Young man seated with a book (recto), and young man playing a tar (verso), folio from an Ottoman album

Unknown

Young man seated with a book (recto), and young man playing a tar (verso), folio from an Ottoman album. Across Iran, India and Turkey, from the sixteenth century at least, albums (or muraqqa`) had become an important way of storing and presenting one's diverse collection of artworks on paper: valuable specimens of calligraphy, single-page paintings or drawings, and even European prints, all re-mounted in a careful sequence. This album was compiled in early seventeenth-century Ottoman Istanbul, probably for a private citizen. Album-page, ink, colours and gold on paper, mounted on marbled card, two paintings (recto and verso), one of twelve detached folios from an Ottoman album, Istanbul, Turkey, c. 1620 Recto: painting of seated young man holding a book, inscribed in Turkish "Khwaja Hafiz's pupil Shirvani Mirza-zade", borders of gold-painted foliate scrollwork, mounted on marbled (ebru) paper. Verso: painting of standing young man playing a tar, borders of gold-painted foliate scrollwork, mounted on marbled (ebru) paper.