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Lot Essay
This is a portrait of Sayyid Khwaja Qasim Safdar Khan (d.1645) painted late in his life. Safdar Khan was a long serving Mughal officer who held several official posts during the reign of the Emperor Shah Jahan (r.1628-58). In the first year of Shah Jahan’s reign, he received a dress of honour, a jewelled dagger, a horse with a silver saddle and an elephant amongst other gifts from the Emperor. Later that year he was given the title of Safdar Khan. He was part of various Mughal expeditions including visits to the Deccan. In Shah Jahan’s fifth regnal year, he was appointed to the prestigious post of Ambassador to Iran. He carried with him presents comprising rarities from India for Shah Safi, the ruler of Iran. After a successful six year diplomatic stint, Safdar Khan returned, bringing several presents back for the Emperor including five hundred Iranian horses. A couple of years after he returned to the Mughal court, he was sent to Qandahar as Governor. (The Ma’athir-ul-Umara: being biographies of the Muhammādan and Hindu officers of the Timurid sovereigns of India from 1500 to about 1780 A.D., Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1941, pp.665-667).
Our painting bears an identification inscription in a strong but loose black nasta‘liq which is likely to be in the hand of Shah Jahan. Not only is the strength that of Shah Jahan’s hand but the complete absence of any honorifics support the attribution. The inscription can be compared with those on two other portraits in the Late Shah Jahan Album, depicting Rustam Khan and Khan Dawran, which have also been attributed to Shah Jahan. (Elaine Wright (ed.), op. cit., cat.no. 62, 63, pp.386-389). The numeral 12 visible in the lower right is probably part of a system of foliation in the album.
Our portrait has been attributed to the Mughal imperial artist Bichitr. An identical rendition of Safdar Khan’s face can be seen in an illustration from the Windsor Padshahnama (50b; M.C. Beach, E. Koch, King of the World, The Padshahnama, An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, London, 1997, pl.10) which is signed by Bichitr and dated to circa 1630. There is a tiny identification inscription discernible on the collar of Safdar Khan’s jama. He appears in the lower right section just above the golden railing and wears a brown-and-white striped jama. The features – especially the eyes and lips – and close-cropped facial hair are executed in an exceedingly fine and lightly articulated manner for which Bichitr was renowned. See, for comparison, the ascribed Portrait of Asaf Khan, dated RY 3 (to the third regnal year of the emperor Shah Jahan), circa 1630, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IM 26-1965; Susan Stronge, Painting for the Mughal Emperor: The Art of the Book 1560-1660, London, 2002, pl.118, p.156). Bichitr brings the same level of technical mastery to the translucent gauze upper garment worn by the noble, particularly in nuanced folds and highlights along the collar, on both shoulders, and at the armpit. Even the dense and convincing folds at the bottom of the striped paijama demonstrate his characteristic attention to detail. Likewise, he meticulously records such details as the interrupted scroll pattern on the golden patka, the jewel-encrusted hilt of the sword, and the long, weighted lead of the falcon. The artist used a plain dark green ground in his earlier portrait of Jahangir, circa 1614-18, in the Minto Album (Elaine Wright (ed.), op.cit., no.37a, p.294). He turned to a similar dark green ground in his portraits painted around 1630 of Shah Jahan (VAM IM 17-1925; S. Stronge, op. cit., pl.94, p.129) and Salim as a youth (VAM IM 28-1925; R. Skelton, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and arts under Mughal rule, London, 1982, no. 50, p.41), but in those works he relieves the background with overt or discreet flowers.
The border figures are also noteworthy. The grinning bearded figure in the upper centre is a close adaptation of either the singer in a Minto Album painting by Govardhan (CBL 7A.11; Elaine Wright (ed.), op.cit., no.47a, p.334) or a similar figure in Bichitr’s own Singer and Musician, circa 1640 (VAM IM 27-1965; S. Stronge, op. cit., pl.122, p.159). The style of these border figures strongly resembles that of another Late Shah Jahan Album painting of A Gathering of Sages attributed to Bichitr (San Diego Museum of Art
1990:353, published in B.N. Goswamy and Caron Smith, Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting, San Diego, 2005, no. 58), which has one figure in holding a book and is attributed to Muhammad Daula. So close are they, in fact, that the border figures here can also be attributed to the same artist.
The calligraphy on the reverse comprises verses from a ghazal of Hilali Jagata’i, and is signed and dated by the Safavid master calligrapher Mir ‘Ali, mir ’ali al-sultani al-katib fi shuhur sanah 943 “Mir ’Ali al-Sultani al-Katib, in the months of year 943 (1536-7).”
We would like to thank John Seyller for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.
Our painting bears an identification inscription in a strong but loose black nasta‘liq which is likely to be in the hand of Shah Jahan. Not only is the strength that of Shah Jahan’s hand but the complete absence of any honorifics support the attribution. The inscription can be compared with those on two other portraits in the Late Shah Jahan Album, depicting Rustam Khan and Khan Dawran, which have also been attributed to Shah Jahan. (Elaine Wright (ed.), op. cit., cat.no. 62, 63, pp.386-389). The numeral 12 visible in the lower right is probably part of a system of foliation in the album.
Our portrait has been attributed to the Mughal imperial artist Bichitr. An identical rendition of Safdar Khan’s face can be seen in an illustration from the Windsor Padshahnama (50b; M.C. Beach, E. Koch, King of the World, The Padshahnama, An Imperial Mughal Manuscript from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, London, 1997, pl.10) which is signed by Bichitr and dated to circa 1630. There is a tiny identification inscription discernible on the collar of Safdar Khan’s jama. He appears in the lower right section just above the golden railing and wears a brown-and-white striped jama. The features – especially the eyes and lips – and close-cropped facial hair are executed in an exceedingly fine and lightly articulated manner for which Bichitr was renowned. See, for comparison, the ascribed Portrait of Asaf Khan, dated RY 3 (to the third regnal year of the emperor Shah Jahan), circa 1630, in the Victoria and Albert Museum (IM 26-1965; Susan Stronge, Painting for the Mughal Emperor: The Art of the Book 1560-1660, London, 2002, pl.118, p.156). Bichitr brings the same level of technical mastery to the translucent gauze upper garment worn by the noble, particularly in nuanced folds and highlights along the collar, on both shoulders, and at the armpit. Even the dense and convincing folds at the bottom of the striped paijama demonstrate his characteristic attention to detail. Likewise, he meticulously records such details as the interrupted scroll pattern on the golden patka, the jewel-encrusted hilt of the sword, and the long, weighted lead of the falcon. The artist used a plain dark green ground in his earlier portrait of Jahangir, circa 1614-18, in the Minto Album (Elaine Wright (ed.), op.cit., no.37a, p.294). He turned to a similar dark green ground in his portraits painted around 1630 of Shah Jahan (VAM IM 17-1925; S. Stronge, op. cit., pl.94, p.129) and Salim as a youth (VAM IM 28-1925; R. Skelton, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and arts under Mughal rule, London, 1982, no. 50, p.41), but in those works he relieves the background with overt or discreet flowers.
The border figures are also noteworthy. The grinning bearded figure in the upper centre is a close adaptation of either the singer in a Minto Album painting by Govardhan (CBL 7A.11; Elaine Wright (ed.), op.cit., no.47a, p.334) or a similar figure in Bichitr’s own Singer and Musician, circa 1640 (VAM IM 27-1965; S. Stronge, op. cit., pl.122, p.159). The style of these border figures strongly resembles that of another Late Shah Jahan Album painting of A Gathering of Sages attributed to Bichitr (San Diego Museum of Art
1990:353, published in B.N. Goswamy and Caron Smith, Domains of Wonder: Selected Masterworks of Indian Painting, San Diego, 2005, no. 58), which has one figure in holding a book and is attributed to Muhammad Daula. So close are they, in fact, that the border figures here can also be attributed to the same artist.
The calligraphy on the reverse comprises verses from a ghazal of Hilali Jagata’i, and is signed and dated by the Safavid master calligrapher Mir ‘Ali, mir ’ali al-sultani al-katib fi shuhur sanah 943 “Mir ’Ali al-Sultani al-Katib, in the months of year 943 (1536-7).”
We would like to thank John Seyller for his assistance with cataloguing this lot.