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Lot Essay
This superb drawing of a youth kneeling in a landscape has been attributed to the great artist and polymath of the late 16th century Sadiqi Beg. It displays an astounding surety of hand and exquisite draughtsmanship.
The calligraphic lines of the figure and drapery are simultaneously firm and delicate and the landscape is brilliantly rendered. Sadiqi Beg’s masterful use of lines of varying thickness in the figure, the drapery, the leafy flowers and clouds convey a palpable sense of spontaneity and animation reinforced by the impression that a breeze is propelling the dragon-like clouds across the sky. The refinement of the ink drawing is further enhanced by the subtle use of colours, with pale blue and yellow washes and sudden glints of bright gold in the turban cap, earring, buttons and dagger.
Anthony Welch commented that this “brilliantly rendered stereotype of ideal beauty is an excellent example of Sadiqi Beg’s work”, and that the beauty of the drawing was related to its function; the couplet at the top, which alludes to the transience of youth and beauty, suggesting that it was intended to be offered as a gift (Welch and Welch 1982, p. 107; Welch 2000, p.302).
Although by the time this drawing was produced Sadiqi Beg was an artist of the older generation, the influence of the emerging calligraphic style that came to be associated with the works of his younger colleague Reza Abbasi are already showing in this work, and he employs it in a supremely confident manner, demonstrating a great ability to innovate and adapt.
There are several closely comparable drawings signed by or ascribed to Sadiqi Beg that portray a youth in a similar pose. The closest two are in the Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul (H.2146) and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Suppl. Pers. 1171, f.3v, see Stchoukine 1964, pl.XXX). The drawing in Istanbul, signed “Sadiqi Beg”, shows a kneeling youth in a similar landscape setting to the present figure and wearing similar garments. In addition to the similar overall style and pose, certain closely comparable details are worth noting, such as the thin, firm mouth and the shape of the head, the wispy hair, the turban, the curved lines of the knees and the fall of the drapery where his robe spreads out covering his feet behind his legs. The rendering of the rocks in the landscape background is also similar. As Canby pointed out (1998, p.73), the Paris drawing ascribed to Sadiqi Beg is also very close in pose and calligraphic line, in the wispy strands of hair, and especially in the mouth, a distinctive feature consisting of a single horizontal line with a faint secondary line beneath, giving more of a suggestion of lips, perhaps firmly closed, than a fully drawn mouth. Although the Paris example lacks the landscape background, the figure has a similar sense of corporeality. A further similar drawing ascribed to Sadiqi Beg is in the same album in Paris (BNF, Suppl. Pers. 1171, fol.39v, see Stchoukine 1964, pl.XXXI), while a drawing signed “mashaqahu Sadiqi”, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (EA1978.2570), depicts an older man with a beard in the same kneeling pose.
This composition was a popular one in the late 16th and 17th century, and among versions by other artists are examples by Reza Abbasi, whose early career overlapped with Sadiqi Beg’s later years. Perhaps the closest is a drawing dated 1610 in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Marlay, Pers. 40, see Canby 1996, cat.51, p.91).
Sadiqi Beg was one of the most remarkable and accomplished figures of the late 16th and early 17th century Iran. Due to the autobiographic aspects of his writings, as well as his long life and many extant works, a great deal more is known about his life and career than most Persian artists. As well as being a superb artist and draughtsman, he was a poet, an important chronicler and biographer, an accomplished calligrapher, spoke several languages and dialects, spent time both as a dervish and as a soldier (fighting bravely at the Battle of Astarabad in 1581), and was a court painter to three shahs (Tahmasp, Isma‘il II and Abbas I) as well as royal librarian to Shah Abbas I.
Born into a leading family in Tabriz in 1533-4, he first studied poetry under Mir San‘i at Tabriz. In 1568 he moved to Qazvin and at the relatively mature age of thirty-four began studying painting under Muzaffar Ali, one of the great masters of the previous age. His inherent talent was quickly appreciated and he entered the royal atelier, working for Shah Tahmasp and Shah Isma‘il II in Qazvin, and after a period away from the royal atelier between 1578 and 1588, he returned to Qazvin upon the accession of Shah Abbas I and was appointed as royal librarian. His range as an artist was equally remarkable, contributing illustrations to Garshaspnama produced for Shah Tahmasp (British Library, Or. MS.12985) and to the Shahnama manuscripts produced for Shah Isma ‘il II (1576, dispersed) and Shah Abbas I (1590-1600, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Per. 277), painting numerous single-page studies, pioneering experimentation with European prints (Harvard Art Museums, 1999.289, see McWilliams 2004). He wrote poetry and highly significant treatises on painting and painters, including the Qanun al-Sawar (Canons of Painting, c.1576-1602, written in verse), and the “Concourse of the Elite” (Majma‘ al-Khawass, early 1590s). He died in Isfahan in 1610. For the fullest description and discussion of his life and works see Welch 1976, pp.41-100. See also Bloom and Blair 2009, vol.3, pp.16-1; Barry 2004, pp.185-188; Bailey 2000; Skelton 2000; McWilliams 2004.
The calligraphic lines of the figure and drapery are simultaneously firm and delicate and the landscape is brilliantly rendered. Sadiqi Beg’s masterful use of lines of varying thickness in the figure, the drapery, the leafy flowers and clouds convey a palpable sense of spontaneity and animation reinforced by the impression that a breeze is propelling the dragon-like clouds across the sky. The refinement of the ink drawing is further enhanced by the subtle use of colours, with pale blue and yellow washes and sudden glints of bright gold in the turban cap, earring, buttons and dagger.
Anthony Welch commented that this “brilliantly rendered stereotype of ideal beauty is an excellent example of Sadiqi Beg’s work”, and that the beauty of the drawing was related to its function; the couplet at the top, which alludes to the transience of youth and beauty, suggesting that it was intended to be offered as a gift (Welch and Welch 1982, p. 107; Welch 2000, p.302).
Although by the time this drawing was produced Sadiqi Beg was an artist of the older generation, the influence of the emerging calligraphic style that came to be associated with the works of his younger colleague Reza Abbasi are already showing in this work, and he employs it in a supremely confident manner, demonstrating a great ability to innovate and adapt.
There are several closely comparable drawings signed by or ascribed to Sadiqi Beg that portray a youth in a similar pose. The closest two are in the Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul (H.2146) and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (Suppl. Pers. 1171, f.3v, see Stchoukine 1964, pl.XXX). The drawing in Istanbul, signed “Sadiqi Beg”, shows a kneeling youth in a similar landscape setting to the present figure and wearing similar garments. In addition to the similar overall style and pose, certain closely comparable details are worth noting, such as the thin, firm mouth and the shape of the head, the wispy hair, the turban, the curved lines of the knees and the fall of the drapery where his robe spreads out covering his feet behind his legs. The rendering of the rocks in the landscape background is also similar. As Canby pointed out (1998, p.73), the Paris drawing ascribed to Sadiqi Beg is also very close in pose and calligraphic line, in the wispy strands of hair, and especially in the mouth, a distinctive feature consisting of a single horizontal line with a faint secondary line beneath, giving more of a suggestion of lips, perhaps firmly closed, than a fully drawn mouth. Although the Paris example lacks the landscape background, the figure has a similar sense of corporeality. A further similar drawing ascribed to Sadiqi Beg is in the same album in Paris (BNF, Suppl. Pers. 1171, fol.39v, see Stchoukine 1964, pl.XXXI), while a drawing signed “mashaqahu Sadiqi”, in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (EA1978.2570), depicts an older man with a beard in the same kneeling pose.
This composition was a popular one in the late 16th and 17th century, and among versions by other artists are examples by Reza Abbasi, whose early career overlapped with Sadiqi Beg’s later years. Perhaps the closest is a drawing dated 1610 in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (Marlay, Pers. 40, see Canby 1996, cat.51, p.91).
Sadiqi Beg was one of the most remarkable and accomplished figures of the late 16th and early 17th century Iran. Due to the autobiographic aspects of his writings, as well as his long life and many extant works, a great deal more is known about his life and career than most Persian artists. As well as being a superb artist and draughtsman, he was a poet, an important chronicler and biographer, an accomplished calligrapher, spoke several languages and dialects, spent time both as a dervish and as a soldier (fighting bravely at the Battle of Astarabad in 1581), and was a court painter to three shahs (Tahmasp, Isma‘il II and Abbas I) as well as royal librarian to Shah Abbas I.
Born into a leading family in Tabriz in 1533-4, he first studied poetry under Mir San‘i at Tabriz. In 1568 he moved to Qazvin and at the relatively mature age of thirty-four began studying painting under Muzaffar Ali, one of the great masters of the previous age. His inherent talent was quickly appreciated and he entered the royal atelier, working for Shah Tahmasp and Shah Isma‘il II in Qazvin, and after a period away from the royal atelier between 1578 and 1588, he returned to Qazvin upon the accession of Shah Abbas I and was appointed as royal librarian. His range as an artist was equally remarkable, contributing illustrations to Garshaspnama produced for Shah Tahmasp (British Library, Or. MS.12985) and to the Shahnama manuscripts produced for Shah Isma ‘il II (1576, dispersed) and Shah Abbas I (1590-1600, Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, Per. 277), painting numerous single-page studies, pioneering experimentation with European prints (Harvard Art Museums, 1999.289, see McWilliams 2004). He wrote poetry and highly significant treatises on painting and painters, including the Qanun al-Sawar (Canons of Painting, c.1576-1602, written in verse), and the “Concourse of the Elite” (Majma‘ al-Khawass, early 1590s). He died in Isfahan in 1610. For the fullest description and discussion of his life and works see Welch 1976, pp.41-100. See also Bloom and Blair 2009, vol.3, pp.16-1; Barry 2004, pp.185-188; Bailey 2000; Skelton 2000; McWilliams 2004.