Today's post is not one that I have any strong feelings about as a work of art, but I am posting it simply because I am so shocked that it was made at all. This is an image, painted in 1627, of a former Shah of Iran with the title (descriptive title?) "Shah Abbas I and his page." It's shocking for me to see such a tender, informal portrayal from that region of what appears to be a homosexually suggestive scene. Considering also that it is a depiction of the historical ruler of the country is beyond my comprehension. I am not a scholar of Middle Eastern history in any sense, but this image certainly stands in stark contrast to what I would have guessed the former Shah of Iran would have thought about homosexual behavior.
