Miniature of a mother and Child Persian

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 impor- tant 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 alter- nating sections of plant motifs enamelled in polychrome, with red and green beads made from glass paste set on a background of chiselled foliage.