Miniature painted on cotton fabric. ‘Man with a Saluki’
Iran; c. 1555
Miniature: 18.3 × 13.8 cm
Inventory number 53/2000
Rarely are Islamic miniatures painted on cloth. This one, which must have been part of an album, was signed Mulla Dust (Dust Muhammad), but was probably made by his pupil, Shaykh Muhammad.
Against a poetic and purely Chinese-inspired landscape we see the classic confrontation between a man and his dog, each wanting to go a different way. Despite the colorful man’s superior force, his worried face gives us an inkling that it is the elegant, sand-colored saluki that will come off the victor. Is this scene a metaphor of the relationship between an older man and his young wife? Empathetic psychological depictions like this are rare in Persian miniature painting.
Against a poetic and purely Chinese-inspired landscape we see the classic confrontation between a man and his dog, each wanting to go a different way. Despite the colorful man’s superior force, his worried face gives us an inkling that it is the elegant, sand-colored saluki that will come off the victor. Is this scene a metaphor of the relationship between an older man and his young wife? Empathetic psychological depictions like this are rare in Persian miniature painting.
Published in
Published in
Sotheby’s, London, 12/10-2000, lot 64;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat.no. 36;
Kjeld von Folsach: For the Privileged Few: Islamic Miniature Painting from The David Collection, Louisiana, Humlebæk 2007, cat.no. 42;
Kjeld von Folsach, Joachim Meyer: The Human Figure in Islamic Art – Holy Men, Princes, and Commoners, The David Collection, Copenhagen 2017, cat.no. 67;
Kjeld von Folsach: Art from the World of Islam in The David Collection, Copenhagen 2001, cat.no. 36;
Kjeld von Folsach: For the Privileged Few: Islamic Miniature Painting from The David Collection, Louisiana, Humlebæk 2007, cat.no. 42;
Kjeld von Folsach, Joachim Meyer: The Human Figure in Islamic Art – Holy Men, Princes, and Commoners, The David Collection, Copenhagen 2017, cat.no. 67;
Miniature Paintings
A copy of Nizami’s Khamsa. The first miniature (fol. 107v): ‘The Consummation of the Marriage Between Khusraw and Shirin’
Miniature from a copy of Firdawsi’s Shahnama. ‘The Court of Gayumarth’
Miniature from a copy of Jami’s Yusuf wa Zulaykha. ‘Yusuf Pulled from the Well’
Miniature from a copy of Sadi’s Gulistan, pasted on cardboard. ‘The Sultan Wakes the Drunk Judge at Sunrise’.