Asia Society Exhibition
Patricia Karetzky reviews: A Prince’s Manuscript Unbound: Muhammad Juki’s ‘Shahnamah’
725 Park Avenue and East 70th Street
February 9 – May 1, 2011
The show at the Asia Society Museum exhibits a very excellent illustrated Persian manuscript dating to the 15th century. The tome, on loan from the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, is an illuminated 15th-century volume. Commissioned by the Timurid prince Muhammad Juki (1402-1444), it has more than 30 delicate, polychrome and gold miniatures that are scenes from the Shahnamah (Book of Kings). In book formation the illustrations are accompanied by long passages of beautifully written text. Often set in landscapes, the works are lively interpretations of the privileged life of the Timurd princes – their costumes, jewels, weapons, palaces and more.
A second show slated for Exhibition at the Asia Society Museum on Gandharan Art, largely Buddhist stone bas relief sculptures dating from the 2nd to 4th century CE, has been indefinitely postponed due to difficulties with lenders in Pakistan.
