MUGHAL INDIA, MID 17TH CENTURY

The Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27) is known for his interest in the natural world. The output of his atelier reflected this interest producing many fine naturalistic depictions of plants, animals and birds. The account of Jahangir's reign - the Jahangirnama recounts that the Safavid Shah of Iran sent a falcon to Jahangir as a gift. The bird was so admired by Jahangir that he ordered his famous court painter Ustad Mansour to 'paint and preserve its likeness' (Som Prakash Verma, 'Portraits of Birds and Animals under Jahangir,' in Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art, Mumbai 1999, pp.12-13). The painting which is most probably the very same work mentioned in the Jahangirnama by Mansur is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (inv. 14.683; Som Prakash Verma, op.cit, fig.1, p.13). The attention paid to the layering of the feathers of the falcon by Mansur is mirrored in our present work. A further depiction of a falcon in the Chester Beatty Library with very closely related feathers on the underside of the body is attributed by Linda Leach to the Deccan circa 1750-70 (Linda York Leach, Mughal and other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library, vol.II, Dublin, 1995, No.9.671, p.936). Leach attributed the comparable falcon to the Deccan, probably Bijapur; principally due to the rust-brown coloured background. Leach recognizes that the Chester Beatty example is also inspired by the falcon paintings commissioned at the court of Jahangir.