Miniature pasted on an album leaf. ‘The Judgment of Solomon’
The only Persian artists in the 17th century who were able to break with the overwhelming influence of Riza-i Abbasi were those who were inspired by the greater naturalism that characterized not only European but also Indian painting.
Shaykh Abbasi was one of them, and in this signed and minutely detailed painting, he set the court of Solomon in 17th-century Iran. The wise king, who is considered to be a prophet by the Muslims, is not only surrounded by the usual supernatural divs and peris, but also by Indians in flat Mughal turbans and Europeans in cavalier hats. The landscape is naïve, but naturalistically rendered, and the figures are carefully modeled in light and shadow.
Shaykh Abbasi was one of them, and in this signed and minutely detailed painting, he set the court of Solomon in 17th-century Iran. The wise king, who is considered to be a prophet by the Muslims, is not only surrounded by the usual supernatural divs and peris, but also by Indians in flat Mughal turbans and Europeans in cavalier hats. The landscape is naïve, but naturalistically rendered, and the figures are carefully modeled in light and shadow.