A Gathering of Dervishes

ca. 1605–10

Not on view

This refined painting has a slightly subversive subject, that of a gathering of mystics many of whom appear to be under the influence of intoxicating substances. One group on the right prepares the mixture in a sieve, while its effects cause the dervishes to swoon, slouch or sprawl. The painting blurs the borders between religious ecstasy and dissolution, in an early development of a popular genre that was to take hold in painting for the duration of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

Artwork Details

Overview

Provenance

Exhibition History

References

Title: A Gathering of Dervishes
Date: ca. 1605–10
Geography: Country of Origin India
Medium: Opaque color and gold on paper
Dimensions: Image: 10 15/16 × 8 3/8 in. (27.8 × 21.2 cm)
Frame: 19 1/2 × 15 1/8 × 7/8 in. (49.5 × 38.4 × 2.2 cm)
Classification: Codices
Credit Line: Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions, Harris Brisbane Dick, and 2020 Benefit Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks, Lila Acheson Wallace, and Friends of Islamic Art Gifts; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and funds from various donors, 2022
Object Number: 2022.177
Curatorial Department: Islamic Art

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