Image of a Buraq

Reverse painting on glass is a decorative technique in which artists apply paint, gold leaf, and silver leaf to the back of a glass panel. The image is then viewed from the front, through the glass. The technique began in Europe and, after the seventeenth century, spread to China, India, Africa, and Iran. In Iran, it became especially popular in the early twentieth century, when artists used it to create portraits of rulers, princes, princesses, and royal couples.

This large panel depicts Buraq, the hybrid steed with the body of a horse, the face of a woman, and a gold peacock-feathered tail that carried the Prophet on his night journey (the mi‘raj) from Mecca to Jerusalem. The hand representing the Panj Tan or Five Holy Ones [in Shi’i belief) emerges from the saddle of the steed. An invocation with the inscription "Nasr min allah wa Fathun Qarib, (With the help of God, Victory is Near), is enclosed in a medallion at the center top. The work is signed: ‘Amal-i ‘Abbas-i Naqqash (the work of ‘Abbas the painter) and dated 1346 AH/1927 CE.