Pen Box with Holy Family and Female Portrait Medallions

Artists

Description

Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format with three cartouches framed in gold scrollwork all set against a black background filled with floating bouquets of flowers. In the center, the Holy Family is depicted with female attendants and an angel. On the left and right are portrait busts of European women with candlestick curls and flowers in their hair. The sides are composed in the same manner, but the central cartouches contain scenes of fortified towns by a shore. The base of the cover and sides of the sliding compartment bear gold arabesques on a black ground.

Dimensions

3.9 × 3.9 × 22.1 cm (1 9/16 × 1 9/16 × 8 11/16 in.)

Provenance

Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014. Note: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.