Description
In this online program, curator Massumeh Farhad presents on an unusual seventeenth-century album of drawings from Iran. During the rule of the Safavid dynasty (1501–1722), independent paintings, calligraphies, and drawings became increasingly popular. Judiciously selected and collated into albums (muraqqa‘), the organization and configuration of each album was distinct and expressed the patron’s particular artistic and literary tastes. Moreover, many of these works were also signed and dated. Among the countless surviving Safavid single pages, few are as revealing as those originally in the “Reza Abbasi” album, now disbound and housed in the Freer Gallery of Art. Drawing on the album’s original compositions and their accompanying inscriptions, this presentation will offer new insight into a close-knit circle of artists and patrons who were active in Isfahan in the first half of the seventeenth century.
This talk is part of the monthly lunchtime series Sneak Peek: New Research from the National Museum of Asian Art, where staff members present brief, personal perspectives and ongoing research, followed by discussion. This year, the online series focuses on the theme of word and image—including calligraphy, seals, inscriptions, manuals, narratives, and poetry—in the collections of the National Museum of Asian Art.
Massumeh Farhad is the Ebrahimi Family Curator of Persian, Arab, and Turkish Art, the senior associate director for research, and the director of the Freer Research Center at NMAA. She is a specialist in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century arts of the book from Iran.
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