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A prince conversing with a woman while taking refreshments on a terrace (recto); Calligraphy (verso) | musefully
A prince conversing with a woman while taking refreshments on a terrace (recto); Calligraphy (verso), c. 1710–1720. opaque watercolor with gold on paper, blue and buff borders (recto); ink on paper, script from Sadi's Bustan (verso), Page: 30.5 x 24.1 cm (12 x 9 1/2 in.). 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, 2013.335. CC0.
A prince conversing with a woman while taking refreshments on a terrace (recto); Calligraphy (verso)
c. 1710–1720
Maker Unknown
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
A prince conversing with a woman while taking refreshments on a terrace (recto); Calligraphy (verso), c. 1710–1720. India, Mughal, 18th century. Opaque watercolor with gold on paper, blue and buff borders (recto); ink on paper, script from Sadi's Bustan (verso); page: 30.5 x 24.1 cm (12 x 9 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, 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 2013.335 The prince removed his shoes before joining the picnic on the carpeted terrace.
Inscription: Verso: From a Bustan (Fragrant Herb Garden) of Sa‘di (Persian, 1210–1291).
Persian text in nasta‘liq script:
Why do the adherents of Idea to this not cleave—/
That only the Elect may go in water or in fire?/
As for the infant, uninformed of fire,/
Does not his mother guard him lovingly?/
Those, then, who’re drowned in ecstasy/
By night and day are in the very care of Truth:/
He guards the Friend against the fire’s heat/
As Moses’s crib against the whirlpools of the Nile;/
When an infant’s in a swimmer’s arms/
He knows no fear, broad though the Tigris be;/
But how shall you step on the ocean’s face/
As do real men, when even on dry land your skirt is wet?/
The way of the intellect is all twists and turns,/
But the concern of the gnostics is for God alone!/
This can be said to those who recognize realities,/
Though adherents of analogy may carp thereat and say:/
“What, then, is heaven, and what earth besides?/
Who are the sons of Adam, and the beasts both wild and tame?”/
A proper thing you’ve asked, O prudent one!/
I’ll tell you—if you find the answer proper:/
The plain and the ocean, the mountain and the sky,/
Pari and manchild, demon and angel—/
All, whatsoever they be, are less than That/
By virtue of Whose being they utter being’s name!/
Monstrous before you, with its waves, lies the ocean;/
High is the sun, all ablaze at the zenith;
(after Wickens 1974, 113)
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
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