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Lot Essay
The Persian story of Majnun in the desert is one that, from the number of surviving Mughal illustrations, was obviously very popular in Mughal India. It lends itself to visual interpretation; illustrated versions can be found in various museums and libraries, for instance the British Library (ms.Or.12208), the Walters Gallery of Art, Baltimore (W.624) It would have resonated well with the various stories of Indian ascetics, which the present depiction makes visually more obvious. It seems to be the only depiction of a bald Majnun in Mughal Art. The model relates to paintings of the Yog Vashisht, a complex Hindu work concerning the illusory nature of material life (Linda York Leach, Mughal and other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, London, 1995, pp.155-195). Majnun himself could be modelled on exactly the same person as the figures of Gadhi and Vasistha, each depicted by Kesu Das (Leach, op.cit, fig.2.23, p.176, and fig.2.30, p.190). The similarity is such that it is very probable that Majnun himself was painted by Kesu Das.
A very similar depiction of this scene dated to the early 17th Century is in the collection of the Bodleian Library, which also introduces two further ascetics in a cave in the background of the scene. (MS.Douce 348, f.42a; Andrew Topsfield, Paintings from Mughal India, Oxford, 2008, no.22, p.52-53). The Bodleian example also gives the animals the same individual and humorous character found in our painting, and has an almost identical depiction of deer. These, and the painting of the trunk of the tree, indicate that it was another artist who worked on the majority of this painting
The calligraphy on the back of this painting is signed, katabahu al-'abd al-ahqar jawahir raqam ghafar dhunubahu, 'The most despicable slave Jawahir Raqam wrote it, [God] forgive his sins'.
Mir Sayyid 'Ali al-Tabrizi, given the title Jawahir Raqam (or 'Jewel Pen'), was the was the tutor and then librarian of Awrangzib who died in 1683 (see Clement Huart, Les Calligraphes et les minaturistes de l'orient musulman, Paris, 1908, p. 256).
A very similar depiction of this scene dated to the early 17th Century is in the collection of the Bodleian Library, which also introduces two further ascetics in a cave in the background of the scene. (MS.Douce 348, f.42a; Andrew Topsfield, Paintings from Mughal India, Oxford, 2008, no.22, p.52-53). The Bodleian example also gives the animals the same individual and humorous character found in our painting, and has an almost identical depiction of deer. These, and the painting of the trunk of the tree, indicate that it was another artist who worked on the majority of this painting
The calligraphy on the back of this painting is signed, katabahu al-'abd al-ahqar jawahir raqam ghafar dhunubahu, 'The most despicable slave Jawahir Raqam wrote it, [God] forgive his sins'.
Mir Sayyid 'Ali al-Tabrizi, given the title Jawahir Raqam (or 'Jewel Pen'), was the was the tutor and then librarian of Awrangzib who died in 1683 (see Clement Huart, Les Calligraphes et les minaturistes de l'orient musulman, Paris, 1908, p. 256).