Portrait of a Dervish

Unknown

16th century · Main support: ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper Margins: gold on dyed paper · Islamic Art

In the sixteenth century, albums with examples of great painting and calligraphy pasted onto decorated pages became popular. This folio from such an album includes a portrait of a dervish, or member of a mystical religious fraternity, surrounded by lines of poetry from another work. Shown enveloped in a mantle, lost in thought with a string of prayer beads hanging from his sleeve, the dervish embodies the ideal of religious absorption, but the individualized drawing of his face suggests a true portrait.

Artist

Unknown

Date

16th century

Medium

Main support: ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper Margins: gold on dyed paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Cora Timken Burnett Collection of Persian Miniatures and Other Persian Art Objects, Bequest of Cora Timken Burnett, 1956