.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This outstanding example of Mu‘in Musavvir’s work is highly significant for its documentary and aesthetic value. Through its relation to a portrait of Reza Abbasi painted by Mu‘in, it demonstrates the importance of the master-pupil relationship between two of the most renowned Persian painters of the Safavid era and reveals interesting aspects of what might be termed Mu‘in’s artistic nostalgia.
Mu‘in was in the frequent habit of visually referencing works by his master and producing his own versions of Reza’s compositions, often more than once. A well-known portrait by Mu‘in of Reza Abbasi has an inscription stating that the likeness was painted in Shawwal AH 1044 / March-April 1635 AD (Princeton University Library, Garrett no. 96G, see the illustration here). This was near the beginning of Mu‘in’s career at a time when he was still under the guidance of Reza Abbasi and one month before the latter’s death. The Princeton portrait shows Reza sitting cross-legged on ground in the process of painting a picture of a standing youth in a European hat and costume who holds a large ceramic vessel. The Princeton painting bears two dates, Shawwal AH 1044 / March-April 1635 AD and Jumada I AH 1084 / mid August-mid September 1673 AD. The inscription is lengthy and provides interesting information that can be interpreted in two ways. It states either that the portrait was painted in 1044⁄1635 and then “completed” forty years later in AH 1084⁄1673 AD (see, inter alia, Welch and Welch 1982, pp.123-4), or that it was painted in AH 1044 / 1635 AD and then “copied” forty years later in AH 1084 / 1673 AD (Farhad 1990, pp.120, 124-5, fig.8; Soudavar 1992, pp.263-4).
Either way, the crucial and fascinating aspect in relation to present work is that the tiny figure which Reza is depicted as drawing in the 1635 portrait is essentially identical to the figure of the youth in European costume depicted by Mu‘in in the present painting; i.e. ours is effectively a full-scale version of the painting that Reza was working on at the time the portrait was taken in 1635. It is worth noting that the present work is dated just four months before the second date on the Princeton portrait. Thus, in producing the present painting and completing (or copying) the 1635 Princeton portrait, Mu‘in re-engaged with this artistic memory of his teacher on two occasions within the space of a few months in 1673. In painting this full scale version of the minute secondary picture embedded in the 1635 portrait, Mu‘in produced an almost Pygmalion-like tribute to his master. The two works together thus represent a fascinating artistic and emotional response by Mu‘in to his teacher, a response tinged with nostalgia and veneration.
The details of the present painting are worth examining. Although it shows a figure in European garments, the face is Persian and a prime example of a courtly Safavid youth of the type described by Canby as hopelessly romantic, gazing into the distance lost in thoughts of his absent beloved. The European garments are of a Portuguese type and reflect a changing world in 17th century Isfahan in which increasing numbers of European merchants and diplomats arrived in Iran wearing farangi garments and introducing new imagery (for an essay on this, see Langer 2013, pp.170-237). Reza painted several works late in his career depicting figures wearing similar European garments (see, e.g. Canby 1996, cats.127, 128, pp.172, 175; Langer 2013, figs.66-71, 79, pp.172-4, 187) and Mu‘in also painted other works in which the figures wear similar Portuguese garments and hats (e.g. Khalili Collection, London, MSS.1001.1, dated c. 1648, see Rogers 2007, cat.238, p.214, Falk 1985, p.120; Portland Art Museum (formerly Binney Collection), 70.27.13, dated 1687, see Binney 1966, no.55; Topkapi Saray Museum, H2142, fol.15b; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 55.121.23, see Peck 2013, no.91A, p.255). The Portuguese were particularly active traders all over Asia and contemporary depictions of Portuguese merchants wearing similar distinctive garments are found in paintings produced in India and as far east as Indonesia and Japan (for Mughal examples see Stronge 2002, figs.105-06, p.139, Hurel 2010, p.73, no.38; Coomaraswamy 1929, pl.LXXV, no.128, and engravings of Portuguese residents in Goa, in van Linschoten's Itinerario, Amsterdam, 1594-1595; for the Indonesian example see an image of Portuguese merchants at Bantam in the travelogue of the Dutch trader Cornelius Houtman Premier livre de l'histoire de la navigation aux Indes orientales par les Hollandois, Amsterdam, 1609, p.32, for Japanese examples see Namban folding screens in the National Museum of Portuguese Art, Lisbon, Inv. 1638-1639 MOV, 1640-1641 MOV, Oriental Museum, Lisbon and the Soares dos Reis National Museum, Oporto).
The large white ceramic vessel in the youth’s arms is also notable. The design shows a Sarus crane standing before a curving tree, and the vessel has a small gold handle, lid and band around the base. It clearly represents a blue-and-white porcelain vessel of Chinese inspiration. Chinese ceramics, especially blue-and-white wares, had been popular in Iran for centuries and in the Safavid period this intensified. Shah Abbas (r. 1588-1629) amassed a collection of over 1,000 pieces of porcelain of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, which he donated to the Ardebil Shrine in 1607-08 (see Canby 2009, pp.116-159), and Chinese potters produced large quantities for export, known as Kraak wares. In response to this, Persian potters produced their own versions, similar in style, to supply the demand (for a discussion of this see, inter alia, Crowe 2002). In the present case, the specific shape, narrow neck and mouth (the meiping type), the rather plain design and the image of a sarus crane all point to a Chinese rather than Persian origin for the vessel depicted (for Yuan and Ming examples from the Ardebil Shrine donation see Canby 2009, pp.142, 151, 153, see also late Ming examples sold in these Rooms 9 December 2020, lot 91, 22 November 2006, lot 282). This further underlines the references in the present work to the cosmopolitanism of Safavid Isfahan in the 17th century, and similar vessels appear in other paintings, including a painting by Reza Abbasi of a European with a dog, dated 1634 (the same year as the original portrait by Mu‘in of Reza) and in murals in the Chihil Sutun Palace.
Mu‘in was in the frequent habit of visually referencing works by his master and producing his own versions of Reza’s compositions, often more than once. A well-known portrait by Mu‘in of Reza Abbasi has an inscription stating that the likeness was painted in Shawwal AH 1044 / March-April 1635 AD (Princeton University Library, Garrett no. 96G, see the illustration here). This was near the beginning of Mu‘in’s career at a time when he was still under the guidance of Reza Abbasi and one month before the latter’s death. The Princeton portrait shows Reza sitting cross-legged on ground in the process of painting a picture of a standing youth in a European hat and costume who holds a large ceramic vessel. The Princeton painting bears two dates, Shawwal AH 1044 / March-April 1635 AD and Jumada I AH 1084 / mid August-mid September 1673 AD. The inscription is lengthy and provides interesting information that can be interpreted in two ways. It states either that the portrait was painted in 1044⁄1635 and then “completed” forty years later in AH 1084⁄1673 AD (see, inter alia, Welch and Welch 1982, pp.123-4), or that it was painted in AH 1044 / 1635 AD and then “copied” forty years later in AH 1084 / 1673 AD (Farhad 1990, pp.120, 124-5, fig.8; Soudavar 1992, pp.263-4).
Either way, the crucial and fascinating aspect in relation to present work is that the tiny figure which Reza is depicted as drawing in the 1635 portrait is essentially identical to the figure of the youth in European costume depicted by Mu‘in in the present painting; i.e. ours is effectively a full-scale version of the painting that Reza was working on at the time the portrait was taken in 1635. It is worth noting that the present work is dated just four months before the second date on the Princeton portrait. Thus, in producing the present painting and completing (or copying) the 1635 Princeton portrait, Mu‘in re-engaged with this artistic memory of his teacher on two occasions within the space of a few months in 1673. In painting this full scale version of the minute secondary picture embedded in the 1635 portrait, Mu‘in produced an almost Pygmalion-like tribute to his master. The two works together thus represent a fascinating artistic and emotional response by Mu‘in to his teacher, a response tinged with nostalgia and veneration.
The details of the present painting are worth examining. Although it shows a figure in European garments, the face is Persian and a prime example of a courtly Safavid youth of the type described by Canby as hopelessly romantic, gazing into the distance lost in thoughts of his absent beloved. The European garments are of a Portuguese type and reflect a changing world in 17th century Isfahan in which increasing numbers of European merchants and diplomats arrived in Iran wearing farangi garments and introducing new imagery (for an essay on this, see Langer 2013, pp.170-237). Reza painted several works late in his career depicting figures wearing similar European garments (see, e.g. Canby 1996, cats.127, 128, pp.172, 175; Langer 2013, figs.66-71, 79, pp.172-4, 187) and Mu‘in also painted other works in which the figures wear similar Portuguese garments and hats (e.g. Khalili Collection, London, MSS.1001.1, dated c. 1648, see Rogers 2007, cat.238, p.214, Falk 1985, p.120; Portland Art Museum (formerly Binney Collection), 70.27.13, dated 1687, see Binney 1966, no.55; Topkapi Saray Museum, H2142, fol.15b; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 55.121.23, see Peck 2013, no.91A, p.255). The Portuguese were particularly active traders all over Asia and contemporary depictions of Portuguese merchants wearing similar distinctive garments are found in paintings produced in India and as far east as Indonesia and Japan (for Mughal examples see Stronge 2002, figs.105-06, p.139, Hurel 2010, p.73, no.38; Coomaraswamy 1929, pl.LXXV, no.128, and engravings of Portuguese residents in Goa, in van Linschoten's Itinerario, Amsterdam, 1594-1595; for the Indonesian example see an image of Portuguese merchants at Bantam in the travelogue of the Dutch trader Cornelius Houtman Premier livre de l'histoire de la navigation aux Indes orientales par les Hollandois, Amsterdam, 1609, p.32, for Japanese examples see Namban folding screens in the National Museum of Portuguese Art, Lisbon, Inv. 1638-1639 MOV, 1640-1641 MOV, Oriental Museum, Lisbon and the Soares dos Reis National Museum, Oporto).
The large white ceramic vessel in the youth’s arms is also notable. The design shows a Sarus crane standing before a curving tree, and the vessel has a small gold handle, lid and band around the base. It clearly represents a blue-and-white porcelain vessel of Chinese inspiration. Chinese ceramics, especially blue-and-white wares, had been popular in Iran for centuries and in the Safavid period this intensified. Shah Abbas (r. 1588-1629) amassed a collection of over 1,000 pieces of porcelain of the Yuan and Ming dynasties, which he donated to the Ardebil Shrine in 1607-08 (see Canby 2009, pp.116-159), and Chinese potters produced large quantities for export, known as Kraak wares. In response to this, Persian potters produced their own versions, similar in style, to supply the demand (for a discussion of this see, inter alia, Crowe 2002). In the present case, the specific shape, narrow neck and mouth (the meiping type), the rather plain design and the image of a sarus crane all point to a Chinese rather than Persian origin for the vessel depicted (for Yuan and Ming examples from the Ardebil Shrine donation see Canby 2009, pp.142, 151, 153, see also late Ming examples sold in these Rooms 9 December 2020, lot 91, 22 November 2006, lot 282). This further underlines the references in the present work to the cosmopolitanism of Safavid Isfahan in the 17th century, and similar vessels appear in other paintings, including a painting by Reza Abbasi of a European with a dog, dated 1634 (the same year as the original portrait by Mu‘in of Reza) and in murals in the Chihil Sutun Palace.