DECCAN, CENTRAL INDIA, MID 17TH CENTURY

This scene is inspired from a series of Mughal miniatures. A particularly close comparable, with the three Emperors depicted on very similar shaped thrones to our own miniature, is dated to AH 1064/1653 AD, (Toby Falk ed., Treasures of Islam, exhibition catalogue, Geneva, 1985, no. 152, pp. 152-53). That painting comes from an Album made for the Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1592-1666) who enjoyed reading about the exploits of his Mughal predecessors. The focus of both our miniature and the comparable scene from the Shah Jahan album is to reinforce the lineage and legitimacy of the Mughal dynasty. Our miniature though is coloured with the distinctive intense colour palette of the Deccan. The fountain and birds depicted in the foreground of our miniature is also particularly Deccani in style and is paralleled in a further Deccani Miniature depicting a royal scene, (Mark Zebrowski, Deccani Painting, London, 1983, pl. XXII, p. 230). Notably there is partially legible seal on the back of this miniature with the dynastic name of the Nizams of Hyderabad: Asaf Jah, who were originally installed as Viceroys in the Deccan by the Mughals.