Page 109 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

A RARE DECCANI ALBUM PAGE

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A BATHING BEAUTY
THE PAINTING INDIA, DECCAN, PROBABLY AHMADNAGAR, SECOND
HALF 16TH CENTURY; THE CALLIGRAPHY SIGNED MALIK, SAFAVID
IRAN, MID 16TH CENTURY
Verso with a drawing of a nude girl holding a translucent muslin skirt, on gold
ground illustrated with floral bushes in bright opaque pigments heightened
A portrait of a ‘Scantily Clad Woman in a Landscape’, attributed to
with gold and silver, within gold and polychrome rules and gold-speckled
Golconda c. 1630-1650 in the David collection, Copenhagen is worth
margins, recto with an illuminated calligraphic panel with five lines of fine
black nasta'liq written diagonally, signed Malik, within gold and polychrome mentioning here (inv. no. 11/2011). In the commentary on this work, it is
rules and gold-speckled orange margins mentioned that portrayals of virtually naked women, in Iran emerged in a
Painting 8¬ x 5æin. (22 x 14.5cm.); calligraphic panel 9 x 5æin. (22.8 x sub-genre that was influenced by engravings from Western Europe in the
14.5cm.); folio 11æ x 7æin. (29.8 x 19.8cm.) 17th-century. Later Safavid paintings of nude women, particularly those by
Reza Abbasi and his followers are published in Kuhnel E., La miniature en
£40,000-60,000 US$46,000-69,000
€46,000-68,000 Orient, Paris, 1922, p.88 and Binyon, Wilkinson and Gray: Persian Miniature
Painting, New York, 1971, pl. CVIII. The physical characteristics of the
latter Safavid examples are fuller in comparison to our figure which is less
PROVENANCE:
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Franz Schaurte, Germany, (d. 1922) curvy and more elongated and in line with a 16 century date. The David
Thence by descent to previous owner Collection painting further illustrates that by 1620-30 the aesthetic had
been completely modified by the Reza Abbasi school in the Deccan as well
Our bathing beauty shows an amalgamation of elements from two of the as in Iran. Our painting, in contrast, has features all of which point to the
most accomplished painting schools in the 16 century, the Safavid court pre Shah ‘Abbas tradition of painting. Our artist’s choice of subject in the
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of Iran and the Deccan Sultanates of India. This painting is the work of an sixteenth century, was a brave and shocking gesture.
accomplished Persian artist who has clearly used his rigorous early Safavid
training while absorbing the novel influences he discovered in the Deccan. The undecorated overall bright gold background is a further most unusual
The subject’s elegant Persian facial characteristics, depicting a perfectly Safavid feature of this date. It was however a practice more common in
round moon shaped face, delicately pouting lips, arched eyebrows and Deccani, especially Ahmadnagar paintings of this time. The kingdom of
light almond eyes are all clearly Safavid. The drawing of the eyes which are Ahmadnagar enjoyed independence for a shorter time than either Bijapur
executed without the eyelids actually connecting on either sides in an upward and Golcanda and its painting is the rarest of the Deccani schools. The
direction is a feature seen on early 16th century Safavid paintings such as few surviving works possess “the gentle emotion and brilliant colour of
the seated princess by Mirza `Ali in Harvard Art Museum (inv. no. 1958.60). fourteenth century Italian painting, with which they share a fondness for plain
A further portrait with facial features similar to our painting is a portrait by gold backgrounds” (Mark Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, London, 1983, p17).
a master artist contemporaneous with Mirza `Ali sold in these Rooms, 20 Two portraits of Sultan Murtaza dating to c. 1575 produced in Ahmadnagar
June 2020, lot 48. It was attributable to Aqa Mirak, the director of Shah by the Paris painter depict him enthroned both alone and with a number of
Tahmasp’s atelier during the later years of the production of the great ‘Shah attendants on a solid gold undecorated ground which are very similar to the
Tahmasp Shahnama’. A further Safavid feature on our painting includes her use of solid gold seen on our painting (Zebrowski, op. cit., no. 5 and 11, pp.
henna tattooed hands and feet which our artist has very elegantly detailed 21, 34-35). An elegant portrait by the Persian artist Muhammad ‘Ali dating
on to her nude body. Henna tattoos are seen on Safavid paintings from the from the late 16 century and attributed to Ahmadnagar also shares the same
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same period, such as on a folio from a khamsa of Nizami ascribed to Mir elegance in the style of drawing and elongated body form, although depicted
Sayyid ‘Ali, which depicts an outdoor scene with ladies whose hands and feet on a plain ground (Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Sotheby’s, London, 6 April
are also tattooed in a similar manner (Stuart Cary Welch, Wonders of the Age, 2011, lot 97).
exhibition catalogue, Harvard, 1979, no. 67, pp.178-79).
The design of the floral bushes and their arrangement on the page are a
Both Isfahan and the Mughal court served as centres for the exchange of blend of both tamed Safavid floral bushes, such as Woman with a Spray
artistic influences from the Mughal and Safavid courts and beyond. Many of Flowers, Safavid circa 1575, in the Smithsonian National Museum of
artists travelled between the two centres - for instance the celebrated Asian Art inv. no. S1986.296 and the wild and varied Deccani flora and
Mughal court artist Bishandas, who was sent by the Mughal Emperor fauna illustrations, for example the Portrait of a Yogini with a Mynah Bird,
Jahangir (r.1605- 27) to the Safavid court of Shah Abbas (r.1588 -1629), and in the Chester Beatty Library, inv. no. 11A.31, (M. Beach, E. Fischer, and
returned to India from Iran in 1619. The celebrated Persian Safavid artists B.N. Goswamy, Masters of Indian Painting:1650-1900, Zurich, 2011, no. 6,
who moved to India after the decline in the artistic commissions began 8, 11, 12, pp.196-201). A further close comparable to the gold ground and
during the latter reign of Shah Tahmasp include Farukh Beg (d. c. 1619), floral decoration seen in our example is the painting of the Angel Tobias, by
Muhammad `Ali ( active c. 1590), Hossein Naqqash, Aqa Reza and Sheikh Hossein Naqqash, dating to circa 1590 in the Louvre Museum, Paris (inv. no.
‘Abbasi. These artists developed a successful career in India and inspired OA3619ha). Hossein was a Persian artist who migrated to the Mughal court
many artists of the time with the Safavid fashion of painting, and in return and worked on the Akbarnama commissioned by Akbar in around 1590. In his
brought back many Mughal styles to the Safavid ateliers. painting of Tobias, the angle is depicted with Mughal features unlike our very
Safavid girl, however the solid gold backgrounds of both paintings and floral
Our beauty’s hair is most unusual and wild in comparison to the known arrangements share very similar executions.
Safavid depictions of scantily dressed ladies which are illustrated with tame,
often braided long hair and different types of curls on the top of the head. Ahmadnagar painting of this period is of the utmost rarity. The present
The transparent muslin towel covering her naked body as she carefully painting with its weaving together of Indian and Persian elements may be an
attempts to step out of the river recalls not only Timurid and Safavid intellectual challenge for today’s scholars but the subject and its presentation
depictions of Shirin bathing watched by Khusraw, but also the native Indian remain as powerful today as they were for its audience when it was first
bathing Deccani and Mughal nayikas and court ladies of the same period. executed, and the subject’s fragile beauty remains undeniable.

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