Unknown Artist
On this detached album folio created in 16th-century Iran we see a beautiful woman with a spray of flowers. The painting is set in gold, green, and blue rulings on a paper with floral motifs, marginal cartouches with two couplets in white nasta'liq script, and two marginal medallions with kneeling youths.
The verses in the border of this painting seem integral to the composition. They imply the yearning of the lover, represented by the two kneeling youths in the upper and lower corners of the folio, for the beloved.
How long are you going to wound me with grief?
Keep me wondering in the lane of separation?
If in the end you will raise me from dust,
Why do you cast me away like an arrow?
Beautiful, isn't it? We present today's folio thanks to the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC.
P.S. You have to read about the amazing artistic patronage of Akbar the Great. You will find the necessary information here!