Armchair Visit to the Wonder of the Age – Master Painters of India
Structured chronologically, the exhibition features the artistic achievement of individual artists in each period. Highlights include: A Sufi Sage, after the European personification of melancholia, Dolor by Farrukh Beg, an extraordinary painting representing the last chapter of the artist’s long career (1615, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha); Peafowl attributed to Mansur, a master of observation of the natural world (ca. 1610, private collection); Jahangir receives Prince Khurram at Ajmer on his return from the Mewar campaign: page from the Windsor Padshahnama by Balchand, a master of composition (ca. 1635, Royal Collection, Royal Library, Windsor).
Shiva and Parvati Playing Chaupad by Devidasa, a superb painting with intense saturated color, bold but sparse composition, and stylized landscape, depicting the divine couple relaxing on a tiger skin playing chaupad, a form of chess (1694–95), Metropolitan Museum); and Emperor Muhammad Shah with Falcon Viewing his Garden at Sunset from a Palanquin attributed to Chitarman II (ca. 1730, Boston Museum of Fine Arts).
The emphasis is on the connoisseurship of Indian painting, and the process of revealing the identities of individual artists and their oeuvre through an analysis of style.
(Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art)
About the Images…
Payag (Painter)
Mir ‘Ali (Calligrapher)
Shah Jahan riding a stallion: page from the
Kevorkian Album
Mughal court at Agra
ca. 1628
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Painting: 11 1/8 x 8 3/16 in. (28.2 x 20.8 cm)
Page: 15 5/16 x 10 1/8 in. (38.9 x 25.7 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Purchase, Rogers Fund and The Kevorkian
Foundation Gift, 1955
(55.121.10.21b)
Master of the Jainesque Shahnama
Unknown workshop, possibly Malwa
Siyavash faces Afrasiyab across the Jihun River:
page from a Shahnama manuscript
India
ca. 1425–50
Opaque watercolor and ink on paper;
Painting: 7 7/8 x 4 13/16 in. (20 x 12 cm)
Page: 12 11/16 x 9 1/4 in. (32 x 23.5 cm)
Museum Rietberg Zürich, Gift of Balthasar and
Nanni Reinhart (RVI 964, f. 108v.)
Balchand
Jahangir receives Prince Khurram at Ajmer on his
return from the Mewar campaign: page from the
Windsor Padshahnama
Mughal court at Lahore or Daulatabad
ca. 1635
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Painting: 11 15/16 x 7 15/16 in. (30.4 x 20.1 cm)
Page: 22 15/16 x 14 7/16 in. (58.2 x 36.7 cm)
Mounted: 32 x 24 in. (81.3 x 61 cm)
The Royal Collection, Royal Library, Windsor
Manohar or Basawan (Attributed)
Mother and child with a white cat: folio from the
Jahangir al’ Album
Mughal court at Delhi
ca. 1598
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Painting: 8 9/16 x 5 3/8 in. (21.7 x 13.7 cm)
Page: 14 9/16 x 9 5/8 in. (37 x 24.4 cm)
The San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd
Collection (1990.293)
Manohar or Basawan (Attributed)
Mother and child with a white cat: folio from the
Jahangir al’ Album
Mughal court at Delhi
ca. 1598
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Painting: 8 9/16 x 5 3/8 in. (21.7 x 13.7 cm)
Page: 14 9/16 x 9 5/8 in. (37 x 24.4 cm)
The San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd
Collection (1990.293)
Mansur (Attributed)
Great hornbill: page from the Kevorkian Shah
Jahan Album
Mughal court at Ajmer
ca. 1615
Opaque watercolor, gold and ink on paper
Page: 15 5/16 x 10 in. (38.9 x 25.4 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Purchase, Rogers Fund and The Kevorkian
Foundation Gift, 1955
(55.121.10.14v
