18th CENTURY ISFAHAN SCHOOL
Portrait of a Member of Karim Khan Zand's Court (circa 1750 - 1760)
circa 1760
oil on canvas
29 x 25 inches, inc. frame
This richly executed portrayal of a member of the Persian ruler Karim Khan Zand"s court belongs to a small group of eighteenth-century Orientalist portraits by one of the artists of the Isfahan School. The sitter was a member of the Zand dynasty Court, indeed, his physiognomy has suggested this could be a portrait of Karim Khan himself. He is recorded as his nation's most just and able ruler, with a reputation for clemency, courage and a taste for the arts.
The painting dates from the mid-1750s and is an exceptional example of the work of the Isfahan School. These works were created at a time when Isfahan was had recently established itself as a major cultural and political centre. Very few free hanging portraits in this style were painted, demonstrating their importance as cultural status symbols for only the wealthiest individuals. This particular portrait relates to the Portrait of Melchon di Nazard, New Julfa, Isfahan, circa 1670, Althorp, seat of the Earls Spencer.
In 1597 the Persian Emperor Shah Abbas had moved his capital from Qazwin, in the north-west of the country, to Isfahan in the center. Although this was done primarily for reasons of security, Isfahan became a cosmopolitan capital to rival any other, a center of political and military power, of monumental architecture, of culture and the arts, of fashion, and of eclectic internationalism (via the international enclave at New Julfa). The Emperor's efforts to glorify himself and his nation coincided with other political and commercial developments that helped establish Isfahan as a major world city. It was, by the mid-18th century, the center for a school of painting that was internationalist, sophisticated, rich and remarkably exclusive.
Stories abound of Karim Khan Zand personal courage, sexual prowess, and enjoyment of wine and opium, it is the strict fairness, sense of humor, and humanity that are frequently recorded in popular anecdotes.
As Wakil, he apparently retained simple tastes in clothes and furniture, wearing the tall Zand turban of yellow cashmere and squatting on a cheap, flat-weave rug (zilu) instead of a throne. He had gifts of jewelry broken down and sold to top up the treasury.
He has generally been regarded as, if not the greatest by conventional criteria, undoubtedly the best. Sir John Malcolm thus characterized his reign: “The happy reign of this excellent prince as contrasted with those who preceded and followed him, affords to the Historian of Persia that description of mixed pleasure and repose which a traveller enjoys who arrives at a beautiful and fertile valley, in the midst of an arduous journey over barren and rugged wastes” (quoted by Jones Brydges).