People of Color in European Art History

This portrait depicts a woman in Safavid dress wearing a European hat, holding a flower. It is in the style of the Safavid painter Shaykh ‘Abbāsī, whose dated works range between 1060 AH / 1650 CE to 1095 AH / 1683-4 CE. Shaykh ‘Abbāsī often signed his name in a rectangular panel, as seen in the lower left corner here. Curiously, the signature was erased at some point, although faint traces of the inscription remain. The rectangle seems to have been cut when the work received new borders. The painting is executed in opaque watercolor and gold. The blue, pink, and purple borders with illuminated floral motifs probably date to the early thirteenth century AH / nineteenth CE.

Dating from about 1605, the cope combines Christian iconography together with the typical Safavid floral motifs and is unique in that it was clearly woven as a Cope rather than being made into a vestment from some other textile. Its history is unknown but it came to the Museum as fragments…

Taking the crucifixion scene on the centre back as the measuring point, the design of the two halves of the cope are predominantly worked as mirror images of each other. The figures of the Angel Gabriel and of the Virgin Mary are symmetrically placed so when the cope is worn these figures face each other. 

Here is a rare painting from Safavid Iran which displays a European lady dressed in style of Queen Anne of England. The lady in the painting has striking facial similarities with Queen Anne. I am not sure why there is an owl in this painting.