Moʿin Moṣavver | Individual Drawings and Paintings
Painting circa 1670.3
Shah ʿAbbās and a Page
Location: Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Art Museums, Arthur M. Sachler Museum, no.1960.48. Gift of John Goelet.
Painting: (H x W) 21.3 x 25.4 x 10.8 cm. Sheet: 29.5 x 19.2 cm.
Signature: Unsigned but dated 1042/1632-33, but probably finished in the second half of the seventeenth century..
Inscription
At the top: šebh-e bandegān-e navāb-e ašraf-e arfaʿ aǧdas šāh ʿabbās ṣafavi bahādor ḵān dar sana 1042 [?] ba etmām rasid. Translation: “The likeness of His Excellency, the most high and holy lord, Shåh ʿAbbās Safavi Bahādor Khan, completed in the year 1042 [probably]/1632-33.” The inscription is unsigned but in the handwriting of Moʿin Moṣavver. It difficult to ascertain with any degree of certaity the year actually written.
Description:
Two figures are portrayed standing, facing the left, on a plain background. Shah ʿAbbås is on the left, his right hand extended offering a shallow dish of drink to someone outside the picture, and his left hand resting on his encased bow. He wears a fur hat, a pink jacket that buttons down the front, tight fitting pants, and knee high boots. A sword and encased bow hang from his belt. Behind him, to the right, is a youthful page, similarly attired and clutching a wine jug to his waist.
Bibliography:
Welch, SA_1973, no.85 (ill.).
Simpson, Fogg_1980, pp.52, 96-97, no.36 (ill).
Bier, Textile_1987, ill. p. 216. | Kangal, Isbank_2000, p.52, fig.13. | Noel, Kings_2002, p.122, fig.1. | Tan, Isfahan_2010, image p.14
Commentary:
Although unsigned, the inscription appears to be Moʿin’s handwriting (cf. 1650.4 and 1674.1). The painting style too, is that of the master. Compare, for example, the portrayal of Shah ʿAbbås with the Man Attacked by a Dragon (1676.4), and the Portrait of Ḥakim Šafāʿi (1674.1). Some aspects of the painting are, however, puzzling. The composition is apparently derived from a Reżā ʿAbbāsi painting in Leningrad depicting the meeting of Shah ʿAbbās and Khan ʿĀlam (ill., Savory, SA_1979, vol. 1, frontispiece). That painting is dated 1042/1633, some years later than the actual event which took place in 1618. Thus, one might speculate that it was painted to either replace a painting contemporary with the event, or as a commerative 13 years after the event. Shah ʿAbbās and the page in the Harvard miniature are clearly patterned after the same two figures in the upper right of the Leningrad painting, but it is clear that the Harvard miniature represents only part of the composition; Khan ʿĀlam, the intended recipient of the dish of wine, is not shown. It could be that the artist intended for the Harvard painting to only include what it does now, but that leaves Shah ʿAbbās with his arm awkwardly extended offering a cup of wine to nobody. Alternately, the painting may have included Khan ʿĀlam, but was trimmed out at some later date, perhaps because of damage. A third depiction of the same event is in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Ms. Arabe 6077, ff. 10v and 11). It too is patterned after the Leningrad miniature, albeit through an intermediary. Although “signed” by Moʿin Moṣavver, it is dated 1103/1701, and evidently the work of one of Moʿin’s followers. Germain to the issue under discussion is that the Bibliothèque Nationale composition is spread across two facing pages, Shah ʿAbbās and a page on folio 10v, and Khan ʿĀlam on folio 11, leading to yet another possibility, that the Harvard miniature might also be only one half of a double page composition.
Another perplexing aspect of the Harvard miniature is the year recorded in the inscription, which has been subject to varying interpretations. Although admitting that the painting was probably finished years later, Welch reads the date 1042/1632-33 as the time the painting was first begun, because it corresponds to the date on the Leningrad picture by Reżā. Convenient as this may be, it is the only plausible explanation to date. The painting could date originally from Reżā's time, but certainly finished many years later, possibly about 1670.
As an aside, however, regardless of what year the artist intended in the inscription, if one were to read the date without any foreknowledge of the time of the event, other renditions, or stylistic considerations, one could inevitably interpret it as 1022/1613. And curiously, this is precisely the date that appears on folio 10v of the Bibliothèque National version, as the alleged year of Khan ʿĀlam’s visit. Subsequently, one is led to conclude that the artist that painted the Bibliothèque Nationale version used the Harvard painting as a model, and misread the date recorded in the inscription.
Photo courtesy of Harvard Art Museums, Arthur M. Sachler Museum, Gift of John Goelet.. Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Robert Eng
Last Updated: December 4, 2018 | Originally published: December 4, 2018
Painting circa 1670.3
Shah ʿAbbās and a Page
Location: Cambridge, Mass., Harvard Art Museums, Arthur M. Sachler Museum, no.1960.48. Gift of John Goelet.
Painting: (H x W) 21.3 x 25.4 x 10.8 cm. Sheet: 29.5 x 19.2 cm.
Signature: Unsigned but dated 1042/1632-33, but probably finished in the second half of the seventeenth century..
Inscription
At the top: šebh-e bandegān-e navāb-e ašraf-e arfaʿ aǧdas šāh ʿabbās ṣafavi bahādor ḵān dar sana 1042 [?] ba etmām rasid. Translation: “The likeness of His Excellency, the most high and holy lord, Shåh ʿAbbās Safavi Bahādor Khan, completed in the year 1042 [probably]/1632-33.” The inscription is unsigned but in the handwriting of Moʿin Moṣavver. It difficult to ascertain with any degree of certaity the year actually written.
Description:
Two figures are portrayed standing, facing the left, on a plain background. Shah ʿAbbås is on the left, his right hand extended offering a shallow dish of drink to someone outside the picture, and his left hand resting on his encased bow. He wears a fur hat, a pink jacket that buttons down the front, tight fitting pants, and knee high boots. A sword and encased bow hang from his belt. Behind him, to the right, is a youthful page, similarly attired and clutching a wine jug to his waist.
Bibliography:
Welch, SA_1973, no.85 (ill.).
Simpson, Fogg_1980, pp.52, 96-97, no.36 (ill).
Bier, Textile_1987, ill. p. 216. | Kangal, Isbank_2000, p.52, fig.13. | Noel, Kings_2002, p.122, fig.1. | Tan, Isfahan_2010, image p.14
Commentary:
Although unsigned, the inscription appears to be Moʿin’s handwriting (cf. 1650.4 and 1674.1). The painting style too, is that of the master. Compare, for example, the portrayal of Shah ʿAbbås with the Man Attacked by a Dragon (1676.4), and the Portrait of Ḥakim Šafāʿi (1674.1). Some aspects of the painting are, however, puzzling. The composition is apparently derived from a Reżā ʿAbbāsi painting in Leningrad depicting the meeting of Shah ʿAbbās and Khan ʿĀlam (ill., Savory, SA_1979, vol. 1, frontispiece). That painting is dated 1042/1633, some years later than the actual event which took place in 1618. Thus, one might speculate that it was painted to either replace a painting contemporary with the event, or as a commerative 13 years after the event. Shah ʿAbbās and the page in the Harvard miniature are clearly patterned after the same two figures in the upper right of the Leningrad painting, but it is clear that the Harvard miniature represents only part of the composition; Khan ʿĀlam, the intended recipient of the dish of wine, is not shown. It could be that the artist intended for the Harvard painting to only include what it does now, but that leaves Shah ʿAbbās with his arm awkwardly extended offering a cup of wine to nobody. Alternately, the painting may have included Khan ʿĀlam, but was trimmed out at some later date, perhaps because of damage. A third depiction of the same event is in the Bibliothèque Nationale (Ms. Arabe 6077, ff. 10v and 11). It too is patterned after the Leningrad miniature, albeit through an intermediary. Although “signed” by Moʿin Moṣavver, it is dated 1103/1701, and evidently the work of one of Moʿin’s followers. Germain to the issue under discussion is that the Bibliothèque Nationale composition is spread across two facing pages, Shah ʿAbbās and a page on folio 10v, and Khan ʿĀlam on folio 11, leading to yet another possibility, that the Harvard miniature might also be only one half of a double page composition.
Another perplexing aspect of the Harvard miniature is the year recorded in the inscription, which has been subject to varying interpretations. Although admitting that the painting was probably finished years later, Welch reads the date 1042/1632-33 as the time the painting was first begun, because it corresponds to the date on the Leningrad picture by Reżā. Convenient as this may be, it is the only plausible explanation to date. The painting could date originally from Reżā's time, but certainly finished many years later, possibly about 1670.
As an aside, however, regardless of what year the artist intended in the inscription, if one were to read the date without any foreknowledge of the time of the event, other renditions, or stylistic considerations, one could inevitably interpret it as 1022/1613. And curiously, this is precisely the date that appears on folio 10v of the Bibliothèque National version, as the alleged year of Khan ʿĀlam’s visit. Subsequently, one is led to conclude that the artist that painted the Bibliothèque Nationale version used the Harvard painting as a model, and misread the date recorded in the inscription.
Photo courtesy of Harvard Art Museums, Arthur M. Sachler Museum, Gift of John Goelet.. Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Robert Eng
Last Updated: December 4, 2018 | Originally published: December 4, 2018
