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Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy

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Standing woman and a ghazal of Hafiz

AUTHOR/CREATOR
Calligrapher: unknown

CREATED/PUBLISHED
17th century

NOTES
Dimensions of Written Surface: 12.2 (w) x 19.2 (h) cm

Script: nasta'liq

This painting includes an outer frame comprised of a lyric poem (ghazal) composed by the Persian poet Hafiz (d. 791/1388-9). The ghazal describes a lover's affection for his beloved until the day of his death. The lover compares the woman's eyebrows to a mihrab (the prayer niche in a mosque) and thus the direction of his own repeated desirous entreaties. He also states that he is willing to seek out magicians to find a love potion to spellbind her.

It appears that the poem is linked to the painting it contains, which depicts a beautiful young woman walking among plants and using her right index finger to point to her strikingly arched eyebrows. Between her two fingers she also holds a tuft of hair, either taken from her own head or perhaps given to her by her lover as a token of his affection. The motif of the large, arched eyebrow (abru) as a mark of feminine beauty is common in Persian art and literature.

The composition's style is typical of single-sheet paintings produced in Safavid Isfahan, the capital of Persia (Iran), during the 17th century. At this time, painters such as Riza 'Abbasi (d. 1635) and Mu'in Musavvir (d. ca. 1707) frequently depicted single figures or lovers in embrace. Backgrounds tend toward single tones (such as grisaille) or include various motifs lightly painted in gold as used in this particular composition. This painting originally was signed, as a small black smudge is visible on the right of the woman's hip. The artist's signature has been erased and is now illegible.

For comparative paintings, see Sheila Canby, "The Life and Work of the Painter Riza" (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981).

SUBJECT
Illuminated Islamic manuscripts
Islamic calligraphy
Islamic manuscripts
Nasta'liq
Arabic script calligraphy
Arabic calligraphy

MEDIUM
22.4 (w) x 34 (h) cm

CALL NUMBER
1-2002-154-6

REPOSITORY
Library of Congress, African and Middle Eastern Division, Washington, D.C. 20540

DIGITAL ID
ascs 255
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.amed/ascs.255

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