Calligraphy (verso)
Unknown Artist
c. 1640–60
Medium
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions
40.5 × 28.9 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
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
Accession Number
2013.289.b
About this artwork
The text of the poem praises the season of spring, with mystical undertones. The Persian verses are written from right to left in the cursive form of Arabic script known as nasta‘liq. "It is springtime friends! Time to nurse the carnal wants: Wine, a minstrel, a pretty face, a secluded corner in a garden. What would I have done given my lack of means, If my heart did not have a cure for searing longings? My heart derives from the bounteous Sea of Compassion Its self-abnegating otherworldliness, ...