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Lot Essay
INSCRIPTIONS:
Above the painting: andar siyas hiyrad(?)
In earlier Mughal painting the depiction of Sufi saints was for the most part allegorical or historical but by the 1640s there was a shift towards portraiture of living saints. This was no doubt fostered under the patronage of Prince Dara Shikoh (d. 1659) and Princess Jahanara Begum (d. 1681), who were both followers of the Qadiri Sufi sect (Murad Khan Mumtaz, ”Contemplating the Face of the Master: Portraits of Sufi Saints as Aids to Meditation in Seventeenth Century Mughal India”, Ars Orientalis, 50, 2021, p. 106).
The portrait in the present album page strongly resembles the Qadiri Sufi Saint Mian Mir of Lahore (d. 1635). With his successor Mullah Shah Badakhshi, Mian Mir was the spiritual guide to Dara Shikoh and Jahanara Begum. A painting of Dara Shikoh, Mian Mir and Mullah Shah by Chitarman showing the three sat on a mat outside a simple hut similar to the one in our painting is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (IM.250-1921). Another similar painting by Lalchand is in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C. (S1986.432).
The splendid illumination surrounding the portrait is of an almost identical format to that of the illuminated double frontispiece of the Padshahnama of circa 1657, now in the Royal Collection, Windsor (RCIN 1005025.d and 1005025.e). The gold-illuminated outer margins are of the type associated with marginal painting of the late 16th and early 17th century, especially under the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27). Such was the importance of marginal painting that Jahangir did not consider a miniature complete without a highly ornamented border (S.P. Verma, ‘Margin-Painting in Medieval Indian Art’, Proceedings of the Indian History of Congress, vol. 40, 1979, p. 460). Our dynamic margins, with birds, deer and lions in a landscape, relate closely to a folio from a now-dispersed royal Shahnama of circa 1610, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.78.9.5). This manner of marginal painting also relates to that found in the Farhang-i Jahangiri. Two paintings set into margins from the Farhang-i Jahangiri, the first from the ‘First’ Baburnama and the second from the Abkarnama of 1597, were sold in these Rooms, 25 June 2020, lots 81 and 82.
Above the painting: andar siyas hiyrad(?)
In earlier Mughal painting the depiction of Sufi saints was for the most part allegorical or historical but by the 1640s there was a shift towards portraiture of living saints. This was no doubt fostered under the patronage of Prince Dara Shikoh (d. 1659) and Princess Jahanara Begum (d. 1681), who were both followers of the Qadiri Sufi sect (Murad Khan Mumtaz, ”Contemplating the Face of the Master: Portraits of Sufi Saints as Aids to Meditation in Seventeenth Century Mughal India”, Ars Orientalis, 50, 2021, p. 106).
The portrait in the present album page strongly resembles the Qadiri Sufi Saint Mian Mir of Lahore (d. 1635). With his successor Mullah Shah Badakhshi, Mian Mir was the spiritual guide to Dara Shikoh and Jahanara Begum. A painting of Dara Shikoh, Mian Mir and Mullah Shah by Chitarman showing the three sat on a mat outside a simple hut similar to the one in our painting is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (IM.250-1921). Another similar painting by Lalchand is in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington D.C. (S1986.432).
The splendid illumination surrounding the portrait is of an almost identical format to that of the illuminated double frontispiece of the Padshahnama of circa 1657, now in the Royal Collection, Windsor (RCIN 1005025.d and 1005025.e). The gold-illuminated outer margins are of the type associated with marginal painting of the late 16th and early 17th century, especially under the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27). Such was the importance of marginal painting that Jahangir did not consider a miniature complete without a highly ornamented border (S.P. Verma, ‘Margin-Painting in Medieval Indian Art’, Proceedings of the Indian History of Congress, vol. 40, 1979, p. 460). Our dynamic margins, with birds, deer and lions in a landscape, relate closely to a folio from a now-dispersed royal Shahnama of circa 1610, now in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.78.9.5). This manner of marginal painting also relates to that found in the Farhang-i Jahangiri. Two paintings set into margins from the Farhang-i Jahangiri, the first from the ‘First’ Baburnama and the second from the Abkarnama of 1597, were sold in these Rooms, 25 June 2020, lots 81 and 82.