ISPAHAN. 
165 
splendour. The ceiling is painted in gold flowers, which are still fresh 
and brilliant. Large curtains are suspended on the outside, which are 
occasionally lowered to lessen the heat of the sun. 
From this saloon an arched recess (in the same manner studded with 
glass, and embellished here and there with portraits of favourites) leads 
into an extensive and princely hall. Here the ceiling is arranged in a 
variety of domes and figures, and is painted and gilded with a taste and 
elegance worthy of the first and most civilized of nations. Its finely 
proportioned walls are embellished by six large paintings: three on one 
side and three on the other. In the centre of that opposite to the en¬ 
trance is painted Shah Ismael, in an exploit much renowned in Per¬ 
sian story; when in the great battle with So liman, Emperor of the 
Turks, he cuts the Janisary Aga in two before the Sultan . On the right 
of this, surrounded by his dancing women, musicians, and grandees, 
is Shah Abbas the Great, seated at a banquet, and offering a cup of 
wine to another King, whom he is entertaining at his side. The wine, 
indeed, seems to have flowed in plenty, for one of the party is stretched 
on the floor in the last stage of drunkenness. The painting to the left 
is Siiah Tiiamas, in another banquet scene. Opposite to the battle 
between Shaii Ismael and Sultan Soliman, is that of Nadir Shah 
and Sultan Mahmoud of India. On the left of this is Siiah Ab¬ 
bas the Younger, who also is occupied with the pleasures of the table; 
and on the right is Shah Ismael again, in an engagement with the 
Usbeck Tartars. These paintings, though designed without the smallest 
knowledge of perspective, though the figures are in general ill-propor¬ 
tioned, and in attitudes awkward and unnatural, are yet enlivened by a 
spirit and character so truly illustrative of the manners and habits of the 
nations which are represented, that I should have thought them an in¬ 
valuable addition to my collection, if I could have had time to have 
made copies of them. When it is remembered, that the artist neither 
could have had the advantages of academical studies, nor the opportu¬ 
nities of improving his taste and knowledge by the galleries of the 
great in Europe, or conversed with masters in the art, his works would 
