Zeynab Khatun (1961)
Catalog details
- Artist
- Master Jalil Ziapour
- Date
- February–March 1961 (Esfand 1339 SH)dated on the work
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 120 × 95 cm
- Style
- Ziapour’s national style
- Collection
- Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
- Inscription
- Verses of the folk song “Jam Jamak Barg-e Khazun,” in the artist’s hand along the top, left and right margins (Persian text on the Persian page).
Zeynab Khatun, oil on canvas, 1961, in Jalil Ziapour’s national style.
About this work
“Zeynab Khatun” is regarded as one of Master Jalil Ziapour’s famous works. This painting, with Master Ziapour’s own distinctive mosaic design, has grown out of the familiar song “Jam Jamak Barg-e Khazun, Madaram Zeynab Khatun.” In this work, which draws on one of the lines of the poem, “She wants a turquoise comb,” Zeynab Khatun is depicted holding a turquoise-coloured comb in her hand and occupied with combing her own hair.
Master Jalil Ziapour inscribed these same verses in his own hand in the tile-like margins on three sides of the work, at the top, on the left and on the right, so that the poem encircles the figure of Zeynab Khatun and word and image blend into one another. In translation:
Jam jamak, autumn leaves,
my mother Zeynab Khatun.
She has braids as long as a bow,
longer than the bow,
blacker than jet.
She wants a thirty-day bath,
she wants a turquoise comb.
