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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2002.50.19
People
Signed by Aqa Riza (Riza ‘Abbasi), Persian (c. 1560-70 - 1635)
Title
Youth Dressed as a Dervish, folio from an album
Classification
Albums
Work Type
album folio
Date
c.1630
Places
Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan
Period
Safavid period
Culture
Persian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/149312

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Ink, opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Dimensions
32.3 x 20.4 cm (12 11/16 x 8 1/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
The Hagop Kevorkian Fund, 1976, sold; through [Sotheby, London, 12 April 1976] sold; to [Mansour Gallery, London, before 1995], sold; to Stanford and Norma Jean Calderwood, Belmont, MA (by 1995-2002) gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2002.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art
Accession Year
2002
Object Number
2002.50.19
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
A youthful dervish, his clothing rendered in uniformly dark hues of cool green, purple, and brown that contrast with the warm pink of his face and hands, is posed against a ground of ivory-colored paper, unpainted save for a common repertoire of golden landscape elements. He wears a plumed wool cap, carries a staff over his shoulder, and offers a sprig of yellow, red, and gray leaves to a companion beyond the picture frame. An inscription that reads, raqm/raqam-i kamina Riza-yi ?Abbasi (work of the humble Riza ?Abbasi)—the customary wording of the artist’s signed works—appears at the lower left. Although raqm or raqam ordinarily means “writing” or “figuring,” here it makes more sense translated as “work” or “design.” Riza’s frequent use of this term in his signatures suggests a conceptual blurring of the boundaries between the arts of writing and of depicting and, in addition, may represent a claim of entitlement to the high status accorded to calligraphers.

Published Catalogue Text: In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art , written 2013
122

Aqa Riza (Riza ʿAbbasi)
Young Dervish
Folio from an album
Iran, Safavid period, c. 1630
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
Folio: 32.3 × 20.4 cm (12 11/16 × 8 1/16 in.)
2002.50.19

Published: Sotheby’s 1976, lot 30; Soudavar 1992, 263, fig. 43; McWilliams 2002a, 13, fig. 6A; Harvard University Art Museums 2003, 20; McWilliams 2004, 7, fig. 9; Tan 2010, 13–14.

A youthful dervish, his clothing rendered in uniformly dark hues of cool green, purple, and brown that contrast with the warm pink of his face and hands, is posed against a ground of ivory-colored paper, unpainted save for a common repertoire of golden landscape elements. He wears a plumed wool cap, carries a staff over his shoulder, and offers a sprig of yellow, red, and gray leaves to a companion beyond the picture frame.[1] An inscription that reads, raqm/
raqam-i kamīna Riżā-yi ʿAbbāsī (work of the humble Riza ʿAbbasi)—the customary wording of the artist’s signed works—appears at the lower left. Although raqm or raqam ordinarily means “writing” or “figuring,” here it makes more sense translated as “work” or “design.” Riza’s frequent use of this term in his signatures suggests a conceptual blurring of the boundaries between the arts of writing and of depicting and, in addition, may represent a claim of entitlement to the high status accorded to calligraphers.

David J. Roxburgh

[1] For comparative materials, see Soudavar 1992, 263, figs. 42, 44; 292, cat. 118.

Publication History

  • Mary McWilliams, "With Quite Different Eyes: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art", Apollo, ed. David Ekserdjian (November 2002), vol. CLVI no. 490, pp. 12-16, p.13, fig. 6
  • Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums Annual Report 2001-2002 (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 20
  • Mary McWilliams, Closely Focused, Intensely Felt: Selections from the Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2004)
  • Yvonne Tan, "Strolling Through Isfahan: Seventeenth Century Paintings from Safavid Iran", The Asian Art Newspaper, ed. Sarah Callaghan, Sarah Callaghan (London, 2010), Vol. 13, Issue 6, p.13-14, article p.13-14, image p. 14
  • Mary McWilliams, ed., In Harmony: The Norma Jean Calderwood Collection of Islamic Art, exh. cat., Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2013), pp. 134-135, p. 139; p. 141, ill.; ill.; p. 256, cat. 122, ill.

Exhibition History

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu