Horse and Groom, from an Album Page

Horse and Groom is a miniature from an Album Page from an early Safavid period, which is believed to be by the celebrated Persian painter ʿAbd al-Samad. The image shows a detailed depiction of a horse and a young groom in a well-appointed scene set in a beautiful landscape. The horse is surrounded by several other figures and is draped in a beautiful, intricately patterned blanket and adorned with elaborate headgear and harness, highlighting its role as a valuable royal or elite animal. The groom, who is shown wearing carefully rendered clothing, and the headgear characteristic to the early Safavid period, stands beside it. LACMA also observes that by the sixteenth century Persian artists began to create a tradition of portraits of valuable royal horses either alone or with their attendant grooms to be placed in books known as albums. Not least because it illustrates the art culture of 16th century Tabriz, one of the most important centres for Persian manuscript painting. According to LACMA, the inscription in gold nastaʾliq is the work of ʿAbd al-Samad, who went on to create other paintings of horses and grooms in Iran and subsequently in India. It is historically believed that the artist had studied in the renowned atelier of Shah Tahmasp, the Safavid ruler, in Tabriz and then went to India where he became a member of the Mughal court. He was then a key figure in the development of Mughal painting. The painting also has an important link with the Persian muraqqaʾ (album). Persian albums collected paintings and calligraphy on separate paper sheets, and elite collectors were able to create sophisticated visual collections of works of different periods and artists. According to LACMA, this painting could have been originally in an album of the brother of Shah Tahmasp, Bahram Mirza. This album is said to have been compiled by the calligrapher Dust Muhammad in 1544-45, but the museum does not claim that this is a definitive reconstruction. The back of the sheet has calligraphy, including writing by Sultan Muhammad Khandan and the gilder Hashim Mudhahhib, which also illustrates the fusion of painting and calligraphy in Persian albums. The work as a whole, then, attests to the complex relationships of painting, calligraphy, collecting and royal patronage in Safavid Iran.