The artist has masterfully used the sparse setting to highlight his subject. The figure is placed against a pale sky of graduated blues, framed on the sides by a marble archway and above by a fabric blind, the hot orange and yellow of which contrast with the pink rug with a softer green border in the lower portion of the page. The white of the holy man's robe seems blinding in its stark whiteness. These deftly handled coloristic effects set the stage for the sensitively observed portrait.
