Calligraphic exercises and verses of Hafiz (Persian, about 1325–1389) (verso) (1575–76): Art, History and Details

Calligraphic exercises and verses of Hafiz (Persian, about 1325–1389) (verso) (1575–76) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi (Persian, active mid- to late 1500s).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This fine calligraphic work is signed and dated by a calligrapher who was highly regarded in both Safavid Iran and Mughal India. Mughal albums typically had a painted portrait or figural scene on one side, and a work of calligraphy on the other. The British civil servant Sir Charles Forbes made his album following that format. The verses are a lament over a lack of wine, beginning: For some days now the Daughter of the Vine has been lost to us, Gone away to tend to her own affairs. Be alert and prepared as a search party. Her dress is of rubies, and she wears a tiara of delicate glass.

Object facts

• Title: Calligraphic exercises and verses of Hafiz (Persian, about 1325–1389) (verso)
• Date: 1575–76
• Creator attribution: Mahmud ibn Ishaq al-Shahabi (Persian, active mid- to late 1500s)
• Culture: Persian, Uzbekistan, Bukhara
• Type: Calligraphy
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 28 x 23.8 cm (11 x 9 3/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.347.b

A detail from the museum

The work was part of an album of paintings collected in India before 1811 by a Scottish politician who worked for the British East India Company.

Collection credit

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.