Drawings of a Dragon in Saz Foliage (no. 57.51.26) and Saz Leaves with Dragons (no. 2000.424)

By the middle of the sixteenth century, in the reign of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520–66), the Ottoman nakkaşhane, or court design atelier in Istanbul, was flourishing under the leadership of Shah Qulu, an émigré artist from Iran. Shah Qulu is thought to have been largely responsible for the development of the new saz or hatayi style, inspired at once by the art of China and of Iran, which by mid-century had become the new emblem of imperial Ottoman artistry. His drawings in black ink on paper, sometimes with small touches of color, were sought after by Ottoman patrons and incorporated into a number of royal albums created at the court.

The Metropolitan’s drawing of a dragon in foliage (no. 57.51.26) bears an inscription stating that it is the work of Shah Qulu "as an exercise"; while this is more likely an attribution added later rather than an artist’s signature, Shah Qulu’s authorship is entirely credible. The inscription "as an exercise" illuminates the relative simplicity of this drawing as compared with another, probably later, dragon drawing of enormous complexity, also by Shah Qulu, in the Cleveland Museum of Art.[1] Here the entire composition is generated from a thick black line, like a steel spring, that forms the back of the dragon, which is shown moving energetically to the left while treading on a furiously churning bed of feathery leaves. Like the dragon, the leaves are defined by the broad tapering lines of their spines; the textured veining and serrated edges of the leaves, as with the dappled skin of the dragon, are depicted with incredible delicacy.

On the vertical album page (no. 2000.424), the roles of dragon and leaves are in a sense reversed. Here the main actors are two large leaves, one of which, in a dramatic gesture, pierces the other. The tail of a tiny dragon is visible at the top of the composition, while the head of another is seen at bottom right. This drawing, which bears the partially legible impression of a seal of a former owner (another, less legible impression is found on the album border), is in fact an artistic combination of two other works in the saz style. One is a drawing in a royal Ottoman album now in Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace Museum; the leaves in the Metropolitan’s drawing are an exact mirror image of those in the Istanbul drawing.[2] The other source exists in two versions, one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art,[3] the second a recent addition to the Islamic collections of the Musée du Louvre, Paris.[4] In both of these drawings two small dragons are clearly shown, head and tail, twined around a single large leaf with a swordlike spine.

Drawings such as these are virtuoso exercises—imagine them as Chopin études for the reed pen—that allowed artists to demonstrate their skill and imagination outside the more restricted arena of the illustrated book. In the aftermath of the death of Shah Qulu, sometime after the middle of the century, his followers continued his style, which influenced tile making, ceramic tablewares, arts of the book, textiles, and carpets.

Walter B. Denny in [Ekhtiar, Soucek, Canby, and Haidar 2011]

Footnotes:

1. Denny 1983, pl. 1.

2. Topkapı Palace Museum, Istanbul (no. H 2147, fol. 33A). Ibid., pl. 11.

3. The Los Angeles drawing was formerly in the collection of Edwin Binney 3rd; see Turkish Treasures from the Collection of Edwin Binney, 3rd. Exhibition, Portland Art Museum and other venues. Catalogue by Edwin Binney, 3rd, and Walter [B.] Denny. Portland, 1979, pp. 18–21.

4. L’étrange et le merveilleux en terres d’Islam. Exhibition, Musée du Louvre, Paris. Catalogue by Marthe Bernus-Taylor and others. Paris, 2001, p. 115.

Inscription: In Arabic and in nastaʻliq script:
عمل شاه قولي علی طریق المشق
The work of Shāh Qulī as an exercise

A.Ghouchani, 2010

Cora Timken Burnett, Alpine, NJ (by 1940–d. 1956; bequeathed to MMA)

Iranian Institute. "Exhibition of Persian Art," 1940, Gal. VII, 99D.

Venice. Fondazione Giorgio Cini. "Miniature Islamiche dal XIII al XIX Secolo," 1962, no. 78.

Ackerman, Phyllis. "The Iranian Institute, New York." In Guide to the Exhibition of Persian Art. 2nd. ed. New York: Iranian Institute, 1940. Gallery VII; case 99D, p. 206.

Grube, Ernst J. "from Collections in the United States and Canada." In Muslim Miniature Paintings from the XIII to XIX Century. Venice: N. Pozza, 1962. no. 78, pp. 99–100, ill. pl. 78 (b/w).

Grube, Ernst J. "The Ottoman Empire." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 26, no. 5 (January 1968). no. 37, p. 218, ill. (b/w).

Meredith-Owens, G. Turkish Miniatures. London, 1969. p. 19.

Welch, Stuart Cary. "Two Drawings, a Tile, a Dish, and a Pair of Scissors." Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1972). p. 292, ill. fig. 2 (b/w).

Ettinghausen, Richard. "Islamic Art." MMA Bulletin vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 1975). pp. 42–43 (b/w).

Denny, Walter B. "Dating Ottoman Turkish Works in the Saz Style." Muqarnas vol. 1 (1983). pp. 103–21, ill. pl. 1 (related).

Grube, Ernst J. Studies in Islamic Painting. London: Pindar Press, 1995. p. 325, ill. fig. 21 (b/w).

Bernus-Taylor, Marthe. "Musée du Louvre 23 Avril–23 Juillet 2001." In L'Etrange et le Merveilleux en Terres d'Islam. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 2001. no. 81, pp. 92–93, 115, ill. (color).

Ekhtiar, Maryam, Priscilla P. Soucek, Sheila R. Canby, and Navina Haidar, ed. Masterpieces from the Department of Islamic Art in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 202, pp. 6, 287, 290–92, ill. p. 291 (color).