MUGHAL INDIA, SIGNED KESU, CALLIGRAPHY BY MUHAMMAD HUSAYN [ZARRIN QALAM] AND DATED 1610

细节

A TEMPLE SCENE
MUGHAL INDIA, SIGNED KESU, CALLIGRAPHY BY MUHAMMAD HUSAYN [ZARRIN QALAM] AND DATED 1610
Album leaf, grisaille brush drawing on paper, the miniature after the European style, with finely drawn figures at various activities including a reclining lady being bought incense, a group of ladies drinking in the upper right corner, musicians in the bottom right and people queuing in front of an elderly gentleman, between two pink panels heightened with gold, signed at the bottom Amal Kesu, laid down between red and gold margins and blue rule, the border with gold animals and birds in a forest landscape, small areas of repair, verso with six lines of large flowing black nasta'liq, signed Muhammad Husayn in the lower left corner, on pink and buff ground, similar margins, and the border with gold floral pattern on blue tinted paper
Miniature 7¼ x 5in. (18.4 x 12.7cm.); Folio 14 5/8 x 9 3/8in. (37.2 x 24cm.)

注意事项

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. Please note that the lots of Iranian origin are subject to U.S. trade restrictions which currently prohibit the import into the United States. Similar restrictions may apply in other countries.

拍品专文

The signature, amal-e Kesu (Work of Kesu) refers to Kesu Kalan (Kesu the Elder, whose name often appears Kesu or Kesu Das), one of the more prominent painters of Akbar's atelier. He could paint in the more standard Akbari mould, and in this style made contributions to the Victoria and Albert Museum Akbarnama (circa. 1590), but is perhaps best known for his usually highly coloured copies of European engravings. The resulting studies, in particular of the human anatomy represent a departure from the Persianate cannon of aesthetics. Perhaps because of this he was also one of Jahangir's favourite early artists (Linda York Leach, Mughal and other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, p. 152).

Examples of his work after the European mode include a signed painting of St. Jerome (ca. 1580-85) in the Musée Guimet (Amina Okada, Imperial Mughal Painters, Paris, 1992, pl.100, p.97); two paintings from the story of Joseph, one, signed, in the Chester Beatty Library and the other, after a known European engraving, unsigned, in the St. Louis Art Museum (Okada, op. cit., pls.110, 111, the former also in Leach, op.cit., pl.1.233, p.136, and in Milo Cleveland Beach, The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India 1600-1660, Williamstown, 1978, pl.10 recto, p.54); and a Crucifixion album leaf ascribed to him in the British Museum (J.M. Rogers, Mughal Miniatures, London, 1993, pl.44, p.68).

Subtle allusions to Western art can be detected in Kesu Das's portrayals of courtly life, as in this example, although they are often so skilfully integrated into the overall Mughal aesthetic that they are not immediately perceptible. Another miniature in which this concept is clear is 'The Birth of Price Salim' (published in Okada, op. cit., pl.103, p.99).

For a note on the calligrapher see the following lot.