MUHAMMADI

flourished 16th century, , Safavid Iran byname of Mirza 'ali one of the leading court painters during the time (154897) that the Safavid capital was Qazvin. A native of western Iran, he was a son of the painter Sultan Muhammad, who was one of his teachers. A master of line, Muhammadi (so called after his great father) began to paint while still young and while Tabriz was still the capital. The surviving examples of his work were executed between the 1530s and the 1580s, an unusually long period of activity. He worked on some of the greatest Safavid manuscripts, including Tahmasp I's Shah-nameh and the Khamseh (153943) of Nezami. His debt to the Herat painters of the school of Behzad is clear, but he is best known for a calligraphic, wiry line and a mannered, almost expressionist, personal style. This assertion of the individuality of the painter marked Safavid painting thereafter. Like his contemporaries, he signed few of his paintings.