The Louvre panel depicts, in a purely Iranian atmosphere, a literary contest between two elegant young men flanked by the cypress-like, willowy figures of a young man and woman. The woman is bringing a covered bowl while the man seems to be listening to the two men. The two central figures are perhaps trying to compose verses; this at least is the impression conveyed by the hand gestures, the inkwell, and the elongated manuscripts for writing poetry (safina) which they hold. A dish of different colored pomegranates, placed in front of the central couple, brings to mind the orchards long since known in Iran as bustan, which became particularly popular during the Safavid period.
The bowed, rather heavy figures belong to a type that was developed by Reza-i Abbasi and his followers. These sumptuous panels were imitated in the eighteenth century, but the vast majority of such copies in no way conveyed the verve and force of the originals.
Many legends have grown up around these panels, which testify to the excellence of Iranian art, transcribing on a large scale the arts of the book which Westerners discovered to their amazement at the end of the nineteenth century. These Safavid panels were copied by the great Iranian potter Ali Muhammad Isfahani (active in Isfahan in the second half of the nineteenth century). The Louvre panel should be linked with the Chahar-Bâgh (an irrigated verdant avenue) in Isfahan.