1999.288: Dragon in Foliage (drawing, recto); calligraphy, (verso)

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1999.288

People

Drawing signed by Mir Sayyid Muhammad Naqqash, Persian
Calligraphy by Ali al-Katib, Persian

Title

Dragon in Foliage (drawing, recto); calligraphy, (verso)

Classification

Albums

Work Type

album folio

Date

1520-1550

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Türkiye (Turkey), Istanbul

Period

Ottoman period

Culture

Ottoman

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/217072

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black ink, watercolor and gold on off-white paper

Dimensions

H. 20.1 x W. 34.5 cm (7 15/16 x 13 9/16 in.)
framed: H. 43.7 x W. 57.6 cm (17 3/16 x 22 11/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Stuart Cary Welch, Jr.

Accession Year

1999

Object Number

1999.288

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

This album folio has on its recto side a slightly tinted black-ink drawing of a dragon charging forward through dense foliage. It is an accomplished example of the so-called Ottoman saz style, distinguished by three-dimensional serrated leaves, intertwining branches, and mythical creatures. The extraordinary quality of the draftsmanship on this drawing is especially visible in details such as the claw of the dragon snapping a branch into two. The saz style was developed at the Ottoman imperial studio in the first half of the 16th century especially under the leadership of the émigré Persian artist Shahquli, who worked from 1526 to 1556 at the Ottoman court. The saz style permeated diverse media including ceramics, paintings, and textiles. The drawing has two inscriptions in nastaliq script and appears to be by the same hand: one near the foreleg of the dragon providing the name of an artist (Mir Sayyid Muhammad Naqqash); the other at the top between two branches (made by the humble servant at the court of heavenly resort of his Excellency, Khan Ahmad al-Husayni). The latter one is written upside down and the second line is placed above the first. In the same inscription the lower loop of letter lam in the word ‘amel’ crosses over the ruling lines around the drawing, which suggests the inscription is not contemporary with the drawing itself but was added after the drawing was mounted as an album page. The verso side of the album folio has an illuminated calligraphy, a poem dedicated to the famous Persian poet Jami (d. 1492) copied by the scribe Ali al-Katib.

Publication History

• Ernst Grube, A School of Turkish Miniature Painting, fig. 5a (recto); fig. 5b (verso)
• Ernst Grube, Muslim Miniature Paintings from the XIII to XIX Century from Collections in the United States and Canada, exh. cat., Neri Pozza Editore (Venice, 1962), p 97/ fig 76
• Ivan Stchoukine, La Peinture Turque d'apres les Manuscrits Illustres [par] Ivan Stchoukine, P. Geuthner (Paris, France, 1971), page 49/figure 26
• Stuart Cary Welch, "Two Drawings, a Tile, a Dish, and a Pair of Scissors", Islamic Art in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. Richard Ettinghausen (New York, 1972), p 292, fig. 3
• Stanley Ferber, ed., Islam and the Medieval West: A Loan Exhbition at the University Art Gallery April 6-May 4, 1975, University of New York (Binghamton, NY, 1975), fig.92
• Jessica Rawson, Chinese Ornament: The Lotus and the Dragon, British Museum Publications Limited (London, 1984), pp. 2-3, 191-193, fig. 168
• Ernst Grube, Studies in Islamic Painting, The Pindar Press (London, England, 1995), page 322/figure 15
• Mary McWilliams, "Welch Gift of Indian, Iranian, and Turkish Art to the Arthur M. Sackler Museum", Apollo, ed. David Ekserdjian, Apollo Magazine Limited (London, England, December 2000), vol. CLII no. 466, pp.12-14, Page 12-14/Figure 3
• James Cuno, ed., A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions by the Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, Mass., Spring 2000), p. 34
• Harvard University Art Museums, Harvard University Art Museums Annual Report 2001-2002 (Cambridge, MA, 2003), p. 12
• Stuart Cary Welch and Kim Masteller, From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, 2004), pp. 48-51, no. 6
• Christine Temin, Fogg Shows Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, Spring 2005), p. 5

Exhibition History

• Islamic Art From the Collections of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 08/01/1974
• Precisely to the Point, Daggers and Drawings from Persia and India: 15th-19th century, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/30/1992 - 07/26/1992
• Transformations: Asia East and West, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/19/1992 - 02/14/1993
• Linear Graces ... and Disgraces: Part II, Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India, 15th-19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/26/1994 - 03/05/1995
• A Decade of Collecting: Recent Acquisitions of Islamic and Later Indian Art, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 06/08/2000 - 09/03/2000
• From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from SCWelch, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/19/2005 - 06/02/2005
• 32Q: 2550 Islamic, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 05/14/2015 - 11/03/2015

Subjects and Contexts

• Google Art Project

Verification Level