Farangi-Sazi

[1] Specific to late Safavid painting & its derivatives, it excludes the work of later European-trained painters like Sani al-Mulk and Kamal ol-Molk.

[1] Per Negar Habibi, "farangi-sazi" requires more than a "discreet use of a European technique, a mere presence of chiaroscuro or perspective...

[4] Very little is known about his life aside from his (and his pupils') inscriptions.The story that he studied in Rome, converted to Christianity, and fled to India has been rejected by Anatoly Ivanov and others.

[10] After Tahmasp's kitabkhana closed in 1555, miniature production shifted towards standalone pieces, spawning new genres like single-figure portraits and the nude.

European prints[note 4] made an impression on local artists, occasionally leading to the borrowing of poses and motifs.

A few poorly documented Armenian painters- "Marcos"[12] and "Minas"[note 9]- were producing oil-on-canvas portraits in Isfahan in the 1630s & 40s.

[10] By the 1670s, Farangi sazi was used to depict quintessential Persian subjects: scenes from the Shahnameh[note 12] & Nizami's Khamsa and contemporary court life.

Still others- among them Reza Abbasi's son Muhammad Shafi- pioneered genres like the gol o morg (flower and bird), sometimes influenced by European and Mughal models.

These artists took cues selectively from European & Mughal conventions, adopting a new approach to light and shadow and to landscape.

[16] Muhammad Sadiq, another painter who sometimes worked on lacquer, is also known for miniatures in the Europeanizing manner[18] and for oil paintings in the Negarestan.

[20] Muhammad Baqir was one of the artists who worked on these borders; his floral decorations in the Europeanized Indo-Persian style are especially striking.

The Diez and Fatih Albums contain a few 14th/15th century Jalayirid or Timurid pieces inscribed as "kar-i-farang", possibly based on medieval French or Iberian models.

[23] The styles of Bahram Sofrakesh and Shaykh Abbasi[24] reflect this influence explicitly, and Aliquli Jabbadar may have produced copies of early 17th century Mughal paintings.

Decades later, the campaigns of Nader Shah brought many looted Mughal and Deccan miniatures to Iran,[note 23] where they were installed in muraqqas like the Davis and St. Petersburg Albums.

" Bahram Gor with the Indian Princess," Mohammad Zaman , 1675/76 [ 1 ]
Scene from Layla and Majnun . Drawn by Jani in 1684/85 AD (1096 AH) for Engelbert Kaempfer 's costume album (now in the British Museum). Notice the use of European techniques like shadow and modelling [ 2 ]
Top: Madonna & child, signed Muhammad Zaman 1682-83. Right: Jacques Goullon enamel watch ca 1645-50 based on Jacques Stella 's Sainte Famille avec Saint Jean-Baptiste (1635) [ 2 ]
Night Halt, 1660-75. [ 3 ] Louvre
Majnun in the Wilderness. Mohammad Zaman, 1676 addition to a 16th century Khamsa
Pen Box with a Europeanizing Landscape, late 17th-early 18th century. Signed by Haji Muhammad. Met Museum
Shah (possibly Suleiman I ) and hunting party. Unsigned folio from the St. Petersburg Muraqqa attr: Ali Quli Jabbehdar. Courtesy Harvard Special Collections
F.93a from the St. Petersburg Muraqqa. RAS E-14
Riza-i Abbasi : Young Portuguese (1634) - Detroit Institute of Arts
Chehel Sotoun mural. Date contested. Probably between 1647-1660 [ 15 ]
Bahram Gur and the dragon. Muhammad Zaman, 1675. Folio 203v of a British Library Khamsa, Or. 2265
Pen Box with Architectural Cartouches. Signed 'Ali Ashraf , 1156 AH/1743–44 CE. Met Museum .
"Portrait of a Persian Lady", Folio from the Davis Album. dated 1149 AH/1736–37 CE. Met Museum
Ink & wash drawing of 8 figures in late 14th century European costume. Possibly made by a Jalayirid artist c. 1370 in Baghdad or Tabriz and inserted later into the Fatih Album
Painting by Rahim Deccani. He possibly moved in the late 17th century from Golconda to Iran, where lacquer paintings by him could be found in the 19th century [ 22 ]