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Fahri of Bursa

Page from a Poetry Album, late 1500s - early 1600s

Now On View

Description

Maker

Title

Page from a Poetry Album

Year

late 1500s - early 1600s

Medium

Gold paper script on blue paper

Materials/Techniques

Supports

Dimensions

17.1 x 10.5 cm (6 11/16 x 4 1/8 inches) Overall, mat size: A; Asian Art Department Carpenter Invento

Signature / Inscription / Marks

O Lord, may your felicity be daily increasing; may your noble foot be over the celestial sphere
Since you command the good and evil of the age, may your command and destiny be of the same content.
Jami?
(Translations by Wheeler Thackston, Professor of Persian and Other Near Eastern Languages, Harvard University)

Place

Turkey

Type

Credit

Anonymous gift

Object Number

17.490

Projects & Publications

Publications

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Text, Paratext, and Images

September 1, 2020 - July 24, 2021

In this striking example of papercutting, the artist meticulously cut out calligraphic letters and adhered them onto a richly colored background. The slanted text, appearing as if it were penned in gold ink, shows the artist’s virtuosity.

The script is a short poem addressed to a ruler, acknowledging his power. It reads:
“O Lord, may your felicity be daily increasing; may your noble foot be over the celestial sphere
Since you command the good and evil of the age, may your command and destiny be of the same content.”

Translation by Wheeler Thackston, Harvard University, published in Glimpses of Grandeur, RISD Museum Exhibition Notes 8 (Fall 1999).

Related

Fahri of Bursa

Papercut from a poetry album, late 1500s - early 1600s

Fahri of Bursa

Papercut from a Poetry Album, late 1500s - early 1600s

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Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Page from a Poetry Album with the accession number of 17.490. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.