Courtiers at a Reception of Shah 'Abbas I

Description This painting shows courtiers of Shah "Abbas I (r. 1588?1629), one of the great kings of the Persian Safavid dynasty (1501?1732). In 1598, Shah "Abbas moved the capital from Qazvin to Isfahan, where there was a strong relationship between the city and the extensive royal gardens. Isfahan, and even its surrounding suburbs, were developed as a great garden on an urban scale. The Persian garden was the result of a sophisticated irrigation system that created the city oases of Iran and central Asia.

Exhibitions

• Paradise Imagined: Images of the Garden in the Islamic and Christian World. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2012.

Provenance Sale, Sotheby's, February 1960; Walters Art Museum, 1960, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase with funds provided by the S. and A. P. Fund, 1960