Page 74 - ART OF THE ISLAMIC AND INDIAN WORLDS Carpets, Ceramics Objects, Christie's London Oct..27, 2022

58
A KNEELING YOUTH HOLDING A CUP
SAFAVID IRAN, CIRCA 1600
Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, laid down between gold
and black rules, within inner borders with twelve panels of poetic verse in
black nasta'liq and outer black border with gold split palmettes and gold and
polychrome rules on buff margin with gold arabesques, pasted on card and the
reverse with inscriptions in pencil
Painting 6q x 3æin. (16.5 x 9.5cm.); folio 13q x 9in. (34.3 x 23cm.)
£30,000-40,000 US$35,000-46,000
€35,000-46,000

LITERATURE:
Pratapaditya Pal (ed.), Islamic Art. The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection. Gift of
Joan Palevsky, Los Angeles, 1973, no.227, pp.133-34.
Single-page portraits of this type were very much in vogue in Isfahan in the
th
late 16 century. As the city became more prosperous towards the end of the
century, so a new class of subjects emerged, young dandies – elegantly clad,
like ours, and often seemingly idle. These beautiful young men and women
were typical subjects for the artists that quickly became most associated
with the genre, such as Sadiqi Beg (1533-ca.1612) and Reza ‘Abbasi
(ca.1560s-1635). The wonderfully large turban worn by our youth is similar in
style to that found on a painting by Reza ‘Abbasi in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, of a Man in a Fur-Lined Coat(acc.no.55.121.39) and its companion
piece a painting of a Barefoot Youth (in the Art and History Trust, Houston,
published in Sheila Canby, The Rebellious Reformer. The Drawings and
Paintings of Rizy-yi ‘Abbasi of Isfahan, London, 1996, no.35). Another painting
of a youth with a similarly large turban, also by Reza ‘Abbasi, is in the Victoria
and Albert Museum (inv.L.6964).

Pratapaditya Pal (ed.), Islamic Art. The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection. Gift of Joan Palevsky,
Los Angeles, 1973, no.227, pp.133-34)

72 In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty 73
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.