Two Lovers

Reza Abbasi was the greatest Safavid painter of his generation, working at the court of Shah Abbas in Isfahan. His figure paintings are famous for a single sinuous line that carries the whole body — turban to hem — as one continuous curve. This lovers' embrace uses that principle across two figures: their bodies twine into a single S. Between them, a wine cup is empty; a book has fallen closed at their feet. The painting is only 17 cm tall. It is one of the most intimate depictions of secular love in Islamic painting. Now at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York @metmuseum