Masterpieces of Oriental Art. 4

Extract

Rarely has the art of East and West blended more happily than in this superb seventeenth century portrait of a painter. In so many Persian miniatures figures and drapery are rendered conventionally in a style tradition has made classical; and the classical, as Greece as taught us, is so apt to become “faultily faultless, splendidly null”. Here instead of any vacuous type is a definite individual with personality expressed in hands and arms, in the droop of the neck and in the intense concentration of the refined sensitive face. It is the portrait of a fastidious artist scrutinizing a picture with analytical gaze. The Persian beauty of flowing lines and tenuous fabric has been almost usurped by the Venetian beauty of rich texture and voluminous material. The prodigal richness of the thick brocade is emphasized by the translucency of the austere face and the hands. The thickness of the velvet is further brought out by the light cambric of handkerchief and turban. For huge though the turban is, it is not heavy, and with Persian virtuosity the painter has given rotundity to its folds without shading.