Page: 21 x 31.5 cm
Miniature: 10 x 21.5 cm

Provenance:
Private Belgian collection

This painting of a woman and child is a fine example of the pictorial style that was popular in Safavid Persia in the 17th century. The most important painter of the time, Reza Abbasi, had by then been greatly influenced by European pictorial conventions, and the popularity of this style would continue to grow. In a landscape reminiscent of engravings or Flemish paintings, a bare-breasted woman adorned with jewels is enjoying the pleasures of wine while her child plays with her hair. This album page with gold painted margins is presented in a frame decorated with alternating sections of plant motifs enameled in polychrome, with red and green beads made from glass paste set on a background of chiseled foliage.