Farangi-Sazi (Persian: فرنگی‌سازی, lit. 'making in an Occidental manner') was a style of Persian painting that originated in Safavid Iran in the second half of the 17th century. This style of painting emerged during the reign of Shah Abbas II (r. 1642–1666), but first became prominent under Shah Solayman I (r. 1666–1694).^[1]

Farangi-sazi paintings depicted many types of different scenarios, varying from traditional Iranian scenes, such as portrayal of kings and aristocrats, to European depictions, sceneries, biblical, and mythological events.^[1]

Only a few 17th-century artists made paintings in the style of Farangi-sazi, the most prominent ones being Aliqoli Jebadar and Mohammad Zaman.^[1]

Note: "Saz" refers to the artists and "sazi" their works.^[1]

The term "Farangi-sazi" as used today seems to have developed in the early 20th century.^[1] Specific to late Safavid painting & its derivatives, it excludes the work of later European-trained painters like Sani and Kamal ol-Molk.

The 17th century artist Jani sometimes signed his paintings "Farangi saz", but no other contemporary use of the term is known.^[1]

Per Negar Habibi, "farangi-sazi" requires more than a "discreet use of a European technique, a mere presence of chiaroscuro or perspective... The Occidentalist character of some late 17th-century Persian paintings is borne out by the presence of European cultural elements, not in an exhaustive or scientific way, but rather in order to capture some evocative traits and fantasies.”^[1]

Innovations associated with farangi sazi include the following:

• The use of perspective to indicate depth
• The importance given to landscape
• Chiaroscuro^[1]
• The use of watercolor and stippling^[2]

These innovations do not strictly follow European conventions. The direction of lighting is often unclear except in candlelit night scenes, and its exposure is often inconsistent.^[1]

The use of stippling may have been inspired by paintings on imported enamel objects (watches).^[2] See right:

Source:^[4]

Muhammad Zaman seems to have been active between 1649^[2] and 1704.^[4] He died sometime before 1720-21.^[4] Very little is known about his life aside from his (and his pupils') inscriptions.

The story that he studied in Rome, converted to Christianity, and fled to India has been rejected by Anatoly Ivanov and others.^[5][6]

He is best known for his narrative illustrations for the Khamsa of Nizami and the Shahnameh as well as his variants on European prints.

He is often associated with the signature "ya sahib al-zaman", but he wasn't the only one to have used it.^{[note 1]}

Family

His lesser-known brother Haji Muhammad ^{[note 2]} and sons Muhammad Ali^[7] & Muhammad Yusuf^[8][9] were also artists.^[1]

Haji Muhammad produced some surviving lacquer paintings.^[1] He may have worked with his brother on a privately commissioned Khamsa in the Morgan Library; however, this attribution has been disputed.^{[note 3][2]}

The name Jabbadar suggests he was a steward of the Royal Armoury (Jebakhana).^[10]

He is speculated to have been of Georgian or Albanian^[11] origin based on details in his inscriptions.

Close copies of European prints are rare. Instead, his derivative works are often composites of elements taken from multiple sources.^[2] Per Habibi, his work is characterized by bright colors, a rejection of outline, and an avoidance of heavy contrasts.^[10]

He also produced group portraits recording court ceremony & activities. Several are in the St. Petersburg Muraqqa.^[10]

After Tahmasp's kitabkhana closed in 1555, miniature production shifted towards standalone pieces, spawning new genres like single-figure portraits and the nude. These also included ghulam-i farangi, depictions of young men in European dress reflecting the growing European presence in Abbas I's reign.^[2]

European prints^{[note 4]} made an impression on local artists, occasionally leading to the borrowing of poses and motifs.^{[note 5]} Take the series below, which Stuart Cary Welch suggested was based on a Marcantonio Raimondi engraving.^[2]

• 
  Sleeping Ariadne. Roman copy of a 2nd BC Hellenistic sculpture.
• 
  Cleopatra, Marcantonio Raimondi. Rome, ca 1515-27. Based on the Sleeping Ariadne.
• 
  Maiden Reclines, attributed Reza Abbasi, late 16th century, Sackler Museum.
• 
  Mir Afzal Tuni. Isfahan, ca. 1640. Modeled on a ca. 1595 nude by Reza Abbasi^[2]

European visitors^{[note 6]} often brought works of art as gifts to the Safavid court,^{[note 7]} and a few worked as artists themselves, like Philips Angel II (ca. 1653-55).^{[note 8][2]} The New Julfa Armenian community also played a role in transmitting European artistic influence. A few poorly documented Armenian painters- "Marcos"^[12] and "Minas"^{[note 9]}- were producing oil-on-canvas portraits in Isfahan in the 1630s & 40s.^[13][14] Note similarities between the Europeanizing murals of Chehel Sotoun and some wall paintings in New Julfa; precedence uncertain.^[13]

• 
  Portrait, late 17th c. MIA Doha. See also: three pre-1650 portraits in the Royal Collection^[14] signed by Marcos.
• 
  Sukiasyan House, New Julfa, Isfahan.
• 
  A Chehel Sotoun mural. Dating contested, but probably sometime in the mid-17th century.

The late Safavid Europeanizing style possibly originated in building projects like Chehel Sotoun (mid-1600s), whose wall paintings were a blend of variety of artistic traditions- Persian, European, Armenian.^[5]

European paintings & prints held in the Khazana^{[note 10]} & Jebakhana^{[note 11]} may also have served as a model. Aliquli Jabbadar's name suggests he was once a steward of the Jebakhana.^[10]

By the 1670s, Farangi sazi was used to depict quintessential Persian subjects: scenes from the Shahnameh^{[note 12]} & Nizami's Khamsa and contemporary court life.^[5]

The style was one of several that coexisted in the 17th century. Through Mu'in Musavvir and others, the tradition of Reza Abbasi persisted without strong European influence, while other artists like Sheikh Abbasi and his son Ali Naqi worked in an Indian-influenced mode. Still others- among them Reza Abbasi's son Muhammad Shafi- pioneered genres like the gol o morg (flower and bird), sometimes influenced by European and Mughal models. These artists took cues selectively from European & Mughal conventions, adopting a new approach to light and shadow and to landscape.

The hybrid Isfahani style continued at regional centers like Shiraz after the fall of the Safavid state. Painters active in the style included Muhammad-Ali ibn Muhammad Zaman^{[note 13]} and Muhammad-Ali ibn Abdu'l Naaisha's Ibn Ali-Quli Jubbadar.^{[note 14][16]}

The style also survived in lacquer paintings like those of 'Ali Ashraf. 'Ali Ashraf had studied under Muhammad Zaman, and his designs bring to mind his teacher's treatment of flowers,^[17] which was further developed in the early Qajar period by Muhammad Hadi.^[16] Muhammad Sadiq, another painter who sometimes worked on lacquer, is also known for miniatures in the Europeanizing manner^[18] and for oil paintings in the Negarestan.^[16] Some credit to him the genre of portraiture that would define early Qajar court art decades later.^[19]

Album production reflected this continued interest in foreign styles. In the Afsharid-era St. Petersburg Muraqqa, freshly looted Mughal and Deccan miniatures (some of them Europeanizing) were placed alongside European prints and Safavid Farangi-sazi^{[note 15]} and framed with lavish decorative borders.^[20] Muhammad Baqir was one of the artists who worked on these borders; his floral decorations in the Europeanized Indo-Persian style are especially striking. Muhammad Baqir's work also included copies of European prints, copies of older Farangi-sazi, and oil-on-canvas portraits.^{[note 16]}

The Diez and Fatih Albums contain a few 14th/15th century Jalayirid or Timurid pieces inscribed as "kar-i-farang", possibly based on medieval French or Iberian models.^[21]

The farangi manner's reputation for naturalism persisted through the Timurid era. ^{[note 17] [note 18]} The late Timurid poetAlisher Nava'i listed mastery of "farangi" and "khata'i" ^{[note 19]} styles as skills one could expect from an illuminator. Although these terms were well established in the early 15th century, their use was often imprecise and their styles confused.^{[note 20][21]}

European folios from the mid-16th century Bahram Mirza album (Topkapi H. 2154), compiled in Safavid Tabriz, provide another glimpse into the reception of Western European art before the 17th century.

• 
  Bahram Mirza Album, folio 115a. Painting after Bronzino ca. 1540 on Florentine or Venetian paper.
• 
  Seated scribe often associated w. Gentile Bellini's Istanbul period. Probably sent to Aqqoyunlu Tabriz; later incorporated into the Bahram Mirza Album

European artistic influences may also have arrived by way of Mughal and Deccan India.^[23]

The styles of Bahram Sofrakesh and Shaykh Abbasi^[24] reflect this influence explicitly, and Aliquli Jabbadar may have produced copies of early 17th century Mughal paintings.^{[note 21]}

Indian influence also contributed to the maturation of the gol-o-morg genre in the mid-17th century under painters like Shafi Abbasi. Related was a new genre of floral studies which took cues from Mughal European-influenced^{[note 22]} models.

Decades later, the campaigns of Nader Shah brought many looted Mughal and Deccan miniatures to Iran,^{[note 23]} where they were installed in muraqqas like the Davis and St. Petersburg Albums. Some miniatures may have been overpainted in Iran in the Persian Europeanizing style.^[20]

• 
  Woman in a European hat holding a flower, fol. 18b from the Walters Ms. W.668. Shaykh Abbasi?
• 
  Group of sages in discussion. Aliquli Jabbadar, after Manohar (?). Aga Khan Museum, AKM186.
• 
  Lady offering a flower to a prince. Aliquli Jabbadar, ca 1660-70. British Museum. According to the object listing, the treatment of faces continues developments made by Shaykh Abbasi.
• 
  Ladies visiting a sage. Mughal, late 1600s. St. Petersburg Album. Per S.C. Welch, the landscape was added in Isfahan in Muhammad Zaman's style^[25]
• 
  Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings. Painting by Bichitr, India ca. 1615-18. Floral margins added in Iran 1747/48 by Muhammad Sadiq. Formerly part of the St. Petersburg Album

• 
  Aquatic Birds at a Pool, folio from the Davis Album. Late 1600s-early 1700s. According to the object listing, possibly by Aliquli Jabbadar. Met Museum
• 
  Lacquer pen box painted in Muhammad Zaman's style. Signed Haji Muhammad,^{[note 24]} 1124 AH (1712-13 AD). Khalili Collections
• 
  Rampaging elephants, Iran, late 17th-early 18th century. School of Muhammad Zaman
• 
  Grand vizier Shah Quli Khan presents a ring, 1694-95. Attribution contested; possibly Muhammad Sultani or Muhammad Zaman. St. Petersburg Muraqqa
• 
  Portrait of a Princely Youth, late 17th century. Museum of Islamic Art, Doha. MIA.2014.453
• 
  Palace Garden of Hazar Jarib in Aliabad, late 17th century. Commissioned by a Dutchman. Note perspective & treatment of trees.^[2] Rijksmuseum
• 
  Portrait of Sakinah from Engelbert Kaempfer's costume album, 1684–85, with paintings by Jani "Farangi-saz". British Museum

• 
  Salm and Tur order the murder of their brother Iraj. Muhammad Zaman. From the Shahnameh of Shah Abbas, 1675/76. Chester Beatty Library
• 
  The Return from the Flight into Egypt, 1689. Muhammad Zaman. Harvard Art Museums. Based on a Lucas Vorsterman I engraving after Rubens
• 
  Shah (possibly Suleiman I) and courtiers. Aliquli Jabbadar, 1660s-70s. St. Petersburg Muraqqa, Fol. 98r
• 
  Portrait of the Russian Ambassador, Prince Andrey Priklonskiy. Aliquli Jabbadar. Folio from the Davis Album. Met Museum

• 
  Shah Sultan Husayn Distributing New Year Presents. Painted by Muhammad Ali ibn Muhammad Zaman (son of Muhammad Zaman), 1720-21. British Museum
• 
  Equestrian portrait of Nadir Shah, possibly by Muhammad Ali ibn Abd al-Bayg ibn Ali Quli Jabbadar (grandson of Aliquli Jabbadar). MFA Boston
• 
  Painting of a Young Beauty by Muhammad Sadiq. Borders signed by 'Ali Akbar, A.H. 1152/A.D. 1739, another student of 'Ali Ashraf. Met Museum
• 
  Abbas II & Mughal ambassador. Per Layla Diba,^[16] this was made by Abu'l-Hasan Mostawfi Ghaffari^{[note 25]} in the late 18th century.^{[note 26]}

• 
  Portrait of Abbas Mirza (?), ca 1820. Hermitage Museum. Notice the treatment of landscape (and especially trees and clouds)
• 
  An illustration for the Anwar i-Suhayli. ca 1825
• 
  Mirror case, 1845. Luft 'Ali Suratgar Shirazi. Brooklyn Museum
• 
  Fille nue près d'un bassin, mid-1800s. Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève. Note subject matter & stippling

Single-flower studies:

See also: https://www.flickr.com/photos/persianpainting/16242329754

• 
  Blue Iris, Muhammad Zaman. 1663-1664 C.E. Brooklyn Museum
• 
  Irises, Zand era
• 
  Binding of a Manuscript. Painting by Muhammad Hadi of Shiraz, 1815. Khalili Collections
• 
  Black Iris. Muhammad Hadi, Shiraz c. 1815-1820. Louvre

Muhammad Zaman's 17.7 × 24.9 cm version from 1684/85 in the St. Petersburg Muraqqa is not shown. Link in footnote^[26]

The added top-left cloud can also be seen in Zaman's version.

• 
  Egbert van Panderen after Pieter de Jode (I). Between 1590 and 1637. 30.1 x 20.5 cm. Rijksmuseum
• 
  late 17th-early 18th century. 8.5 x 6.5 cm
• 
  3rd quarter of the 18th century. 8.6 x 6.2 cm. Met Museum

• Botchkareva, Anastasia A. “Topographies of Taste: Aesthetic Practice in 18th-Century Persianate Albums,” Issue 6 Albums (Fall 2018), https://www.journal18.org/3245. DOI: 10.30610/6.2018.7
• Diba, Layla. "Persian Painting in the Eighteenth Century: Tradition and Transmission." In Muqarnas, 1989. https://www.academia.edu/33526034/Persian_Painting_in_the_Eighteenth_Century_Tradition_and_Transmission
• Habibi, Negar (2021). "Farangi-Sazi". In Yarshater, Ehsan (ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica (Online ed.). Encyclopædia Iranica Foundation.
• Habibi, Negar. “ʿAli Quli Jibadar and the St Petersburg Muraqqa': Documenting the Royal Life?". Proceedings of the Eighth European Conference of Iranian Studies, 2020.
• Habibi, Negar. “The Making of New Art: From the Khazana to Its Audience at the Court of Shah Soleyman.” Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires, 2021. doi:10.5040/9780755633814.CH-018.
• Landau, Amy S. “From Poet to Painter: Allegory and Metaphor in a Seventeenth-Century Persian Painting by Muhammad Zaman, Master of Farangi-Sazi." Muqarnas 28 (2011): 101–31. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23350285.
• Langer, Axel. "European Influences on Seventeenth-Century Persian Painting: Of Handsome Europeans, Naked Ladies, and Parisian Timepieces." In The Fascination of Persia: Persian-European Dialogue in Seventeenth-Century Art & and Contemporary Art of Teheran, edited by Axel Langer. Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess, 2013.
• Necipoğlu, Gülru. "Persianate Images between Europe and China: The ‘Frankish Manner'." In The Diez Albums: Contexts and Contents. Leiden: Brill, 2016.

• Habibi, Negar (2017). "ʿAli Qoli Jebādār et l'enregistrement du réel dans les peintures dites farangi sāzi". Der Islam (in French). 94 (1): 192–219. doi:10.1515/islam-2017-0008.
• Habibi, Negar (2018). ʿAli Qoli Jebādār et l'Occidentalisme Safavide: Une étude sur les peintures dites farangi sāzi, leurs milieux et commanditaires sous Shāh Soleimān (1666-94) (in French). Brill. pp. 1–157. doi:10.1163/9789004356139. ISBN 978-90-04-35613-9.
• Landau, Amy S. (2011). "From Poet to Painter: Allegory and Metaphor in a Seventeenth-Century Persian Painting by Muhammad Zaman, Master of Farangī-Sāzī". Muqarnas Online. 28 (1): 101–131. doi:10.1163/22118993-90000175.
• Melville, Charles, ed. (2021). Safavid Persia in the Age of Empires: The Idea of Iran Vol. 10. I.B. Tauris. ISBN 978-0755633777.