The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented manuscript page depicting a person with light skin tone standing in a light yellow-brown rectangle on the center left, grey-blue patterned with gold greenery and birds surrounding. The person faces our left, holding a red pomegranate. They wear mint green robes, blue cloth with gold hashes tied around their waist, and an open, layered gold and brown striped robe. Black curls escape a gold, black-spotted hat with a feather and sheer cloth accents.

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.
  • ?–1947
    (Heeramaneck Galleries, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1947–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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
  • Islamic art rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 16, 2015-December 19, 2016).
    Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 116). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 16, 2015-December 19, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=Youth Holding a Pomegranate; Illustration from a Single Page Manuscript|url=false|author=Riza-yi Abbasi|year=c.1600–1650|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

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