Mo'en Mosavver or Mu‘in Musavvir (, ; –1693) was a Persian miniaturist, one of the most significant in

Safavid Iran The Guarded Domains of Iran, commonly called Safavid Iran, Safavid Persia or the Safavid Empire, was one of the largest and longest-lasting Iranian empires. It was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often considered the begi ...

. Not much is known about the personal life of Mo'en, except that he was born in ca. 1610-1615, became a pupil of

Reza Abbasi Reza Abbasi (), also known as Aqa Reza ( – 1635), was the leading Persian miniature, Persian miniaturist of the Isfahan School during the later Safavid period, spending most of his career working for Shah Abbas I. He is considered to be the l ...

, the leading painter of the day, and probably died in 1693. Over 300 miniatures and drawings attributed to him survive. He was a conservative painter who partly reversed the advanced style of his master, avoiding influences from Western painting. However, he painted a number of scenes of ordinary people, which are unusual in Persian painting. Muin was born in

Isfahan Isfahan or Esfahan ( ) is a city in the Central District (Isfahan County), Central District of Isfahan County, Isfahan province, Iran. It is the capital of the province, the county, and the district. It is located south of Tehran. The city ...

and probably spent all of his life in this city. He enjoyed a long and successful career stretching from around 1630 to 1693.

Career

He is notable as a master of illustration paintings especially figures, and compositions depicting banquet and battle scenes. He specialized in

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared manuscript, document where the text is decorated with flourishes such as marginalia, borders and Miniature (illuminated manuscript), miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Churc ...

s and border decorations. He illustrated animals and landscapes and other Aqa Mirak styles with significant virtuosity. He mostly used

watercolor Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting metho ...

in his painting and remained faithful to the Isfahan school and

. Other prominent painters influenced him, including Behzad, Mohammadi and Sadiqi Beg. He had several prominent pupils. Some of his manuscripts are signed by them. He was contemporary and friend of famous painters including Shafi' Abbasi.

Gallery

File:Muin Mussavir archer.jpg, Archer, version of this painting by

File:Muin Mussavir Tiger.jpg File:Muin Mussavir 1642.jpg File:Muin Musavvir 1696.jpg File:Mu'in. Portrait of Riza-i-Abbasi. 1673. Princeton University..jpg, Portrait of

, 1673 File:The Battle between Shah Ismail and Abul-Khayr Khan.jpg, The battle between Shah Ismail and Shaybani Khan File:Shah Ismail I Watches His Troops Defeat the Musha' sha' leader Sultan Fayyad. Persian manuscript, created c. 1688.jpg, Shah

Ismail I Ismail I (; 17 July 1487 – 23 May 1524) was the founder and first shah of Safavid Iran, ruling from 1501 until his death in 1524. His reign is one of the most vital in the history of Iran, and the Safavid period is often considered the beginn ...

(1501-1524) watches his troops defeat the Musha'sha leader Sultan Fayyad, created File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art laq-0001-top-side.jpg, Lacquer pen box, the only one known to have been painted by Muin File:Khalili Collection Islamic Art mss 1000.2a.jpg, Woman with Indian headdress, from an exemplar of the

Shahnameh The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...

, 1648

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muin Musavvir Artists from Isfahan 1610s births 1693 deaths Iranian miniature painters 17th-century painters from Safavid Iran 17th-century Iranian painters