CC0 · no rights reserved
Persian Couplets (recto); Sleeping Youth (verso)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Under Shah Abbas, the tradition in which painting was employed to illustrate a literary work was all but abandoned. In its place came a new concern with single-page illustrations, such as this one, which have no specific content or meaning. They often illustrate albums of collections of verses about love and beauty, in which these themes often appear to serve as allegories of things divine.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit linePersian Couplets (recto); Sleeping Youth (verso), late 1500s–early 1600s. Style of Riza-yi Abbasi (Iranian). Ink, gold, and opaque watercolor on paper; image: 21 x 12.4 cm (8 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.); overall: 31.6 x 20.4 cm (12 7/16 x 8 1/16 in.); text area: 21 x 12.4 cm (8 1/4 x 4 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1944.494
Similar works
Princess with Wine Bottle and Cup (recto); Persian Verses (verso)
The Birth of Rustam, page from a copy of the Shahnama of Firdausi
Kabir and Two Followers on a Terrace (recto); Calligraphy (verso)
Yusuf and Zulaykha (recto); Text Page, Persian Verses (verso)
Left side of a double-page album folio: Outside a Royal Encampment (recto) and Calligraphy, Persian Verses (verso)
Prince Kushrau weeping in a landscape