Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād

Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād gives advice to a respected Sufi mystic.

Kamāl ud-Dīn Behzād^[1] (c. 1450 – c. 1535), also known as Kamal al-din Bihzad or Kamaleddin Behzad (Persian: کمال‌الدین بهزاد‎‎), was a Persian painter and head of the royal ateliers in Herat and Tabriz during the late Timurid and early Safavid Persian periods.

Biography

Although very little information is known about the geographical background of the artist, it is known that he lived in the time of the Timurids, and later in Tabriz under the Safavid dynasty. An orphan, he was raised by the prominent painter Mirak Naqqash, and was a protégé of Mir Ali Shir Nava'i. His major patrons in Herat were the Timurid sultan Husayn Bayqarah (ruled 1469 - 1506) and other amirs in his circle. After the fall of the Hamad, he was employed by Shah Ismail I Safavi in Tabriz, where, as director of the royal atelier, he had a decisive impact on the development of later Safavid painting. Behzad died in 1535 and his tomb is located in Herat, in Saeede Mukhtar which is located in north of Herat city on the top of a hill. A statue of Behzad is placed in 2-Kamal Tomb.

Career and style

Behzad is the most famous of Sufi symbolism and symbolic colour to convey meaning. He introduced greater naturalism to Persian painting, particularly in the depiction of more individualised figures and the use of realistic gestures and expressions.

Behzad's most famous works include "The Seduction of Yusuf" from Sa'di's Bustan of 1488, and paintings from the British Library's Nizami manuscript of 1494-95 - particularly scenes from Layla and Majnun and the Haft Paykar (see accompanying image). The attribution of specific paintings to Behzad himself is often problematic (and, many academics would now argue, unimportant),^[1] but the majority of works commonly attributed to him date from 1488 to 1495.

He is also mentioned in Orhan Pamuk's famous novel "My Name is Red" as one of the greatest Persian miniature painters.

Gallery

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  Battleground of Timur and the Mamluk Sultan of Egypt.

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  The construction of castle Khavarnaq (Arabic الخورنق) in al-Hira, c. 1494-1495 C.E.

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  A miniature painting by Bihzad illustrating the funeral of the elderly Attar of Nishapur after he was held captive and killed by a Mongol invader.

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  Yusef and Zuleykha

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  A miniature painting from the Iskandarnama

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  A miniature painting from the Iskandarnama

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  The hunting ground.

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  Beheading of a King

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  Sultan Hussein

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  Timur granting audience on the occasion of his accession

See also

• Persian miniature
• List of Persian painters
• (French) Behzad on the French WorldHeritage
• Begzada

Notes

References

• Brend, Barbara, Islamic Art, London, 1991.
• Chapman, Sarah, “Mathematics and Meaning in the Structure and Composition of Timurid Miniature Painting”, Persica, Vol. XIX, 2003, pp. 33–68.
• Grabar, Oleg, "Mostly Miniatures: An introduction to Persion Painting" Princeton, 2000
• Gray, Basil, Persian Painting, London, 1977.
• Hillenbrand, Robert, Islamic Art and Architecture, London, 1999.
• Lentz, Thomas, and Lowry, Glenn D., Timur and the Princely Vision, Los Angeles, 1989.
• Lentz, Thomas, “Changing Worlds: Bihzad and the New Painting,” Persian Masters: Five Centuries of Painting, ed., Sheila R. Canby, Bombay, 1990, pp. 39–54.
• Milstein, Rachel, “Sufi Elements in Late Fifteenth Century Herat Painting”, Studies in Memory of Gaston Wiet, ed., M. Rosen-Ayalon, Jerusalem, 1977, pp. 357–70.
• Rice, David Talbot, Islamic Art, 2nd ed., London, 1975.
• Rice, David Talbot, Islamic Painting: a Survey, Edinburgh, 1971.
• Robinson, Basil W., Fifteenth Century Persian Painting: Problems and Issues, New York, 1991.
• Roxburgh, David J., “Kamal al-Din Bihzad and Authorship in Persianate Painting,” Muqarnas, Vol. XVII, 2000, pp. 119–146.

External links

• Video from the Asia Society, US