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Lot Essay
This is a highly significant and exquisitely elegant portrait by Muhammad Qasim, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 17th century, and may represent an idealised self-portrait of this well-known painter-poet.
For many decades the figure in the painting was been described as an anonymous youth holding a poem and dated to circa 1650 (see list of publications above). Anthony Welch and Sheila Canby commented on the fact that the figure may be a visual representation of the poetic verses held in the youth’s hands (A. Welch 1978, p.148; Canby 1998, p.79). Welch further commented that the poem uses established mystical metaphors as a panegyric for the painting’s owner: “The metaphor of the ‘three lips’ is frequent in Iranian mystical poetry and equates the beauty of the beloved with the beauty of the garden stream and with the beauty of the wine cup; the pious invocation at the top of the page underscores the two levels of meaning: longing for the earthly beloved is an intimation of the soul yearning for God” (Welch 2000, p.303). Welch further noted that Muhammad Qasim worked for Shah Abbas I, and suggested that in the invocation he was offering his obeisance both to God and to his royal patron (Welch and Welch 1982, p.110).
More recently, two scholars have reassessed the painting and have significantly changed our understanding of the portrait itself, the date and the artist. In 2003 Ada Adamova published an article in which she thoroughly reevaluated Muhammad Qasim’s career and concluded that he was not a pupil of Reza Abbasi, as had previously been thought, but a contemporary, being born before 1575, beginning his career in the 1590s and continuing to the mid-17th century, dying in AH 1070 / 1659 AD (Adamova 2003). She traced the development of his style and concluded that he had a very significant influence on the development of Persian painting of the 17th century in parallel with Reza Abbasi, rather than as pupil or follower. She also discussed his importance as a poet, a previously somewhat overlooked aspect, noting his description as such by Vali Quli Shamlu, the latter who also mentioned that Muhammad Qasim wrote under the pen-name Isfahani (Qisas al-khaqani), see Farhad 1985, p.119, fn.4; Adamova 2003, p.197). Adamova re-dated the present work to the period 1605 to 1627 and suggested that the verses inscribed on the page held in the youth’s hand were composed by Muhammad Qasim himself, pointing out that the words of the first couplet in the present painting appear again in another work by Muhammad Qasim, the well-known Shah Abbas embracing his page dated 1627, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (MAO 494, see Makariou 2012, p.457).
In 2007 the present painting was exhibited in Le Chante du Monde, L’Art de l’Iran Safavide, 1501-1736 at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. In the accompanying catalogue Souren Melikian-Chirvani argued firmly that the painting is in fact an idealised self-portrait of the artist, intended as the frontispiece of an album or Divan which would have had other works and possibly verses by Muhammad Qasim himself. Melikian-Chirvani stated that the wording of the Persian verses “leaves no doubt as to the painter’s intention. This text begins with the Sufi invocation to God, contained in a single word, uttered like an exclamation: ‘Him!’ After which, the four lines of a quatrain are calligraphed in a beautiful script that also testifies to the master's training as a professional calligrapher. … These vows wish happiness and a long life to the recipient. The second verse expresses the hyperbolic wish that the recipient live so long that they will recite the prayer for the dead at the graves of the entire world.” (Melikian-Chirvani 2007, p.390). He further stated that the particular formula used in the artist’s signature refers both to his service at the royal court and to an invocation to God on behalf of the one to whom a petition is presented or to whom a literary work is dedicated. Thus, given Muhammad Qasim’s status as a well-known poet as well as an artist, it was argued that in the present work his intention was to portray himself as both an artist and a poet, offering his own verses to the patron of the album and at the same time offering obeisance to the monarch and to God. Given the fine nasta‘liq script in which the verses are written, one might add that he was also portraying himself as a calligrapher.
This new appreciation of the portrait, along with Adamova’s re-dating to the first quarter of the 17th century, greatly enhances the already high significance of this painting and marks it out as a key work not only in Muhammad Qasim’s oeuvre, but also in the history and development of Safavid painting in the first half of the 17th century.
Muhammad Qasim’s superlative skills as an artist are fully evident in the present portrait. The lines are firm and use of colours balanced, creating a harmonious dialogue between the gold and rich dark blue pigments in the patterns of figure’s garments and turban. The individual strands of hair are extremely delicately rendered, as are the barbs of the feather in the turban and the haze of fur on his collar, and the minute striations on the stream at the lower edge, which suggest a gently rippling surface.
The strands of hair by the figure’s ears appear to be being blowing softly to the right, and combined with the suggested movement from left to right of the gold clouds in the background, this implies a gentle breeze wafting on the figure’s face, subtly enlivening the serenely motionless figure.
Muhammad Qasim was probably from Tabriz (he signs himself on occasion with the nisba “Tabrizi”). According to Adamova, he established himself in the late 16th century and by the early 17th century was already developing an original style, some aspects of which were close to the work of his colleague Reza Abbasi, while others were markedly different (Adamova 2003). He seems to have lived to around the age of eighty-five and continued painting well into his later years, becoming, along with Mu‘in Musavvir, the most important artist of mid-17th century Iran. He worked in Qazvin, Isfahan and Mashhad, and in addition to drawings and paintings of single figures and small groups destined for albums, he contributed illustrations to a number of manuscripts, including the well-known Windsor Shahnama of 1648, commissioned by Qarajaghay Khan, governor of Mashhad under Shah Abbas II (see Robinson, Sims and Bayani 2007). He also painted several murals in the Chihil Sutun Palace in Isfahan. In addition to the publications cited above, a helpful summary of Muhammad Qasim’s career can be found in Bloom and Blair 2009, vol.III, p.19.
The calligraphy on the verso of the present painting dates from an earlier period and has been included when the album folio was assembled. It is signed by a calligrapher called Ali al-Mashhadi and consists of a quotation in Arabic from the Hadith and states that it was copied for a certain Nur al-Din Ni‘matullah at Qazvin in AH 971 / 1563-4 AD.
For many decades the figure in the painting was been described as an anonymous youth holding a poem and dated to circa 1650 (see list of publications above). Anthony Welch and Sheila Canby commented on the fact that the figure may be a visual representation of the poetic verses held in the youth’s hands (A. Welch 1978, p.148; Canby 1998, p.79). Welch further commented that the poem uses established mystical metaphors as a panegyric for the painting’s owner: “The metaphor of the ‘three lips’ is frequent in Iranian mystical poetry and equates the beauty of the beloved with the beauty of the garden stream and with the beauty of the wine cup; the pious invocation at the top of the page underscores the two levels of meaning: longing for the earthly beloved is an intimation of the soul yearning for God” (Welch 2000, p.303). Welch further noted that Muhammad Qasim worked for Shah Abbas I, and suggested that in the invocation he was offering his obeisance both to God and to his royal patron (Welch and Welch 1982, p.110).
More recently, two scholars have reassessed the painting and have significantly changed our understanding of the portrait itself, the date and the artist. In 2003 Ada Adamova published an article in which she thoroughly reevaluated Muhammad Qasim’s career and concluded that he was not a pupil of Reza Abbasi, as had previously been thought, but a contemporary, being born before 1575, beginning his career in the 1590s and continuing to the mid-17th century, dying in AH 1070 / 1659 AD (Adamova 2003). She traced the development of his style and concluded that he had a very significant influence on the development of Persian painting of the 17th century in parallel with Reza Abbasi, rather than as pupil or follower. She also discussed his importance as a poet, a previously somewhat overlooked aspect, noting his description as such by Vali Quli Shamlu, the latter who also mentioned that Muhammad Qasim wrote under the pen-name Isfahani (Qisas al-khaqani), see Farhad 1985, p.119, fn.4; Adamova 2003, p.197). Adamova re-dated the present work to the period 1605 to 1627 and suggested that the verses inscribed on the page held in the youth’s hand were composed by Muhammad Qasim himself, pointing out that the words of the first couplet in the present painting appear again in another work by Muhammad Qasim, the well-known Shah Abbas embracing his page dated 1627, in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (MAO 494, see Makariou 2012, p.457).
In 2007 the present painting was exhibited in Le Chante du Monde, L’Art de l’Iran Safavide, 1501-1736 at the Musée du Louvre, Paris. In the accompanying catalogue Souren Melikian-Chirvani argued firmly that the painting is in fact an idealised self-portrait of the artist, intended as the frontispiece of an album or Divan which would have had other works and possibly verses by Muhammad Qasim himself. Melikian-Chirvani stated that the wording of the Persian verses “leaves no doubt as to the painter’s intention. This text begins with the Sufi invocation to God, contained in a single word, uttered like an exclamation: ‘Him!’ After which, the four lines of a quatrain are calligraphed in a beautiful script that also testifies to the master's training as a professional calligrapher. … These vows wish happiness and a long life to the recipient. The second verse expresses the hyperbolic wish that the recipient live so long that they will recite the prayer for the dead at the graves of the entire world.” (Melikian-Chirvani 2007, p.390). He further stated that the particular formula used in the artist’s signature refers both to his service at the royal court and to an invocation to God on behalf of the one to whom a petition is presented or to whom a literary work is dedicated. Thus, given Muhammad Qasim’s status as a well-known poet as well as an artist, it was argued that in the present work his intention was to portray himself as both an artist and a poet, offering his own verses to the patron of the album and at the same time offering obeisance to the monarch and to God. Given the fine nasta‘liq script in which the verses are written, one might add that he was also portraying himself as a calligrapher.
This new appreciation of the portrait, along with Adamova’s re-dating to the first quarter of the 17th century, greatly enhances the already high significance of this painting and marks it out as a key work not only in Muhammad Qasim’s oeuvre, but also in the history and development of Safavid painting in the first half of the 17th century.
Muhammad Qasim’s superlative skills as an artist are fully evident in the present portrait. The lines are firm and use of colours balanced, creating a harmonious dialogue between the gold and rich dark blue pigments in the patterns of figure’s garments and turban. The individual strands of hair are extremely delicately rendered, as are the barbs of the feather in the turban and the haze of fur on his collar, and the minute striations on the stream at the lower edge, which suggest a gently rippling surface.
The strands of hair by the figure’s ears appear to be being blowing softly to the right, and combined with the suggested movement from left to right of the gold clouds in the background, this implies a gentle breeze wafting on the figure’s face, subtly enlivening the serenely motionless figure.
Muhammad Qasim was probably from Tabriz (he signs himself on occasion with the nisba “Tabrizi”). According to Adamova, he established himself in the late 16th century and by the early 17th century was already developing an original style, some aspects of which were close to the work of his colleague Reza Abbasi, while others were markedly different (Adamova 2003). He seems to have lived to around the age of eighty-five and continued painting well into his later years, becoming, along with Mu‘in Musavvir, the most important artist of mid-17th century Iran. He worked in Qazvin, Isfahan and Mashhad, and in addition to drawings and paintings of single figures and small groups destined for albums, he contributed illustrations to a number of manuscripts, including the well-known Windsor Shahnama of 1648, commissioned by Qarajaghay Khan, governor of Mashhad under Shah Abbas II (see Robinson, Sims and Bayani 2007). He also painted several murals in the Chihil Sutun Palace in Isfahan. In addition to the publications cited above, a helpful summary of Muhammad Qasim’s career can be found in Bloom and Blair 2009, vol.III, p.19.
The calligraphy on the verso of the present painting dates from an earlier period and has been included when the album folio was assembled. It is signed by a calligrapher called Ali al-Mashhadi and consists of a quotation in Arabic from the Hadith and states that it was copied for a certain Nur al-Din Ni‘matullah at Qazvin in AH 971 / 1563-4 AD.