File:Portrait of a handsome youth, by Shaykh 'Abbasi, Safavid Iran, 1663-4.jpg

By Shaykh 'Abbasi, Safavid Iran, AH 1074/1663-4 AD

Gouache heightened with gold on paper, the young prince seated against a gold cushion on a terrace holding a flower to his face, with a landscape and a city in the background, inscribed below in tiny nasta'liq in cartouches baha gereft cho gardid shaykh 'abbasi sana 1074, mounted on card with a border of Persian verses in cartouches and gold floral meander Folio 8¼ x 5 7/8in. (21 x 14.8cm.); miniature 5¾ x 2 7/8in. (14.6 x 7.3cm.)

Few details are known of the life of the artist Shaykh 'Abbasi, whose dated works show him as being active during the reigns of Shah 'Abbas II and Shah Sulayman. His style is characterised by the use of pointillism for shading and creating volume in figures, but also by his choice of subjects. There is no evidence that he worked in India yet he frequently chose Indian men and women as his subjects. Even here where the subject is clearly an Iranian young man of fashion, he shows him sitting on a carpet on a terrace with a balustrade and smelling a flower, a common setting for the 17th century Mughal masters. Examples of his work are in the Art and History Trust Collection (Soudavar, A.: Art of the Persian Courts, New York, 1992, nos.146, 147, pp.367-8); in the Musée Guimet, Paris, 7166 (Zebrowski, M.: Deccani Painting, London, 1983, p.197); collection of the late Edwin Binney III, (Islamic art from the collection of Edwin Binney III, Washington, 1966, no.5).

The Binney miniature is entitled A Convivial Party and is dated 1088 (1677). One of the seated figures in the middle of the group bears a close resemblance to the Handsome Youth of the present painting and is wearing a similarly extravagant hat. The hat in the present miniature bears an inscription in pish-e khayl-e kaj kolahan setareh ast in qebleh keh kaj shodeh tarf-e kolah "This (boy) is a star ahead of the army of beaus This qibla which is turning away from the side of the hat" (Free translation) The other inscription next to Shaykh 'Abbasi's signature reads: jehat-e mirzay-e mirza shuja al-din mahmud be-etmam rasid "It was completed for the master, Mirza Shuja al-Din Mahmud".