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拍品专文
This hitherto unpublished painting joins a small and fascinating group of works by Mughal artists inspired by European Madonna Lactans, or Nursing Madonna from circa 1580 to 1610.The earliest work from the group, ascribed to Manohar was formerly in the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, sold Sotheby’s London, 4 April 2011, lot 89.
Others versions include two Akbar period paintings in the David Collection, Copenhagen, dated circa 1580-85 (55 / 2013), the San Diego Museum of Art, dated circa 1590 (1990.293), and one in the British Museum made for the for Emperor Jahangir (1942,0124,0.2). These are probably modelled after one of the altarpieces in the Jesuit church in Fatepur-Sikri (Stuart Cary Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York, 1985, p.164). Our painting however resembles a Virgin and Child depicted in a European setting from circa 1590-5 (Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings From the Chester Beatty Library, Volume I, London, 1995, cat.1.234).
Our painting is ascribed to La’l (fl. ca. 1570s-ca.1605). He was the most prolific painter of the court of Akbar, featuring in most imperial manuscripts. 140 paintings are signed by or ascribed to him and he was listed sixth on the list of the 17 superior painters of the court in the order of seniority in the Ayin-i Akbari of the court chronicler Abu-l-Fazl (Som Prakash Verma, ‘La’l: The Forgotten Master,’ Asok Kumar Das (ed.), Mughal Masters: Further Studies, Mumbai, 1998, p.69). Inspired early on by European engravings (Das, op.cit., pp.69, 82-3), La’l incorporated European conventions such as the silhouette of a distant city to allude to space, while following portraits in the European mode (‘Lal,’ Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair (eds.), The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, Oxford, 2009). Both of these elements are seen in our painting.
More than any other work in the Mughal Lactans group, La’l follows closely the religious Christian iconography. Only one of the Virgin’s breasts are exposed, whereas she has been eroticised in the Stuart Cary Welch, David Collection, and San Diego examples by showing both her breasts, uncharacteristic of the European examples (B. N. Goswamy and Caron Smith, Domains of wonder: selected masterworks of Indian painting, San Diego, 2005, p.130f5). The David Collection painting uses cobalt-blue for her trousers, whilst La’l has used the colour more freely here, for the entirety of her blue folding robe that stands out so prominently. This colour was used in Europe since 10th century Carolingian art to emphasize the Virgin Mary’s holiness (Michael Pastoureau, Blue: The History of a Color, New Jersey 2018, pp.39-40), However, while La’l follows the European mode faithfully in many aspects, the subtle inclusion of a mihrab in the otherwise European architecture above her head may be an allusion to her appropriation within a Mughal aesthetic and ideology.
A painting with an identical signature was sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, 27 February 1974, lot 47 (Linda York Leach, op.cit., p.240), while a “Lady with a child” of circa 1600 has been attributed to La’l by Ernst Grube (Islamic Paintings from the 11th to the 18th Century in the Collection of Hans P. Kraus, New York, 1972, no. 235).
A tribute to the Virgin Mary contemporaneous to our painting was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2024, lot 97. Two paintings designed by La’l for the first Baburnama circa 1589, were sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2024, lot 96 and 25 June 2020, lot 82.
Others versions include two Akbar period paintings in the David Collection, Copenhagen, dated circa 1580-85 (55 / 2013), the San Diego Museum of Art, dated circa 1590 (1990.293), and one in the British Museum made for the for Emperor Jahangir (1942,0124,0.2). These are probably modelled after one of the altarpieces in the Jesuit church in Fatepur-Sikri (Stuart Cary Welch, India: Art and Culture 1300-1900, New York, 1985, p.164). Our painting however resembles a Virgin and Child depicted in a European setting from circa 1590-5 (Linda York Leach, Mughal and Other Indian Paintings From the Chester Beatty Library, Volume I, London, 1995, cat.1.234).
Our painting is ascribed to La’l (fl. ca. 1570s-ca.1605). He was the most prolific painter of the court of Akbar, featuring in most imperial manuscripts. 140 paintings are signed by or ascribed to him and he was listed sixth on the list of the 17 superior painters of the court in the order of seniority in the Ayin-i Akbari of the court chronicler Abu-l-Fazl (Som Prakash Verma, ‘La’l: The Forgotten Master,’ Asok Kumar Das (ed.), Mughal Masters: Further Studies, Mumbai, 1998, p.69). Inspired early on by European engravings (Das, op.cit., pp.69, 82-3), La’l incorporated European conventions such as the silhouette of a distant city to allude to space, while following portraits in the European mode (‘Lal,’ Jonathan M. Bloom and Sheila S. Blair (eds.), The Grove Encyclopedia of Islamic Art and Architecture, Oxford, 2009). Both of these elements are seen in our painting.
More than any other work in the Mughal Lactans group, La’l follows closely the religious Christian iconography. Only one of the Virgin’s breasts are exposed, whereas she has been eroticised in the Stuart Cary Welch, David Collection, and San Diego examples by showing both her breasts, uncharacteristic of the European examples (B. N. Goswamy and Caron Smith, Domains of wonder: selected masterworks of Indian painting, San Diego, 2005, p.130f5). The David Collection painting uses cobalt-blue for her trousers, whilst La’l has used the colour more freely here, for the entirety of her blue folding robe that stands out so prominently. This colour was used in Europe since 10th century Carolingian art to emphasize the Virgin Mary’s holiness (Michael Pastoureau, Blue: The History of a Color, New Jersey 2018, pp.39-40), However, while La’l follows the European mode faithfully in many aspects, the subtle inclusion of a mihrab in the otherwise European architecture above her head may be an allusion to her appropriation within a Mughal aesthetic and ideology.
A painting with an identical signature was sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, 27 February 1974, lot 47 (Linda York Leach, op.cit., p.240), while a “Lady with a child” of circa 1600 has been attributed to La’l by Ernst Grube (Islamic Paintings from the 11th to the 18th Century in the Collection of Hans P. Kraus, New York, 1972, no. 235).
A tribute to the Virgin Mary contemporaneous to our painting was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2024, lot 97. Two paintings designed by La’l for the first Baburnama circa 1589, were sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2024, lot 96 and 25 June 2020, lot 82.