Men Preparing Some Sort of Intoxicant in the Country

Men Preparing Some Intoxicant

Fourteen men of varying ages and, judging from their costumes, vocations are assembled in the country preparing and using, it seems, intoxicants. The theme of an all-male gathering in the open, where men are shown asleep and even just drowsy or in conversation, enjoyed some popularity in Iran during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century (Sotheby's London, October 11, 1982, lot 32).[1] Best described as a conceit, these drawings illustrate different states of intoxication, a favorite theme in Persian mystical poetry.[2] Although the subject possesses a good deal of genre quality, as is seen by the addition of such details as a cat or a dog as observers, the main features of the theme remain unchanged. That is to say, these are not primarily genre scenes but the theme belongs to the visual and literary tradition as does wine drinking.[3] The two men mixing the substance with their hands in a large bowl are the most constant feature of these drawings. Also consistently present is the half-conscious man seated at the far right, middle row, in the Museum's drawing, posed precariously with one bent leg barely keeping the upper body from tipping over.

The Museum's drawing is datable to the second half of the seventeenth century and benefits from direct earlier Persian visual models, such as the Party of Men Drinking in a Landscape, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (14.649, figure 33 in this volume). The Museum's drawing is also indebted to Indian painting, as is evident in the types of the two conversing figures in the upper right-hand comer.

[Swietochowski and Babaie 1989]

Footnotes:

1. For another Indian copy closely following the Persian models, see Sotheby's, July 11, 1972, lot 53. Two further examples, although in Mughal style, are illustrated in Sotheby's, September 20–21, 1985, lot 375 and Sotheby's, April 12, 1976, lot 105.

2. Welch, Anthony. Shah 'Abbas and the Arts of Isfahan. Exhibition catalogue. The Asia Society. New York, 1973, p. 63. Welch uses this very apt term in reference to a drawing in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, entitled Different Kinds of Spirit (14.649, figure 33 in this volume, now known as Party of Men Drinking in a Landscape), ascribed to Muhammadi and dated ca. 1575, but probably early 17th century.

3. See An Allegory of Worldly and Other-Worldly Drunkenness, from a Divan of Hafiz; and Welch, Stuart Cary. Persian Painting: Five Royal Safavid Manuscripts of the Sixteenth Century. New York, 1976, pI. 18.


A Gathering of Dervishes in the Countryside

Sufi dervishes, alone or in groups, started appearing in Persian manuscript illustrations and single page paintings in the late fifteenth century, at a time when Sufism was held in greet esteem by some Muslim rulers and art patrons.[79] The subject featured in this drawing is a rather popular one and survives in three other versions dated c. 1590, 1615, and c. 1640.[80] The image represents dervishes of different ages engaged in various activities in a country setting. Several sit in front of large bowls in which they dip their hands to wash them or to fill cups with wine, as more clearly shown in the alternate (and colored) versions of the same scene. Others meditate or pray, as specific attributes (prayer beads) and gestures (raised hands) indicate. In the upper right corner, two dervishes converse in an animated fashion, while across from them, at the far left, two other fellows are seated, visibly intoxicated from excessive drinking. Finally, the young disciples sitting in the lower right corner appear completely disengaged, one leaning on the other and practically asleep.

Although in the other versions of the scene the characters are similarly haphazardly arranged, this example appears far more experimental. Not only are the figures more clustered on the page, but their style of execution varies greatly. Some of them are merely sketched, while others appear more finely drawn, suggesting different stages of execution and, probably, different hands.[81] Due to its resemblance to tinted drawings in Boston and St. Petersburg, this version may have been executed after those examples, possibly providing a further elaboration of a now lost additional intermediary, before being finally reincarnated in the colorful painting that now belongs to the British Museum.

One aspect that is shared by all versions of this scene is the reference to wine. The love of God is often compared to ruby nectar because, like wine, the love of God can be intoxicating. The suitability of this idea to express the rapturous nature of mystical love is one of the reasons why the metaphor of wine—and its associated imagery—became a preferred topos in Sufi poetry.[82] Thus the cup (jam) stands for the heart, always longing to be filled with the heavenly juice. The cup-bearer (saqi) becomes the carrier of the ecstatic experience brought by wine, and he himself a further mundane manifestation of divine presence when not associated directly with God.[83] Finally, the tavern (maykhana) turns into the ideal meeting place for lover and Beloved outside the dervish's lodge.

Francesca Leoni in [Akbarnia and Leoni 2010]

Footnotes:

79. Bahari, Ebadollah, Bihzad: Master of Persian Painting. London; New York: I.B Taurus Publishers, 1997, p. 56, fig. 18; p. 94, fig. 46; p. 160, fig. 93; and p. 176, fig. 106.

80. The works are currently in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Oriental Institute in St. Petersburg, and the British Museum, London. For color reproductions see Gray, Basil, Persian Painting. New York, Skira, 1961, p. 157; and Canby, Sheila, Shah 'Abbas and the Remaking of Iran. London: The British Museum, 2009, cat. no. 80 and fig. 57.

81. In a recent exhibition catalogue, Sheila Canby remarks on the "Mughal" look of the buildings drawn in the background of the version of the painting currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. This and other elements prompts her to suggest that the Boston painting may have traveled to India at some point, where it received additions (Canby 2009, see note 1). Some of the figures in the example discussed here, particularly the men on the upper right corner and the seated couple on the far left, equally seem to follow pictorial conventions that are more typical of Indian conventions. This example could thus have had a similar afterlife and have traveled to India.

82. The poetry of Hafiz (d. 1394) contains some of the most audacious renditions on this theme. For a discussion of this poet, see p. 78 in this volume.

83. The homosocial nature of Sufism certainly facilitated homoerotic feelings and relationships among the members of the same group. Hence the cup-bearer—often described as a beautiful beardless youth—could be a metaphoric as much as a concrete object of amorous longing for the dervish, who saw in him a reflection of God's beauty. These issues are discussed in the studies of Schimmel, Annemarie,"'I take off the dress of the body': Eros in Sufi Literature and Life," in Religion and the Body, ed. Sara Coakley. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 262–88; and Yarshater, Ehsan, "The Theme of Wine-Drinking and the Concept of the Beloved in Early Persian Poetry," Studia Islamica 13, 1960, pp. 43–53.

Dikran G. Kelekian (American, born Turkey), New York (by 1933–d. 1951; his estate, New York, 1951–52;sold to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Persian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 13–December 31, 1989, no. 35.

New York. Brooklyn Museum. "Light of the Sufis : an introduction to the mystical arts of Islam," June 5, 2009–September 6, 2009, no. 21.

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "Light of the Sufis : an introduction to the mystical arts of Islam," May 16, 2010–August 8, 2010, no. 21.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M. "New York City, November 25, 1933–January 31, 1934; Detroit Institute of Arts, February 6–March 3, 1934." In Catalogue of an Exhibition of Persian and Indian Miniature Paintings Forming the Private Collection of Dikran Khan Kelekian. New York, 1933. no. 78, p. 29, ill.

Swietochowski, Marie, and Sussan Babaie. Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 35, pp. 80–81, ill. pl. 35 (b/w).

Akbarnia, Ladan, and Francesca Leoni. "The Mystical Arts of Islam." In Light of the Sufis. Houston: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2010. no. 21, pp. 62–63, ill. p. 63 (color).