"Man with a Ram," Folio from the Bellini Album

Man with a Ram


There seems to have been a fascination for seventeenth-century artists in the subject (found primarily in drawings) of a man in juxtaposition with a ram, frequently confronting or restraining the beast. It is difficult to determine the source for this subject. Is it ultimately a literary one, as for the drawings of Majnun in the wilderness? Does the subject have a philosophical or social basis, such as the interdependency of man and the domesticated ram? Or is it a betrayal of trust, one of the two erstwhile companions about to become a sacrifice? There may be a fable, a poem, or even a pun of which we are unaware. Finally, the prime appeal may have simply been the contrast in human and animal contour and form and the challenge to calligraphic virtuosity. This subject seems to have become popular under the influence of Reza 'Abbasi, as did the calligraphic style.[1]

The drawing in the Bellini Album was done with quick, sure strokes, thickening where the artist wanted to articulate a backbone, shoulder, strength of arm or turn of heel, thinning to a hair's breadth and picking up again in dynamic runs and sudden pauses. Particularly associated with Reza 'Abbasi are the folds of turban and sash and the staccato ends of the tied cloths. A few deft strokes and a landscape setting is indicated, a few more and the clouds race overhead.

All of these "ram and man" drawings are different and this one is unusual in that the man appears to have lifted the ram bodily off the ground, the animal resisting with forelegs extended stiffly forward. Perhaps the closest parallel to the Museum's drawing is one in the Sackler Museum at Harvard University (1948.59). It has no landscape setting, but the swift, telling handling of brushstrokes and the calligraphic thickening and thinning of the line, almost to the point of disappearance, are very similar. In the Harvard drawing, the figure is facing the ram, so that the confrontation is even more compelling.

[Swietochowski and Babaie 1989]

Footnotes:

I. Of the seven drawings of the subject of a man and a ram that we have located, four have ascriptions to Reza ‘Abbasi: the Harvard drawing, 1948.59, mentioned above; Sotheby's July 8, 1980, lot 212; Pope, Arthur Upham, and Phyllis Ackerman, editors. A Survey of Persian Art from Prehistoric Times to the Present, London and New York, 1939, vol. V, pI. 2, pI. 917 B; and Brooklyn Museum, 85.80.

[ Art market, Istanbul, prior to 1912; sold to Martin]; F. R. Martin (Swedish), Stockholm (in 1912); Hagop Kevorkian, New York (until d. 1962; his estate sale, Sotheby's, London,December 6, 1967, no. 213, to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Persian Drawings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 13–December 31, 1989, no. 12.

Martin, F. R. The Miniature Painting and Painters of Persia, India and Turkey from the 8th to the 18th century. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1912. vol. 1, pp. 59–60, 69, ill. fig. 36 (b/w).

"The Property of the Kevorkian Foundation, December 6, 1967." In Highly Important Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures. London: Sotheby's, New York, 1967. no. 213, p. 75, ill. opp. p. 75 (b/w).

Swietochowski, Marie, and Sussan Babaie. Persian Drawings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989. no. 12, pp. 34–35, ill. pl. 12 (b/w).

Roxburgh, David J. "Disorderly Conduct?: F.R. Martin and the Bahram Mirza Album." Muqarnas vol. 15 (1998). p. 54.