MUGHAL INDIA, MID 18TH CENTURY

The tradition of illustrating composite animals stretches as far back as the early Buddhist manuscripts of Central Asia. The subject later made its way into Persian painting and subsequently into the artistic repertoire of Northern and Central India. A similar combat scene between two composite elephants with horned-demon riders also attributed to 18th century Mughal India is in the Hermitage (inv. IS-1462; Anatoli Aleksevich Ivanov,vo dvortsax i v shatrax, islamskiy mir ot kitaya do evropi, exhibition catalogue, Saint Petersburg, 2008, pl.229, p.276). The comparable drawing in the Hermitage is much less detailed, but could be a preparatory sketch for our work. Another painting of a composite elephant dated to circa 1800 was sold in these Rooms, 26 April 2012, lot 25.