Miniature pasted on an album leaf. ‘Showing a Painting in Front of a Grotto’
India, Mughal; c. 1600
Miniature: 30.5 × 17.1 cm
Inventory number 49/1981
The subject of this beautiful painting is unknown. Outside a town in a rocky landscape is a grotto that houses an elderly man who seems to be an artist. On the floor are a pen case and pigments, and he himself is holding up a painting for a group of admiring onlookers. There are 15 in all, most of whom seem to be local, while there are also Europeans and other exotic people among them.
The artist undoubtedly had a familiarity with European art. There is a clear division into foreground, middle ground, and background, and the intensity of the colors also decreases with the distance from the motley crowd. The architecture moreover seems to have a European touch, whereas the rocks are of the Persian type.
The artist undoubtedly had a familiarity with European art. There is a clear division into foreground, middle ground, and background, and the intensity of the colors also decreases with the distance from the motley crowd. The architecture moreover seems to have a European touch, whereas the rocks are of the Persian type.
Published in
Published in
Toby Falk and Douglas Barrett: Gods, gardens and elephants : an exhibition, 17th June to 17th July 1981, Colnaghi, London 1981, cat.no. 4;
Annika Richert (ed.): Islam: konst och kultur / art and culture, Statens historiska museum, Stockholm 1985, cat.no. 58, p. 172;
Kjeld von Folsach: Islamic art. The David Collection, Copenhagen 1990, cat.no. 47;
Kjeld von Folsach: For the Privileged Few: Islamic Miniature Painting from The David Collection, Louisiana, Humlebæk 2007, cat.no. 99;
Annika Richert (ed.): Islam: konst och kultur / art and culture, Statens historiska museum, Stockholm 1985, cat.no. 58, p. 172;
Kjeld von Folsach: Islamic art. The David Collection, Copenhagen 1990, cat.no. 47;
Kjeld von Folsach: For the Privileged Few: Islamic Miniature Painting from The David Collection, Louisiana, Humlebæk 2007, cat.no. 99;
Mughal India
Miniature. ‘An Angel Conversing with a Group of Europeans’
Miniature pasted on an album leaf. ‘A Prince Visiting a Holy Man’
Brush drawing heightened with gold and watercolors, pasted on an album leaf. ‘Tobias and the Angel’
Miniature from a copy of Tusi’s Garshaspnama pasted on an album leaf. ‘Nariman Killing the Son of the Khan of Chin’