Winged Feline and Bull (recto), Two Winged Angels (verso), Folio from an Ajaib al-Makhluqat wa-Gharaib al-Mawjudat (Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence) by al-Qazwini

Enlarge My gallery Comment Tag Share Download Image*
https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/collections.lacma.org-images/remote_images/ma-40438-O3.jpg?IBA5fk7tALYptAESnSCryN_xTJURlnj7
View comments
No comments have been posted yet.
Add a comment
Please log in to add comments.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
Download powerpoint quality jpeg Download publication quality tiff
Current tags
This item has not been tagged yet.
Please log in to add tags.
Enter your LACMA Collections username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.
New to our collections website? Sign up to create an account and start saving your favorites. Please note that this account is not the same as the MyLACMA account you may have for ticketing and membership transactions.
* Nearly 20,000 images of artworks the museum believes to be in the public domain are available to download on this site. Other images may be protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights. By using any of these images you agree to LACMA's Terms of Use.

Winged Feline and Bull (recto), Two Winged Angels (verso), Folio from an Ajaib al-Makhluqat wa-Gharaib al-Mawjudat (Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence) by al-Qazwini

India, Karnataka, Bijapur, circa 1571-1575
Manuscripts
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
Both: Image: 9 7/8 x 7 3/8 in. (25.08 x 18.73 cm); Sheet: 11 x 8 7/8 in. (27.94 x 22.54 cm)
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Pratapaditya Pal (M.88.213.8a-b)
South and Southeast Asian Art
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

The Ajaib al-Makhluqat wa-Gharaib al-Mawjudat (Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence) is a cosmographical and geographical treatise written in Arabic in naskh script in 1279-1280 by Zakariyya'...
The Ajaib al-Makhluqat wa-Gharaib al-Mawjudat (Wonders of Creation and Oddities of Existence) is a cosmographical and geographical treatise written in Arabic in naskh script in 1279-1280 by Zakariyya' al-Qazwini (1203-1283), who was born in Qazvin, Iran. It consists of two volumes: the celestial spheres, including a discussion of chronology, planets, constellations, zodiac, and heavenly inhabitants such as angels and demons; and terrestrial phenomena, including the four elements, geography, the animal kingdom, botany, minerology, and the nature of mankind. This folio is from a dispersed Ajaib al-Makhluqat wa-Gharaib al-Mawjudat produced in Bijapur in circa 1571-1575 during the reign of Sultan Ali Adil Shah I (r. 1558-1580). Other folios are in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.455), Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art (76.402 D1), State Museum, Hyderabad (80-7 and 86-10), and private collections. Recto: A Winged Feline, representing an indeterminate heaven, and a Bull representing the angels of the first heaven led by Ismail. Verso: Two Winged Angels, representing an indeterminate heaven, who appear to be battling. (Translation by Z. A. Desai.)
More...

Bibliography

  • Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian Painting, vol.1. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993.