2011.531: Falcons, Dragons and Other Creatures

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2011.531

People

Attributed to Sadiqi Beg, Persian

Title

Falcons, Dragons and Other Creatures

Other Titles

Alternate Title: Falcon, Lion and Dragon

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

late 16th century

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Isfahan

Period

Safavid period

Culture

Persian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/217271

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black ink on off-white laid paper

Dimensions

32 x 20.5 cm (12 5/8 x 8 1/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[F. R. Martin], Collector (by 1912). Stuart Cary Welch, Jr., Warner, New Hampshire (by 1983-2008), by inheritance; to Edith I. Welch, Warner, New Hampshire (2008-2011), gift; to Harvard Art Museums 2011.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch

Accession Year

2011

Object Number

2011.531

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

A falcon perched on a rock holds the center of this drawing; the raptor is flanked by two dragon heads that face rightward; at the top of the page, a lion lopes to the left; and heads, snouts, and feet from unidentified animals populate the interstitial space. The seemingly random assembly of figures on this page suggests that it was a study sheet, an observation supported by the circular squiggle below the lion’s hind legs that was made by an artist pointing the brush or adjusting the amount of ink it carried. In this drawing the artist seems to have been rehearsing compositional elements in the finely articulated, calligraphic line that became popular in Safavid Iran.

Publication History

• F.R. Martin, The Miniature Painting and Painters of Persia, India and Turkey, from the 8th to the 18th century, B. Quaritch (London, England, 1912), plate 93
• 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 119/ fig 99
• Anthony Welch, Artists for the Shah: Late Sixteenth-Century Painting at the Imperial Court of Iran, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT, 1976), fig. 27
• Gauvin Alexander Bailey, "In the Manner of the Frankish Masters: A Safavid Drawing and its Flemish Inspiration", Oriental Art (Winter 1994 - Winter 1995), vol. XL, no. 4, fig. 6
• 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.54-55, no. 8

Exhibition History

• Islamic Art: Drawings, Calligraphies and Objects, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/29/1983 - 09/25/1983
• Diverse are their Hues: Animals in Islamic Art, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/18/1984 - 02/09/1985
• 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
• 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
• The Tablet and the Pen: Drawings from the Islamic World, Harvard University Art Museums, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 02/18/2006 - 07/23/2006

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