cm (main panel); 20.9 x 13.5 (page)

Accession Number: CAL 30

Other Notes:

The four-line poem celebrates the birthday of someone named Ibrahim who was obviously of some importance and may be the incumbent Grand Vizier, Nevshehirli Damand Ibrahim Pasha.

The words were cut from white paper and pasted inside cloud cartouches reserved on gold-painted ground. The floral decoration in the triangles is also executed in découpage.

Script:

calligraphy executed in ta‘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.137, pp.196–7.