The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of November 29, 2023

Youth Holding a Pomegranate; Illustration from a Single Page Manuscript

c.1600–1650

style of Riza-yi Abbasi

(Iranian)

Iran, Isfahan, Safavid period

(1501-1722)

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

Image: 15.3 x 8 cm (6 x 3 1/8 in.); Overall: 27.7 x 16.4 cm (10 7/8 x 6 7/16 in.)

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1947.497

Location

not on view

Description

This single painting of a youth holding a favored pomegranate reflects the style of the most gifted painter at the court of Shah ‘Abbas, Riza-yi ‘Abbasi, whose work inspired numerous adaptations and copies by other artists. In this painting, the youth is attired less extravagantly—with less gold thread than those in the two paintings nearby—presumably conveying a lower status. Gold thread was so expensive that rulers occasionally burned old fabrics for the monetary value of the gold.

Inscriptions

Inscription

script: none

Provenance
?–1947
(Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
1947–
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Citations
Hollis, Howard C. “Two Seventeenth-Century Persian Miniatures.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 35, no. 4 (1948): 63–64. Mentioned: pp. 63–64; Reproduced: p. 62 www.jstor.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 731 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 224 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 224 archive.org
The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 281 archive.org
Exhibition history

Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2015-December 19, 2016).

Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2015-December 19, 2016).

Source URL: https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1947.497