The Coronation of the Infant Shapur the Second (Folio of the Shahnama)

Muzaffar Ali, also referred to as Shah Muzaffar, was a highly influential and skilled artist of the Safavid era, developing what would become the common aesthetic of the era's paintings. Creating work across multiple Safavid court libraries, he was often commissioned by the royal family, including Bahram Mirza and Ibrahim Mirza, both admirers of art and literature. Ali had a notable variety of skills at his disposal, from calligraphy, layout design, illumination, painting and further that had cemented him to be known as one of the earliest known graphic designers. Believed to have been commissioned in the early 1520s by the Safavid dynasty founder Shah Isma'il, for his son, The Royal Shahnama manuscript features this painting by Muzaffar Ali. It depicts the Shah's coronation, occurring when he was a child which is why Ali had depicted the Shah as quite small in comparison to the adults around him. One of the scripts written above the painting translates to "Successful in your fortune, sit happily on the throne of glory!", which highlights an interesting point for Ali, who would be addressing the Shah himself many years after he had begun sitting upon that throne. Furthermore, Ali has given much of the composition to the servants who surround the then-child Shah, in conversation; delivering gifts or guarding the way, all of which informs a positive dynamic between Ali as a court artist and the servants of the court. While this is one of many classical Persian paintings, particularly within a highly regarded manuscript, Muzaffar Ali took the time to ensure it included much more than just the royal who commissioned it: it included the people often hidden within the courts, intricate patterns that defined the motifs of Safavid painting, and even a depiction of nature that belonged entirely to the Persian aesthetic, what Ali himself had driven to its highest.