Two Men Embracing

This drawing depicts two men in affectionate and intimate embrace. Differences in their age and stature are conveyed principally through hair: the older man has an impressive mustache, whereas the younger man’s face is bare, and a boyish ringlet falls from his turban. Both men wear relatively simple robes cinched at the waist with wide sashes; their turbans are large, with complicated pleating and draping. Some passages of the drawing are tinted in pale washes of yellow, green, and white watercolor to set them off from the background of the ivory paper sheet. Surrounding the drawing is a complex border consisting of ruled lines of gold and other colors, a band of yellow paper, and an outer margin dominated by a floral pattern executed in two tones of gold over a pinkish-yellow ground. The theme of male affection occurs in many single-sheet studies from the Safavid period.