Jump to content

Reza Abbasi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 87.194.52.251 (talk) at 20:43, 14 March 2011 (→Life and art: add). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Posthumous portrait of Riza by his follower Mu'in, 1673
Youth reading, 1625-6

Riza Abbasi or Reza-e Abbasi, رضا عباسی in Farsi, usually "Riza" or Reza Abbasi also Aqa Riza or Āqā Riżā Kāshānī (c. 1565–1635) was the leading Persian miniaturist of the Isfahan School during the later Safavid period, spending most of his career working for Shah Abbas I.[1] He is considered to be the last great master of the Persian miniature, best known for his single miniatures for muraqqa or albums.

Life and art

He was perhaps born in Kashan, as Āqā Riżā Kāshānī is one of the versions of his name; it has also been suggested that he was born in Mashad, where his father the miniature artist Ali Asghar is recorded working in the atelier of the governor, Prince Ibrahim Mirza.[2] He probably received his training from his father, and joined the workshop of Shah Abbas I at a young age. By this date the number of royal commissions for illustrated books had diminished, and album miniatures had to a considerable extent replaced them in giving employment to the artists of the royal workshop.[3] Unlike most earlier Persian artists he typically signed his work, often giving dates and other details as well, though there are many pieces with signatures that scholars now reject.[4] He may have worked on the ambitious but incomplete Shahnameh now in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin,[5] and much later on another copy of the work from 1628, at the end of Abbas' reign and in a very different style, now in the British Library (MS Additional 27258).[6] His first dated drawing is from 1601, in the Topkapi Palace.[7] A book miniature of 1601-2 in the National Library of Russia has been attributed to him; the only other miniature in the book is probably by his father.[8] He is generally attributed with the 19 miniatures in a Khusraw and Shirin of 1631-32, although their quality has been criticised.[9] However his speciality was the single miniature for the albums or muraqqas of private collectors, typically showing one or two figures, with a lightly drawn garden background in the style formerly used for border paintings. These vary between pure pen drawings and fully painted subjects with colour throughout, with several intermediate varieties, but the most typical have at least some colour on the figures but not on the background, although later works tend to have less colour. According to Barbara Brend:

The line of Riza's ink drawings has an absolute mastery conveying texture, form, movement and even personality. His coloured figures, which must often be portraits, are more restrained, and lay more emphasis on the fashions of the day, the rich textiles, the carelessly draped turban, the European hat. Effete figures are often presented standing in a curved posture which accentuates their well-fed waists.[10]

The style he pioneered remained influential on subsequent generations of Persian painters; several pupils were prominent artists, including Mu'in, who painted his portrait many decades later (illustrated at top) as well as Riza's son Muhammed Shafi Abbasi.[11]

His earlier works were signed Aqa Risa, confusingly also the name of an earlier Persian artist, until in 1603, at the age of about 38, he received the honorific title of Abbasi from, and associating him with, his patron. There was much scholarly debate in the early 20th century, mostly in German, as to whether the later Aqa Risa and Riza Abbasi were the same figure, but it is now accepted that they were, although his style shows a considerable shift in mid-career.[12] Riza Abbasi the painter is also not to be confused with his contemporary Ali Riza Abbasi, Shah Abbas' favourite calligrapher, who was appointed in 1598 to the important position of royal librarian, and so also in charge of the royal atelier of painters and calligraphers. Both Rizas had accompanied the shah on his campaign to Khurasan in 1598, and followed him to the new capital he established in Isfahan from 1597/98.[13] Soon after Riza Abbasi left the Shah's employ in a "mid-life crisis",[14] apparently seeking greater independence and freedom to associate with Isfahan's "low-life" world, including athletes, wrestlers and other unrespectable types.[15] In 1610 he returned to the court, probably as he was short of money, and continued in the employ of the Shah until his death.[16] A series of drawings copying the miniatures attributed to the great 15th century artist Behzad which were in the library of the shrine at Ardabil strongly suggest that Riza had visited the city, probably as part of the shah's party, and perhaps on his visits in 1618 or 1625.[17]

About the time of his return to court service there is a considerable change in his style: "The primary colours and virtuoso technique of his early portraits give way in the 1620s to darker, earthier colours and a coarser, heavier line. New subjects only partly compensate for this disappointing stylistic development".[18] He painted many older men, perhaps scholars, Sufi divines, or shepherds, as well as birds, and in his last years sometimes satirized his subjects.[19]

Sheila Canby's 1996 monograph accepts 128 miniatures and drawings as by Riza, or probably so, and lists as "Rejected" or "Uncertain Attributions" a further 109 that have been ascribed to him at some point.[20] Today his works can be found in the museum that bears his name in Tehran, the library at the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, and several western museums such as the Smithsonian, where the Freer Gallery of Art has an album of works by him and pupils,[21] the British Museum, Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

  • Reclining woman, 1595
    Reclining woman, 1595
  • Two Lovers, 1630; both are male
    Two Lovers, 1630; both are male
  • Youth kneeling and holding out a wine-cup
    Youth kneeling and holding out a wine-cup
  • Prince Muhammad-Beik of Georgia by Reza Abbasi, 1620
    Prince Muhammad-Beik of Georgia by Reza Abbasi, 1620

Notes

  1. ^ Brend, 165
  2. ^ Grove
  3. ^ Brend, 165-166: Grove
  4. ^ Canby (1996), Appendix III and passim
  5. ^ Canby (1996), 181, allows him four of the miniatures
  6. ^ Titley, 108-109, 114
  7. ^ Grove
  8. ^ Canby (2009), 176
  9. ^ Canby (1996), 193, items 75-93
  10. ^ Brend, 165-166
  11. ^ Grove
  12. ^ Titley, 114; Grove; Gray, 80-81 represents an older view
  13. ^ Canby (2009), 36; see also the calligrapher's biography in Encyclopedia Iranica
  14. ^ Grove
  15. ^ Grove; Brend, 165; Titley, 114. Both contemporary sources and the female scholars who dominate the study of the Persian miniature show little patience with Riza's mid-life interlude.
  16. ^ Titley, 114; Brend 165; Canby (2009), 36, 50
  17. ^ Canby, 123, 179
  18. ^ Grove
  19. ^ Grove
  20. ^ Canby (1996), Appendices I & III
  21. ^ Titley, 114

References

  • Brend, Barbara. Islamic art, Harvard University Press, 1991, ISBN 067446866X, 9780674468665
  • "Canby (2009)",Canby, Sheila R. (ed). Shah Abbas; The Remaking of Iran, 2009, British Museum Press, ISBN 9780714124520
  • "Canby (1996)", Canby, Sheila R, Rebellious Reformer: The Drawings and Paintings of Riza Yi-Abbasi of Isfahan, 1996, Tauris IB.
  • Gray, Basil, Persian Painting, Ernest Benn, London, 1930
  • "Grove" - Canby, Sheila R., Riza [Riżā; Reza; Āqā Riżā; Āqā Riżā Kāshānī; Riżā-yi ‛Abbāsī], in Oxford Art Online (subscription required), accessed 5 March 2011
  • Titley, Norah M., Persian Miniature Painting, and its Influence on the Art of Turkey and India, 1983, University of Texas Press, 0292764847
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Reza Abbasi.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Reza_Abbasi&oldid=418838557"