Author
Attributed to Wali Jan
Author Original
منسوب إلى ولي جان
Publication Date
Hijri 978-988 / AD 1570-1580
Publication Place
Iran (miniature) and possibly Istanbul (outer frame) -
Rietberg Museum
Subject
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Type
Other
Language
Undetermined
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
No
Physical Dimensions
الأبعاد الكلية 24.6 × 15.9 سم
Library
Museum With No Frontiers
Library Asset ID
2019,436
Record ID
object;EPM;sw;Mus21;3;ar
Library Location
Rietberg Museum
Date
Hijri 978-988 / AD 1570-1580
Notes
This single-leaf miniature depicting a young woman in a kneeling position is one of a group of works that all show the same theme. The original design dates from shortly after 1550 and is part of a patchwork album produced in 968 AH (1560/61 AD) for Prince Husayn Bey, treasurer of Shah Tahmasp (r. 930 AH). 984, 1524-1576 AD). Our fully-colored Kneeling Woman can be linked to a slightly tinted brushwork now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As noted later, most likely by an Ottoman librarian in the margin, it is in fact doubtful that Vali Jan was the maker of this work of art. The Persian artist left his homeland in the early 1580s and subsequently worked in a painting workshop at the Ottoman court. There he became famous for his intricate drawings of large serrated leaves, called saz leaves. It can be said with certainty that this painting found its way to Istanbul before 1700. This is evidenced by an early 18th-century Ottoman copy depicting the young woman upside down as a mirror. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Armenian-born art historian Armenagbaisaksyan acquired the leaf in Istanbul and published it in 1929 in his seminal work Persian Miniatures of the Century Twelfth to seventeenth centuries.
Sample Text
Axel Langer “Persian miniature mounted as an album page” in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum Without Borders, 2026. https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;sw;Mus21;3;ar
