ManuscriptsPersian15th-16th century

The Constellation Cassiopeia (painting, recto; text, verso), folio from an Arabic manuscript of the Kitab Suwar al-Kawakib of al-Sufi

late 15th-early 16th century

Description

Gold disks scattered across this seated figure mark the major stars of the constellation Cassiopeia. Named “The Enthroned One” (dhat al-kursi) in Arabic, this constellation of the Northern Hemisphere was pictured in antiquity as the beautiful, but tragically vain, Queen Cassiopeia of Greek mythology. The painting was part of a now-dispersed manuscript of al-Sufi’s Book of the Fixed Stars, a tenth-century astronomical manual that expanded and updated Ptolemy’s Almagest, integrating it with the rich star lore and nomenclature of the Anwa', the pre-Islamic Arabic tradition. For each of the forty-eight constellations, al-Sufi provided a description, a star chart, and two images, the first as seen on a celestial globe and the second as it appeared in the heavens. The rubric above her states that the queen in this painting represents the constellation as viewed on a celestial globe. She wears a Persian crown topped by a fluttering plume, rather than the diadem of classical precedent. Although rendered in awkward perspective, the Western-style throne on which she perches adheres more closely to classical sources than does her crown, allowing the figure to sit “with her feet outstretched,” as the text requires. This painting and six others that can be associated with it suggest that the manuscript from which they were removed emphasized aesthetic over scientific aims. Whereas illustrations in astronomical texts are usually line drawings with, at most, translucent touches of color, these paintings employ the opaque pigments preferred for illustrating poetic narratives. More telling, perhaps, is the fact that none of the stars are labeled. Examined against transmitted light, this folio is revealed to be composed of two sheets of paper. The image of Cassiopeia is painted on a fragmentary sheet that has been pasted onto a larger text folio. It appears that there is a star chart on the reverse of the fragmentary sheet.

Classification

Manuscripts

Medium

Ink, gold, and opaque watercolor on paper

Culture

Persian

Period

Safavid period

Century

15th-16th century

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art