Man Struggling with Three Snakes

• Accession Number:AKM76
• Creator:Signed by Reza-e ‘Abbasi
• Place:Iran, Isfahan
• Dimensions:17.9 × 27.5 cm
• Date:10 Shawwal 1041 (April 30, 1632)
• Materials and Technique:Ink on paper; border: ink, opaque watercolour, and gold on paper

• This single-page tinted drawing portrays three different-sized figures in a rocky landscape with a small tree and plants beneath it, and a few Chinese clouds in the sky. The translation of the partly Persian, partly Arabic inscription at the bottom reads: “He [is God]. Completed on Friday, 10 Shawwal the noble 1041 [April 30, 1632]. Work of the humble Reza-e ‘Abbasi.” [1]

Further Reading

Reza-e ‘Abbasi (ca. 1565–1635) joined the royal court workshop in Qazvin in 1587 from Isfahan. His numerous students and followers imitated his style of drawing as well as his topics. Ivan Stchoukine was the first scholar to question the authenticity of the inscription on this drawing.[2]  According to his arguments, the drawing is heavily executed. It does not show the lightness and suppleness of Reza-e ‘Abbasi’s hand.[3] Therefore, common scholarly consensus has accepted it as the work of one of Reza-e ‘Abbasi’s followers.[4]

The drawing is definitively a sketch and seems to be a preparatory study of various separate subjects rather than a completed composition. The drawing appears to have been pounced in order to be transferred to another surface; small holes have been pricked in the surface with a stylus or needle near the tree and rocks on the right. The figures are not directly connected with one another. The snake catcher is not necessarily the main figure, though he occupies the main space on the page. The partially executed, aged man behind the incongruously introduced rocky hill is too large for this scene and does not fulfill the expected role of spectator of the activity. His gaze strays slightly from the man in front. The skein of wool missing from his shoulder, the lower position of his hand, and the line proceeding above his hand, probably indicating a stick, suggest a dervish or a wise man. In the upper left corner of the drawing is a small-scale sketch of a standing old man.

The simply dressed man fighting the snakes, seemingly the main figure of the drawing and apparently a peasant, catches our attention on a more ironic level. His wide-moustached face and superb head of thick hair tempted Vladimir Nabokov, the author of such novels as Lolita and The Gift, to associate him with a notorious person of his own time. Fyodor, the main character of The Gift, lives in Berlin between 1925 and 1928. While visiting a reading event at the house of an intellectual family, he discovers an album with Persian miniatures and skims through the pages. He later describes one of the miniatures as: “an amazing resemblance! . . . done, I think, by Reza Abbasi, say about three hundred years ago: that man kneeling, struggling with baby dragons, big-nosed, mustachioed—Stalin!” [5]

— Filiz Çakır Phillip

Notes
[1] Ernst Kühnel, Miniaturmalerei im islamischen Orient (Berlin: Die Kunst des Ostens 7, 1922), illustration 85; E. Blochet, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Persian Paintings from the XIIth to the XVIIIth Century Formerly from the Collections of the Shahs of Persia and of the Great Moguls (New York, 1930), 48; Welch, Collection of Islamic Art, vol. 1, 190; more precisely, Canby, The Rebellious Reformer, The Drawings and Paintings of Riza-yi Abbasi of Isfahan (London: Azimuth Editions, 1996), 207.
[2] Ivan Stchoukine, Les peintures des manuscrits de Shah ‘Abbas 1er á la fin des Safavids (Paris: Libraire Orientaliste P. Geuthner, 1964), 123.
[3] Sheila Canby, The Rebellious Reformer, 207.
[4] Anthony Welch, Collection of Islamic Art: Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, vol. 1 (Geneva: Château de Bellerive, 1972), 190.
[5] Vladimir Nabokov, Die Gabe, Übersetzt von Annelore Engel-Braunschmidt (Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1999), 117. According to Annelore Engel-Braunschmidt, in her comments in the German translation of The Gift, the album that was skimmed through was F.R. Martin, The Miniature Painters of Persia, India and Turkey from the 8th to the 18th century. See also the 1963 English version published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

References
Canby, Sheila. The Rebellious Reformer: The Drawings and Paintings of Riza-yi Abbasi of Isfahan. London: Azimuth Editions, 1996. ISBN: 9781898592051
Kühnel, Ernst. “Arbeiten des Riza ‘Abbasi und Seiner Schule.” In Forschungen und Berichte 1 (1957): 122–31. DOI: 10.2307/3880488
Nabokov, Vladimir. Die Gabe. Übersetzt von Annelore Engel-Braunschmidt. Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1999. ISBN: 9783499225512
Phillip, Filiz Çakır. Enchanted lines: drawings from the Aga Khan Museum collection. 2014. ISBN: 9780991992874 
Stchoukine, Ivan. Les peintures des manuscrits de Shah ‘Abbas 1er á la fin des Safavids. Paris: Libraire Orientaliste P. Geuthner, 1964. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25651445
Welch, Anthony. Collection of Islamic Art: Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, vols. 1 and 3. Geneva: Château de Bellerive, 1972–78.