Portrait of a Darvish

In 1547, Farrukh Beg was born to the Maulana Darvish Hoseyn, in Shiraz. During his teens he travelled to Khorasan where he was influenced by the Khorasani school drawing his famous 1555–1565 Haft Owrang manuscript of Jami. Following Ibrahim Mirza's murder in 1576, the artist migrated to Kabul to enter the service of Akbar’s half-brother, Mirza Muhammad Hakim. His major Safavid period achievements included single-handedly producing elaborate miniature paintings in the Haft awrang manuscript between 1570 and 1572 where he displayed signature elements: high vertical backgrounds with horizontal turf stratification, rich pink-and-green colour families, geometric zig-zag sashes, striated black-and-white beards, and individualised eccentric portraits. With the death of Hakim in 1585, Fazl recorded him in both Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari who stood apart from the contemporary Akbari artistic expressions of rapid narrative movement, European shading, and collaborative workshop production. Beg put front Persian spatial flatness, clean hard lines and jewel-like tilework. His early works includes the his aesthetic hallmarks slender, sharp-featured physiognomies, elegant line work, flat decorative panels of illumination, and a prominent use of gold backgrounds that emphasise overall surface design rather than three-dimensional spatial depth. In middle years however is part of contention where scholars like Seyller and Skelton argued he departures from the Mughal court to the Bijapur Court in late 1590s where he adopted briefly new stylistic impressions such as warmer palette which initiated an evolution in presentation of landscapes. He adopted regional attributes like flowers silhouetted in the foreground heavily striated and erosion-patterned rocks flickering with unearthly colours, and a brooding deep-green or mauve ground. Moreover the influence of Europeans prints most likely introduced him to deep pools of shadow along facial contours and heavy folds of drapery, which he selectively incorporated. This divergence is criticised. Given Farrukh Beg's uninterrupted career in the Mughal atelier from 1585 to the 1610s and the preservation of a remarkably consistent personal aesthetic over 35 years, it defies logic to suggest that an artist with such a rigid, established style would momentarily adopt a Deccani mode in Bijapur before abruptly returning to his original Persianate technique without leaving any indication of stylistic evolution (Verma, 1978). Flat geometric patterns, thick scrollwork adorning each column and garment, a vivid colour scheme, and opulent gold leaf coatings are all recurring themes in Farrukh Beg's artwork. Between 1605 and 1609, the artist is regarded to have to Jahangir’s court where he was received grandly with an award of 2000 rupees. This last phase of the artist is marked by angular draperies, tightly packed flat patterns, and striking contrasts of light and dark which persisted till his concluding recording years around 1619. During his life, there were two prominent subject matters upon which the contemporary painters like Shaykh Muhammad, Mirza Ali and others focused upon—adorable youths and venerable saints. They were actively undertaken by the Mughal Emperors. The painting present here illustrates a Darvish or Sufi ascetic drawn in ink, watercolour and gold falls under the second category. His face, hair and shawl are indulged with colours however his background above is blank whereas his bottom is filled with the imagery of flowers like lilies, Jasmines, Iris and Narcissus. It is situated by a slim border inscribing Persian verses enclosed within a indigo background of gold palmettes surrounded by a wider parameter of flowers and leafy plants. It being part of the Minto Album meant it was executed in Beg’s seventieth year along with the painting: “Elegant page boy” in the Chester Beauty Library and Oriental Gallery. This saint is unknown. Through this painting one can identity the European features of expressive emotions on the face of the figure along with smooth flows of his clothes. The gloomy expression showcases to the viewer a state hardship or sadness. However Beg didn’t adopts the European theme of humanitarian philosophy rather modified to the character of the spiritual Sufi. The Darvish is seems to be in dull state within the blooming garden, showing a step of agony the ascetics felt just before undertaking the decision of leaving the material world.