2011.529: A Beggar Kisses the Foot of the Prince’s Horse

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2011.529

People

Attributed to Sultan Muhammad, Persian (16th century)

Title

A Beggar Kisses the Foot of the Prince’s Horse

Classification

Drawings

Work Type

drawing

Date

c. 1535-1540

Places

Creation Place: Middle East, Iran, Tabriz

Period

Safavid period

Culture

Persian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/217013

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black ink on off-white paper

Dimensions

12.5 x 20 cm (4 15/16 x 7 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

[Armenag Sakisian], by 1929. [Annie Kevorkian], by 1965, sold; to Stuart Cary Welch, Jr., Warner, New Hampshire (November 1965-2008), by inheritance; to Edith I. Welch, Warner, New Hampshire (2008-2011), gift; to Harvard Art Museums 2011.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch

Accession Year

2011

Object Number

2011.529

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

In the center of this drawing, a young prince rides a beautiful stallion. The youth watches and gestures toward a barefoot man who kneels to kiss the foot of the stallion. An emaciated nag stands behind the kneeling man. This nuanced line drawing conveys the psychological characteristics of the different personages of the prince and the poor man.

Publication History

• Armenag Sakisian, La Miniature Persane du XIIe au XVIIe Siecle, Les Editions G. van Oest (Paris, France, 1929), page 83/figure 149
• Martin Bernard Dickson and Stuart Cary Welch, The Houghton Shahnameh, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1981), Page 86/Figure 121
• Stuart Cary Welch and Kim Masteller, From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, 2004), pp. 44-45, no. 3
• Farid al-Din Attar, Layli Anvar, and Michael Barry, Le Cantique des Oiseaux: illustré par la peinture en Islam d’orient, Diane de Selliers (Paris, 2012), p. 358, ill. p. 359.

Exhibition History

• Islamic Art: Drawings, Calligraphies and Objects, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 06/29/1983 - 09/25/1983
• Linear Graces ... and Disgraces: Part II, Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India, 15th-19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 12/26/1994 - 03/05/1995
• From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from SCWelch, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/19/2005 - 06/02/2005
• Re-View: S231 (Islamic rotation: 3) Sacred Spaces: The World of Dervishes, Fakirs and Sufis, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/06/2009 - 01/03/2010

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