Mir Mossavvir

Portrait of Mir Musavvir by Mir Sayyid Ali (signed); c. 1555; opaque watercolor, ink, and gold on paper; 12 cm (height) x 11.1 cm (width); the Louvre Museum. He is shown wearing an Indian turban, so he had likely already joined his fellow artists in the Punjab. Self-portrait according to the Louvre Museum. Mir Musavvir (fl. 1510–48, died 1555) was a Persian painter at the Safavid court at Tabriz and later the Mughal court at Kabul. During his time at the royal Safavid workshop, he contributed to the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp. He was the father of Mir Sayyid Ali, who adopted his occupation of painting. The regional source of his style is evident in his illustrations from the 1520s, for example the painting "Ardashir and the Slave Girl Gulnar" of 1527–8 that he produced for the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp; the compositions are carefully constructed, with much attention given to architectural elements and the accurate depiction of objects such as lamps, bowls and ewers. Mir Musavvir's signature is on a courtier's turban in the painting "Manuchihr Enthroned" of the Shahnameh of Shah Tahmasp, and a verse couplet written in the iwan depicted in the illustration "Nushirwan and the Owls" of the 1539–43 Khamsa manuscript attributes the painting to Mir Musavvir and dates it to 1539–40.

Mughal court

From 1555, Humayun defeated Sultan Sikandar Shah Suri and returned to India, accompanied by his Persian artists who then established ateliers. as well as a possible self-portrait. His son, Mir Sayyid Ali, rose to prominence at the Mughal court, where he taught Prince Akbar, and directed the monumental Hamzanama project, and produced various works between the 1550s and his death in 1572.