A NARCISSUS, BY MUHAMMAD MASIH, PERSIA, SAFAVID, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

Muhammad Masih was a successor of Muhammad Zaman. Masih was active in the same period as 'Ali Quli Jabbadar, Muhammad Qasim and Mohammad Ibrahim, and like many Persian artists, he travelled and stayed a small period in India. Masih's works are exclusively floral compositions. This painting is inspired from another narcissus aquarelle by Muhammad Zaman in the St. Petersburg Album (F. von Habsburg (et al.), The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Leonardo Arte, Milan, 1996, p.102, pl.164). Another floral composition by Masih is published in A.S. Melikian-Chirvani, Le Chant du monde, L'Art de l'Iran safavide, 1501-1736, coédition du musée du Louvre/Somogy, Paris, 2007, p.408, where Melikian-Chirvani underlined the fact that Mohammad 'Ali Karimzade Tabrizi published a detailed notice describing Masih as a floral compositions painter, influenced by Muhammad Zaman, probably of Indian origin (M.A. Karimzade Tabrizi, Ahval va Asar-e Naqqashan-e Qadim-e Iran, Londres, 1991, vol.III, p.1083-4). For other works by Masih in private and museum collections, see N.D. Khalili, B.W. Robinson, T. Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, part I, London, 1996, pp.52-53, no.24; B. Atabay, Fihrist-i Muraqqa'at Kitab-khana-yi Saltanati, Tehran, 1974, p.315, no.1497.