1604
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Head of an Oriental is a 1604 by Jan Lievens, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a bearded man wearing a turban. He's dressed in traditional clothing with a paisley pattern on his scarf. This pattern is a traditional Persian design, which was popular in Europe during the 1600s due to increased trade and travel. Look up the technique of chiaroscuro to learn more about how artists like Jan Lievens used light and dark to create depth in their work.
As Europeans more actively engaged in sea travel and trade in the 1600s, references to distant locales became popular among artists. This is one of a series of head studies of men in Turkish costume created by Jan Lievens in the 1630s. He sketched this bearded, turbaned man loosely but with precise details, such as the paisley pattern, a traditional Persian design, on his scarf. While making this print, Lievens shared a studio with Rembrandt, and the artists’ shared a mutual emphasis on sketching freely with an etching needle.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Jan Lievens (24 October 1607 – 4 June 1674) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who was associated with his close contemporary Rembrandt, a year older, in the early parts of their careers.
See the richer artist page
