Images containing emaciated horses in Persian art have sufi or mystical connotations, symbolizing the ascetic’s conquest of worldly appetites and ego. Here, a young sufi kisses the hoof of a prince’s horse, an ironic gesture of the spiritually pure in the face of princely pride. Although the drawing has been inscribed with the name of Vali Jan, an artist who emigrated to the Ottoman court, it is based on an original from around 1535 that has been attributed to Sultan Muhammad, a master artist at the court of Shah Tahmasp (r. 1524–76).
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Artwork Details
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Title:The Prince and the Petitioner
Artist:Attributed to Vali Jan (Iranian, born Tabriz)
Date:late 16th century
Geography:Attributed to Iran
Medium:Ink and gold on paper
Dimensions:H. 3 in. (7.6 cm) W. 4 5/8 in. (11.8 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:Bequest of George D. Pratt, 1935
Object Number:45.174.23
The Prince and the Petitioner
While the emaciated nag in this drawing is true to the established convention, there is a certain humor in its diminutive size in relation to the stately steed of the prince. The pose of the petitioner seems slightly comic with his hand held out in a gesture of supplication and his body bent in a position of abject humility. The elaborate and rich decoration of cloudbands on the prince's ample trousers and the simurgh dominating the dense patterning of the saddlecloth emphasize the contrasting circumstances of the two figures and their mounts. The prince, however, by the tilt of his head and gesture of hand, is shown as lending a sympathetic ear to the petitioner's plight. The conventionally drawn landscape provides the neutral setting for the scene, and is arranged so that the towering rocks on the right balance the simple composition.
There may be a literary source or folk tale behind the encounter pictured here, or perhaps the artist who first conceived this theme was recording in an exaggerated form his own humble position in regard to his patron. There is a slightly earlier drawing of this same subject, exactly similar in the size and poses of the horses and figures. The only differences appear in the undecorated costume of the prince, who wears a fur-trimmed cap, the addition of a plume for his horse, and a different setting.[1] The Museum's drawing is signed Vali Jan in the lower left corner. For a discussion of this artist, see MMA no. 45.174.27 (cat. no. 25 in this volume), which is another drawing signed by Vali Jan.
[Swietochowski and Babaie 1989]
Footnotes:
1. See Sakisian, Armenag. La Miniature persane du XIIe au XVIIe siecle. Paris and Brussels, 1929, pI. LXXXIII, fig. 149, from his own collection; he calls it beginning of the 16th century, by Sultan Muhammad, but it actually appears to be a later 16th-century Qazvin drawing. Sakisian entitles it "Le Seigneur et Ie manant."
Signature: In lower left corner: Vali Jan
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. 14.
Swietochowski, Marie, and Sussan Babaie. Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 14, pp. 38–39, ill. pl. 14 (b/w).
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