A Gathering of Dervishes

Unknown

ca. 1605–10 · Opaque color and gold on paper · Islamic Art

This refined painting has a slightly subversive subject, that of a gathering of mystics many of whom appear to be under the influence of intoxicating substances. One group on the right prepares the mixture in a sieve, while its effects cause the dervishes to swoon, slouch or sprawl. The painting blurs the borders between religious ecstasy and dissolution, in an early development of a popular genre that was to take hold in painting for the duration of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1605–10

Medium

Opaque color and gold on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions, 2020 Benefit, and Dodge Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks Gift; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and funds from various donors, 2022