PROBABLY SAFAVID QAZVIN, IRAN, CIRCA 1560

A fragment of a drawing in the Los Angeles Museum of Art shows two men under a tree, their positioning and appearance nearly identical to the two figures on the left of our drawing (M.73.5.561; P. Pal (ed.), Islamic Art: The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, Los Angeles, 1973, no.216, p.119 and 129). That fragment is attributed to Tabriz, circa 1525. However, the heavy outlines and shading, found especially on the the rocks and vegetation in our painting, suggest a slightly later dating of the third quarter 16th century. A similar drawing of a master poet with his pupils in a landscape and attributed to Qazvin, circa 1570 was sold Sotheby's London, 15 October 1997, lot 57. Like the present lot, that painting shares the heavy outlines and shading of the trees and rocks whilst the figures are more delicate. The two drawings also share very similar clouds. The heavy lines and jagged rocks and foliage on both paintings relate to the saz style which became popular in the mid 16th century in Safavid and Ottoman art. A painting with comparable drawing to that offered here, also done in the saz style is in the British Museum (no. 1930,1112,0.4). The British Museum drawing is of a pheasant and bears a false attribution to Shah Quli. It has been attributed to late 16th century Qazvin. A similar pen and ink drawing dated 1565 was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2013, lot 16.

The subject of a princely figure reading poetry with companions in a garden was a highly popular one in Safavid painting. The distinctive turbans, seen here, which are wrapped around a baton and adorned with a black heron feather are typical of the early Safavid period under the Shah Tahmasp (r.1524-1576). Similarly dressed figures are found in many paintings from Shah Tahmasp period and also feature extensively in 16th century textile design. Two 16th century textiles depicting garden scenes with similarly dressed figures, also wearing rosette-shaped belt ornaments like those in our painting, are in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (acc. nos. 69(IS)-1886 and 282&B, D-1906).

Our drawing was probably mounted into the current album page at a similar time to when it was made. Small extensions were made to the top and sides of the drawing to fit the borders and the drawing in these areas is of a very similar hand. On the other side of the album page is a calligraphic exercise comprising an extract from the Risala-yi Arba'in of Jami. The text is a versified paraphrasing of the forty traditions of the prophet. Set into the borders are four panels which, unusually, all contain the same repeated text. These are headings from an astronomical work for reading the risings of the stars according the planetary movements. The addition of such text panels in the borders of album pages without specific meaning or relevance to the inner text panel is not unusual.