Seated Dervish

Seated Dervish

The closed-in, compact pose of this seated and hunched over figure aptly relates the man's meditative state, also evident in his transfixed gaze. The peculiarly shaped cap pulled down over the eyes and the crossed arms, clad in sleeves long enough to cover the hands but not the rosary which hangs from under the left arm's sleeve, are known from numerous other drawings and paintings (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Goloubew Collection [14.616], and Sotheby's, London, December 7, 1970, lot 53).[1] Judging from the disparity in style and design between the vegetal decoration in the upper left-hand comer and the rocks and foliage beneath the figure, one may assume that this figure was among other drawings on a single, larger sheet. If so, the upper-comer foliage with its calligraphic style and its rhythmic movement of leaves and twigs belongs to a separate study which may be compared to the tradition of decorative drawings as in cat. no. 1 in this volume (MMA 41.46). Further evidence of the preparatory status of the drawing may be deduced from the mechanical quality of the uninterrupted and not notably distinguished outline of the figure that stands in contrast to the more careful treatment of the face.

[Swietochowski and Babaie 1989]

Footnotes:

I. See also Scandal in a Mosque from a Divan of Hafiz, where both the crossed-arm pose and the cap lowered over the forehead are found in two of the figures; Welch, Stuart Cary. Persian Painting: Five Royal Safavid Manuscripts of the Sixteenth Century.New York, 1976, pI. 16.

George D. Pratt, New York (by 1933–d. 1935); Vera Amherst Hale Pratt, New York (life interest 1935–45)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Persian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 13–December 31, 1989, no. 28.

Swietochowski, Marie, and Sussan Babaie. Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 28, pp. 66–67, ill. pl. 28 (b/w).