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Lot Essay
Depicted against a salmon-colored ground, a gray and white falcon perches in profile on a stand. A thin cord runs through his beak, and he wears a small quatrefoil locket set against his feathered chest. Tethering him to his roost is a chain attached to his foot terminating in a delicate gold ball. Flora and fauna pepper the lower register, framing the falcon with botanical sprigs and flowers of the natural world.
These natural history illustrations were a hallmark of the Mughal court under the reign of Emperor Jahangir (r.1605-27), whose observations of the natural world are documented in the diary he kept during his reign. He was a true naturalist, for which in consequence, his keen study was rendered into finely painted images of exquisite beauty by artists directed in the manner of imperial tastes. "The two most notable characteristics of the style that he fostered were probably verisimilitude and sumptuosity." (L. Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings, Vol. I, p. 349). The artifice of such truthfulness to life combined with a restrained sense of ornamentation define the style given to his curiosity of plants, animals, and especially birds.
Falcons, in particular, became popularly depicted in the 1620s, composed of in the style of the naturalistic painter, Ustad Mansur (d.1624). It is recorded in the account of his reign that in 1619 the Safavid Shah of Iran gifted Jahangir a falcon, and his admiration of the bird led him to request the artist to 'paint and preserve its likeness' (Som Prakash Verma, 'Portraits of Birds and Animals under Jahangir,' in Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art, 1999, pp. 12-13). The referenced falcon painting by Mansur is likely the work now held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (14.683). Another falcon sharing an identical colored stand and which includes foliate articulation within the image dates to the first quarter of the seventeenth century (Christies, London, 26 April 2018, lot 117). A slightly later rendition of a falcon from the mid-seventeenth century sold at Christies, London, 10 October 2013, lot 180. Among these examples, none capture so vividly the variations in tone or downy texture of the falcon's feathers as in this example. Nor does the flora in the other images appear as specimens copied directly from their natural setting.
The seals and inscriptions on the reverse convey that this painting was held in the Mughal Royal Library through the reign of Shah Jahan (r.1628-1658). One of the seals corresponds to Shah Jahan, confirming the dating of the painting. One of the inscriptions is dated 8th Rajab/April 1, 1659. A later seal states the name Bahram al-Mulk and is dated to 1786-7.
These natural history illustrations were a hallmark of the Mughal court under the reign of Emperor Jahangir (r.1605-27), whose observations of the natural world are documented in the diary he kept during his reign. He was a true naturalist, for which in consequence, his keen study was rendered into finely painted images of exquisite beauty by artists directed in the manner of imperial tastes. "The two most notable characteristics of the style that he fostered were probably verisimilitude and sumptuosity." (L. Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings, Vol. I, p. 349). The artifice of such truthfulness to life combined with a restrained sense of ornamentation define the style given to his curiosity of plants, animals, and especially birds.
Falcons, in particular, became popularly depicted in the 1620s, composed of in the style of the naturalistic painter, Ustad Mansur (d.1624). It is recorded in the account of his reign that in 1619 the Safavid Shah of Iran gifted Jahangir a falcon, and his admiration of the bird led him to request the artist to 'paint and preserve its likeness' (Som Prakash Verma, 'Portraits of Birds and Animals under Jahangir,' in Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art, 1999, pp. 12-13). The referenced falcon painting by Mansur is likely the work now held in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston (14.683). Another falcon sharing an identical colored stand and which includes foliate articulation within the image dates to the first quarter of the seventeenth century (Christies, London, 26 April 2018, lot 117). A slightly later rendition of a falcon from the mid-seventeenth century sold at Christies, London, 10 October 2013, lot 180. Among these examples, none capture so vividly the variations in tone or downy texture of the falcon's feathers as in this example. Nor does the flora in the other images appear as specimens copied directly from their natural setting.
The seals and inscriptions on the reverse convey that this painting was held in the Mughal Royal Library through the reign of Shah Jahan (r.1628-1658). One of the seals corresponds to Shah Jahan, confirming the dating of the painting. One of the inscriptions is dated 8th Rajab/April 1, 1659. A later seal states the name Bahram al-Mulk and is dated to 1786-7.