'Ali al-Husaini

This 17th-century painter left no name behind, just a few vivid panels that hum with quiet mischief—like the time he painted a mosque’s wall with a grinning monkey holding a lantern. Every brushstroke feels like a wink; the colors stay bright centuries later, as if he mixed them yesterday in a Baghdad courtyard. Look up his "Untitled" panels from this era; the one in the Met’s Islamic wing hides a whole joke in its folds you’ll only spot if you lean in.