AN ALBUM PAGE
AN ALBUM PAGE
AN ALBUM PAGE
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AN ALBUM PAGE

MUGHAL INDIA, THE PAINTING LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY, THE CALLIGRAPHY AND MARGINS MID-18TH CENTURY

Details
AN ALBUM PAGE
MUGHAL INDIA, THE PAINTING LATE 16TH OR EARLY 17TH CENTURY, THE CALLIGRAPHY AND MARGINS MID-18TH CENTURY
Verso with a composite painting of a portly scribe with a yogi on the left and a Mughal officer on the right, opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the scribe identified in black nasta'liq, laid down within gold and black rules on margins with gold floral scrolls, the recto with a nasta'liq quatrain laid down with later illumination, the margins decorated with a gold floral lattice
Painting 5 ½ x 8 ½in. (13.6 x 21.4cm.); album page 12 x 8 ¼in. (30.3 x 21cm.)
Provenance
US trade by 1980
Engraved
In nasta'liq above the scribe pisar-i farrukh fal, 'The son of Farrukh Fal'

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Lot Essay

The central figure in the painting of this album page is identified as the son of Farrukh Fal, who was an officer at the Mughal court of Agra in the second half of the 17th century noted for his unattractive appearance and obesity. However, our figure is shown with almond-shaped eyes, piercing rounded pupils and small mouth more typical of late Akbar-era portraiture. Therefore, the attribution is likely a later erroneous one. Another portrait of a portly courtier tentatively identified as Farrukh Fal and dating to circa 1700 is shown in Navina Najar Haidar and Marika Sardar, Sultans of Deccan India, 1500-1700: Opulence and Fantasy, exhibition catalogue, New York, 2015, cat. 171, p. 295. A comparable but slightly later portrait of a Yogi wearing a cape is in the collection of the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, no.2.55, p. 208).

The text on the reverse is a quatrain in praise of knowledge which has been attributed to Amir Husayni Haravi Sadat (d.1498). Our calligraphy relates very closely in appearance to a calligraphy by Mir 'Ali Haravi from the Shah Jahan Album in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (obj.no. 55.121.10.5), however our text uses the word harf ('word') where it is 'ilm ('learning') in the Mir 'Ali.

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