The Royal Square of Isfahan

The artwork

At the top, just right of the royal palace gateway, a slender pole rises above every roof in the square: according to the engraved text it was used at public festivals “à tirer à la tasse”, to shoot at a cup. You receive it printed on handmade Amalfi paper, in a handmade frame.

• The great square of Isfahan, with the gateways of the Royal Mosque and the Imperial Bazaar.
• In a living room or above a desk, the rows of buildings bring order to the wall.
• A gift for anyone who has travelled in Iran or loves Persian art.

The square is Naqsh-e Jahan, redesigned by Shah Abbas the Great, who made Isfahan his capital in 1598: over half a kilometre long and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was also the court's playing field. The pole served for qabaq-andazi, archery at a target on top of a mast, and at the two ends of the square stood the polo goals: stone goalposts from the seventeenth century are still there. The Persians do all their exercises on horseback, the plate notes, as Paris had seen in February 1715 with the retinue of the Persian ambassador, received by Louis XIV in the Hall of Mirrors.

This is plate 29 of volume five of the Atlas Historique, printed in Amsterdam and attributed to Henri Abraham Châtelain: a copper engraving from 1719. Above the French text run the two long sides of the square; below, the entrances of the Royal Mosque and the Imperial Market frame a pavilion of the palace. Among the curiosities in the text are 110 cannons in front of the palace, taken at Hormuz, and a bell on the market gate that had belonged to nuns in Hormuz and was never rung. The copy reproduced here comes from the David Rumsey Map Collection.

In a living room or above a desk, it is a gift for anyone who has travelled in Iran or loves Persian art. And up there, beside the palace, the pole is still waiting for the next festival.

Unique quality material

Print on handmade Amalfi paper
Sheet size: 40 x 60 cm (15.7 x 23.6 in)
With frame: 42 x 62 cm (16.5 x 24.4 in)
Material: artwork printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with deckled edges
Frame: dark brown with gold fillet, handmade, with glass