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Lot Essay
In a rocky outcrop to the upper left corner of the painting is a faint signature, reading Asi. Sometimes also known as Asa, he was the son of Mahesh, and the brother of Miskin (Amina Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris, 1992, p.125). Unusually among Akbari artists, both brothers have Persian names - 'Asi' means 'the sinner', and 'Miskin' means 'the humble one' - suggesting that the family may have been Muslims (Michael Brand, 'Miskin', in Milo C. Beach et al., Masters of Indian Painting, 1100-1650, London, 2011, p.172).
Asa was one of the two main artists who worked on the Razmnama dated to AH 1007 / 1598-99 AD. His signature also appears on paintings from the Iyar al-Danish in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; a Layla and Majnun in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and the Baburnama in the National Museum, Delhi (John Seyller, 'Model and Copy: the illustration of the "Razmnama" manuscripts", Archives of Asian Art, 38, 1985, p.51).
Asa is also known to have collaborated on other important manuscripts. The depiction of Baghdad falling to the Mongols from a 1596 Jami' al-Tavarikh, for instance, was painted by Asa and Khem Kalan according to a design by Miskin (Brand, op.cit., p.169, no.17). Asa also collaborated with Baswan on a scene from the 1586-7 Akbarnama, in which he was responsible for painting the melee between two groups of ascetics in the painting (John Seyller, 'Baswan', in Milo C. Beach et al., Masters of Indian Painting, 1100-1650, London, 2011, p.127). In both these scenes, Asa showed a predilection for painting complex group scenes similar to the present lot.
The demons in this drawing are familiar characters from the Turko-Mongol tradition, somewhat resembling the works of Siyah Qalam in the Diez Albums. Similar figures inhabit the world of the Hamzanama, such as a scene of Hamza fighting three divs completed around 1562 (John Seyller et al. The Adventures of Hamza, Washington D.C., 2002, p.83, cat.no.19). Perhaps most similar to the demons in our painting are those shown leading a composite elephant in a drawing in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.292).
Asa was one of the two main artists who worked on the Razmnama dated to AH 1007 / 1598-99 AD. His signature also appears on paintings from the Iyar al-Danish in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin; a Layla and Majnun in the Bodleian Library, Oxford; and the Baburnama in the National Museum, Delhi (John Seyller, 'Model and Copy: the illustration of the "Razmnama" manuscripts", Archives of Asian Art, 38, 1985, p.51).
Asa is also known to have collaborated on other important manuscripts. The depiction of Baghdad falling to the Mongols from a 1596 Jami' al-Tavarikh, for instance, was painted by Asa and Khem Kalan according to a design by Miskin (Brand, op.cit., p.169, no.17). Asa also collaborated with Baswan on a scene from the 1586-7 Akbarnama, in which he was responsible for painting the melee between two groups of ascetics in the painting (John Seyller, 'Baswan', in Milo C. Beach et al., Masters of Indian Painting, 1100-1650, London, 2011, p.127). In both these scenes, Asa showed a predilection for painting complex group scenes similar to the present lot.
The demons in this drawing are familiar characters from the Turko-Mongol tradition, somewhat resembling the works of Siyah Qalam in the Diez Albums. Similar figures inhabit the world of the Hamzanama, such as a scene of Hamza fighting three divs completed around 1562 (John Seyller et al. The Adventures of Hamza, Washington D.C., 2002, p.83, cat.no.19). Perhaps most similar to the demons in our painting are those shown leading a composite elephant in a drawing in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.292).