"Three Bamboo Plants," Folio from a De Materia Medica

Unknown

ca. 1595 · Opaque color on paper · Islamic Art

This rare painting was once part of a Persian-language manuscript of the De Materia Medica, created in Bijapur in the Deccan for Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II (r. 1579–1627). The text was written by Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides in the first century A.D., and was translated into Arabic in the medieval period. This page would have originally been part of a Persian manuscript translated from the Arabic version. Bamboo was known as a healing plant in India and was used as a tonic for respiratory diseases.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1595

Medium

Opaque color on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions and 2020 Benefit Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks Gift; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; The Mossavar-Rahmani Fund for Iranian Art and funds from various donors, 2022