Publication Date
Approx 1450
Publication Place
Iran -
Aga Khan Museum
Subject
Opaque watercolor, ink, gold and silver on paper
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Physical Dimensions
21.3 × 14.7 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
AKM43
Record ID
object;EPM;ca;Mus21;23;ar
Library Location
Aga Khan Museum
Date
Approx 1450
Notes
The lady in this saffron-colored dress and crown-like helmet is a personification of the constellation Andromeda, which was discovered in the second century BC by the astronomer Ptolemy and continues to be considered a major constellation. With the translation of Ptolemy's book by the Almagest in the ninth century from the court of Caliph Al-Ma'mun in Baghdad, astronomers who worked under the patronage of the Muslim rulers in what is known today as Iraq and Iran adopted Greco-Roman astronomical knowledge and added to it their own to form the science of the stars. The Arab and Indian traditions in this drawing combine Andromeda with the sign of Pisces. Among the most distinctive examples of this tradition is “Images of the Fixed Stars,” which was written by the Iranian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi (died in 986), which contained two representations of each constellation, one giving its appearance looking up from the earth and the other looking down from the sky. Al-Sufi’s work continued to circulate widely, and many copies of it exist in the collections of major museums.
Sample Text
“A representation of the constellations of the Andromeda Galaxy and Pisces, a scattered page from the book Pictures of the Planets (Images of the Fixed Planets)” within Discover Islamic Art Collections. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;ca;Mus21;23;ar
Bu sayfanın künyesi
MWNF Working Number: CA1 23
