THE COLLECTION OF MR. ALAISTER McKELVIE
FIRST SESSION
LOTS 1-196
ANTIQUE EGYPTIAN USHEBTI
1 CARVED WOODEN USHEBTI EGYPT, SAITE PERIOD
A female figure with the hands held high above the head. (Sold as is) Height, about 6 1/2 inches

PROBABLY REPRESENTING FATH ALI SHAH, THE KHADJAR SULTAN OF PERSIA AND HIS COURT
The painting is composed in three rows, each row with eight portraits. The upper row shows bearded men with high tiara-shaped crowns, studded with jewels. In the middle and lower row are the portraits of sixteen young pages of noble family, attached to the sovereign through the sentiment of devotion as well as by the ties of blood.....
A superficial spectator might call this painting a work in the Eurp[ean manner, medium and technique being European. Yet the entire composition is of an intense Oriental charm. No European painter of this period would have dared to represent twenty-four portraits in such a naive and primitive way, reminiscent of an almost mediaeval mentality, which gives to the painting the power of monumental unity. In spite of the modelling and shading of the heads in European style, the interpretation of the gayly patterned brocade garments, of the jewel-studded swords, daggers and armlets is conceived in purely Oriental style, and the balancing of reds and orange against bluish greens shows the great tradition of Oriental painting still alive.
This Oriental tradition, combined with the simplicity of the conception, gives to this work of a later and sophisticated period the charm of naive simplicity and architectonic greatness. To appreciate it, we have to be either entirely naive or thoroughly sophisticated.