Composition “Pleading Beloved”

Composition “Pleading Beloved”

A comparable figure of a couple of ca. 1550 is preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

Composition “Pleading Beloved”

Another Divan of Shahi dated ca. 1550 – 1560 with the same painting – attributed here to Mahmud Muzahhib – is preserved in the New York Public Library; the calligrapher is ‘Ali Riza al-Katib. An image quite close to it is also in the Khamsa kept in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, from Bukhara and datable ca. 1560. 

The same couple can be seen again on the left side of the initial double page of a collection of Persian ghazals without any date, copied by the calligrapher ‘Imad Husayni and preserved in Istanbul University Library. The popularity of this image of the youth catching the robe of his beloved who decided to leave was immense. We can mention plenty of examples in Bukhara painting.

You can learn more about the topic in the book-album "Illustrated manuscripts from Mawarannahr in the collections of France" (Volume XXIX) in the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan".

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