Veli Can ( Persian form: Vali Jan) (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

c. 1580 to c. 1600) was an Ottoman painter known for his works in saz style. Born in Tabriz, according to Mustafa Ali he was a student of Siyavush and came to Istanbul c. 1580. Under

Murad III Murad III ( ota, مراد ثالث, Murād-i sālis; tr, III. Murad; 4 July 1546 – 16 January 1595) was Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1574 until his death in 1595. His rule saw battles with the Habsburgs and exhausting wars with the Saf ...

(1574-1595) saz style (from ''saz'': "reed"; long, feathery leaf which was the basic element of the compositions) reached its apogee. Veli Can is the most prominent of the later 16th-century painters associated with the albums compiled for Murad III. He worked for the sultan and album pages are, "more or less speculatively attributed to him". To judge from these, he was primarily interested in figural subjects. The large number of dubious attributions to Veli Can had made the definition of his style impossible until Denny discovered a tiny hidden signature on a drawing of a bird and grotesque head in a foliage (Topkapı Pal. Lib., H. 2836, see illustration). From this drawing he has convincingly assigned to Veli Can three other drawings (Topkapı Pal. Lib., H. 2147, fol. 23v and H. 2162, fol. 8v (see illustrations); Mus. Jacquemart-André, MS. 261). According to

Sheila R. Canby Sheila R. Canby (born 10 January 1949) is Curator Emerita of the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and a former curator of Islamic art and antiquities at the British Museum. She is a fellow of the Royal Asiatic ...

: "The rounded serrations of the leaf edges and bold, black sweeping lines that form the spines of the leaves place these drawings squarely in the saz tyle.... The grotesque head in Veli Can’s signed drawing, however, is clearly borrowed from the style of his mentor". Mustafa Ali claimed that, despite Veli Can's gifts as a draughtsman, his style did not progress. His name appears in the registers of the palace workshop for 1595–6 and 1596–7 with a daily salary of seven and nine

akçe The ''akçe'' or ''akça'' (also spelled ''akche'', ''akcheh''; ota, آقچه; ) refers to a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word itself evolved from the word "silver or silver money", this word is deri ...

, a mediocre sum, which bears out Mustafa Ali's assessment. Veli Can is known mostly for his angel (''

peri In Persian mythology, peris (singular: peri; from fa, پَری, translit=parī, , plural , ; borrowed in European languages through ota, پَری, translit=peri) are exquisite, winged spirits renowned for their beauty. Peris were later ado ...

'') figures in the style of

Shah Quli {{given name Shah Quli ( az, Şahqulu; tr, Şahkulu; tk, Şaguly; uz, Shohquli; fa, شاهقلی, translit=Šâhqoli; ur, شاہ قلی, translit=Šāh Qulī) is a Turkic-derived male given name meaning 'slave of the Shah'. It is built from '' ...

and for the figures of young men in the tradition of his mentor Siyavush. His name became famous in the world of Ottoman art and "appear to have wrought a particular magic on the price structure in the marketplace". Veli Can was the historical template for the character of "Olive" in novel '' My Name Is Red'' by Orhan Pamuk.

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* * * {{Authority control Miniaturists from the Ottoman Empire 16th-century artists from the Ottoman Empire People from Tabriz Iranian emigrants to the Ottoman Empire