- Title
- Shah Abbas II of Iran (r. 1642-1666)
- Date Made
- circa 1700
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 11 3/4 x 7 3/4 in. ( 29.85 x 19.69 cm); Image: 9 1/2 x 6 in. (24.31 x 15.24 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.91.361
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Shah Abbas II of Iran (birthname: Sultan Muhammad Mirza, r. 1642-1666) was born in 1632 in Qazvin, Iran. He ascended the throne at age nine as the seventh Shah of Safavid Iran (1501-1736). Mirza Mohammad Taqi (or Saru Taqi, circa 1579-1645) served as his regent and Grand Vizier until his assassination in 1645. Abbas II recaptured the city of Kandahar, Afghanistan during the Mughal-Safavid War of 1649-1653, but it was lost to the Mughals again in 1698.
The inscription in the upper right of the sky reads, Portrait of Shah ‘Abbas the Second. The small inscription in the upper left is the name of the artist, Mansur. (Translations by Z. A. Desai.) In this three-quarter body portrait, Abbas II is depicted in three-quarter profile staring at the viewer. His Safavid-style floral banded turban has feather and plume turban ornaments. He wears a coat of Persian floral silk with a fur collar, an orange outer garment with a gold brocade border and gold buttons with pearls and rubies, a blue striped under garment, and a blue plaid waist sash with a white floral border. A bejeweled sword hilt extends from his waist sash. He holds an arrow by its tips across his chest and has a bow slung over his left forearm. He stands behind a blue parapet against an olive-gold background with a blue sky in a composition modeled on jharoka portraits of Indian royalty presenting themselves in a balcony window.
