Nobleman Smoking on a Terrace

Ali Reza

ca. 1670 · Opaque color and gold on paper · Islamic Art

This view into a courtly scene depicts an elegant group gathered within a marble pavilion that overlooks distant trees under a misty sky. The nobleman in pink at center is smoking from a long huqqa pipe, the base of which is held by a favored courter, while attendants appear at each side, completing the formal arrangement of the scene. The style of the painting bridges the formal conventions of the Mughal school with the more imaginative and atmospheric effects of the Deccan. This suggests that it belongs to the world of the northern Deccan which saw a mixing of the two sensibilities in diverse patronage with artists such as Ali Reza moving through the region during the Mughal occupation over much of the seventeenth century.

Artist

Ali Reza

Date

ca. 1670

Medium

Opaque color and gold on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions and 2020 Benefit Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks Gift; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; The Mossavar-Rahmani Fund for Iranian Art and funds from various donors, 2022