Plates 83 and 84 from Cornelis de Bruyn's travels in Persia
Artist and author: Cornelis de Bruyn (1652–1727), Dutch painter and traveller, who drew every view from life
Place today: Sa'adat Abad, the Safavid royal garden palace at Isfahan, Iran
Published: Amsterdam, first issued 1711 in Reizen over Moskovie, door Persie en Indie, reissued in the French Voyages de Corneille le Brun, 1718
Technique: copperplate engraving on laid paper
Plate mark: 13 x 11.25 in (33 x 29 cm)
Sheet: 19 x 16 in (48 x 41 cm)
Two views on one large folio sheet, both lettered SADET-ABAD and keyed with reference letters. The upper view looks along the royal pleasure grounds of Sa'adat Abad on the Zayandeh Rud at Isfahan: a great open talar pavilion (A) carried on tall slender wooden columns under a wide flat roof, with a long arcaded terrace and bridge (B and C) running away to the right, and horsemen, a camel and figures on the open ground before it. The lower view takes in the same complex from across the water, with a magnificent multi-arched Safavid bridge stretching the width of the plate, arcaded pavilions at the left, and the bare mountains behind Isfahan on the horizon. Riders splash across the shallows while two women in long wraps stand in the foreground.
De Bruyn spent roughly a year in Isfahan in 1704 and 1705, drawing the Safavid capital at the height of its splendour, and these plates record a palace and gardens that have almost entirely vanished. He was unusual among travellers of his time in drawing everything from life rather than working up other men's sketches, which is why his views are still used as evidence of what these places looked like. The bridges he shows here are the great Safavid crossings of the Zayandeh Rud, built to carry a court and its trade across a river that runs dry for months at a time.
Condition: a clean, even impression on a full untrimmed sheet of watermarked laid paper, with its original centre fold, as issued in a folio volume. The watermark shows clearly when the sheet is held to the light. There is light scattered foxing in the margins, a few small nicks and short tears at the sheet edges, and gentle overall toning. The engraved image is clean and unaffected. The reverse is blank apart from show-through. Please see the photos.
This is an original 18th-century copperplate engraving, not a reproduction.
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