Reza Abbasi, also known as Agha Reza (1565 – 1635), was the leading Persian miniaturist of the Isfahan School during the later Safavid period, spending most of his career working for Shah Abbas I. He is considered to be the last great master of the Persian miniature, best known for his single miniatures for muraqqa or albums, especially single figures of beautiful youths.
Riza probably received his training from his father and joined the workshop of Shah Abbas I at a young age. By this date, the number of royal commissions for illustrated books had diminished, and had been replaced by album miniatures in terms of employment given to the artists of the royal workshop.
Unlike most earlier Persian artists, he typically signed his work, often giving dates and other details as well, though there are many pieces with signatures that scholars now reject. He may have worked on the ambitious, but incomplete Shahnameh, now in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. A much later copy of the work, from 1628, at the end of Abbas' reign and rendered in a very different style, may also be his. It is now in the British Library. His first dated drawing is from 1601, in the Topkapi Palace. A book miniature of 1601–2 in the National Library of Russia has been attributed to him; the only other miniature in the book is probably by his father. He is generally attributed with the 19 miniatures in a Khusraw and Shirin of 1631–32, although their quality has been criticised.
His speciality, however, was the single miniature for the albums or muraqqas of private collectors, typically showing one or two figures with a lightly drawn garden background, sometimes in gold, in the style formerly used for border paintings, with individual plants dotted about on a plain background. These vary between pure pen drawings and fully painted subjects with colour throughout, with several intermediate varieties. The most typical have at least some colour in the figures, though not in the background; later works tend to have less colour. His, or his buyers', favourite subjects were idealized figures of stylishly dressed and beautiful young men.
The style he pioneered remained influential on subsequent generations of Persian painters; several pupils were prominent artists, including Mo'en Mosavver, who painted his portrait many decades later as well as Riza's son, Muhammed Shafi Abbasi.
His earlier works were signed Aqa Risa (or Riza, Reza etc., depending on the transliteration used), which, confusingly, is also the name of Aqa Riza, a contemporary Persian artist who worked for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir in India. In 1603, at the age of about 38, the artist in Persia received the honorific title of Abbasi from his patron, the shah, associating him with his name. In the early 20th century, there was much scholarly debate, mostly in German, as to whether the later Aqa Risa and Reza Abbasi were the same figures. It is now accepted that they were, although his style shows a considerable shift in mid-career.
Reza Abbasi, the painter, is also not to be confused with his contemporary Ali Riza Abbasi, Shah Abbas' favourite calligrapher, who in 1598, was appointed to the important position of royal librarian, and therefore in charge of the royal atelier of painters and calligraphers. Both Rizas accompanied the shah on his campaign to Khurasan in 1598 and followed him to the new capital he established in Isfahan from 1597 to 1598. Soon after, Reza Abbasi left the Shah's employ in a "mid-life crisis", apparently seeking greater independence and freedom to associate with Isfahan's "low-life" world, including athletes, wrestlers and other unrespectable types. In 1610, he returned to the court, probably because he was short of money, and continued in the employ of the Shah until his death. A
About the time of his return to court service, there is a considerable change in his style. "The primary colors and virtuoso technique of his early portraits give way in the 1620s to darker, earthier colors and a coarser, heavier line. New subjects only partly compensate for this disappointing stylistic development". He painted many older men, perhaps scholars, Sufi divines, or shepherds, as well as birds and Europeans, and in his last years sometimes satirized his subjects.
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| Reza Abbasi |
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| Sultan Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II in Procession, c.1650's |
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| Drawing with Flowers, Butterflies, and Insects, c.1649-50 |
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| Young man in a fur hat, c.1646 |
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| Young Portuguese, c.1634 |
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| The Old man and the Youth, c.1634 |
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| Study oif a bird, c.1634 |
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| Musician dressed as a European with viol, c.1630's |
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| Young woman in a white wrap, c.1630 |
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| The Lovers, c.1630 |
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| Seated youth, c.1630 |
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| Hunters at a Stream, c.1627 |
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| Youth reading, c.1626 |
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| Young man with a sword, c.1622 |
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| Cup-bearer, c.1620's |
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| Prince Muhammad-Beik of Georgia, c.1620 |
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| Young man with a bottle and a wine cup, c.1610's |
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| Youth kneeling and holding out a wine cup, c.1610 |
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| A Youth Fallen From a Tree, c.1610 |
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| Saki, c.1609 |
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| Qubad Discusses Death before Fighting Barman, c.1600's |
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| Portrait of a Man, c.1600 |
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| an in a Fur-Lined Coat, c.1600 |
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| Girl, c.1600 |
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| Man in a Long-sleeved Coat, c.1598 |
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| Reclining woman, c.1595 |
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| Lady with a Fan, c.1590-92 |
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| Reclining Nude, c.1590 |
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| Reclining Nude, c.1590 |
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| Prince Killing a Lion, Folio from the Davis Album |
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