Prince Salim at a Hunt (recto), Calligraphy (verso), Folio from a Shikarnama (Hunting Album)

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Prince Salim at a Hunt (recto), Calligraphy (verso), Folio from a Shikarnama (Hunting Album)

India, Mughal Empire, Allahabad, Salim's studio, 1600-1604
Drawings; watercolors
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
Sheet: 14 3/4 x 10 1/2 in. (37.47 x 26.67 cm); Image (recto): 7 3/4 x 4 5/8 in. (19.69 x 11.75 cm); Image (verso): 8 1/2 x 4 3/8 in. (21.59 x 11.11 cm)
Purchased with funds provided by The Ahmanson Foundation (M.83.137)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

This painting of Prince Salim (the future Emperor Jahangir, r. 1605-1627) has been attributed to the Mughal artist Manohar by Sheila Canby (LACMA Member’s Calendar 21:10, October 1983)....
This painting of Prince Salim (the future Emperor Jahangir, r. 1605-1627) has been attributed to the Mughal artist Manohar by Sheila Canby (LACMA Member’s Calendar 21:10, October 1983). It was originally part of a Shikarnama (Hunting Album) prepared for Salim during his rebellion from his father Emperor Akbar (r. 1605-1627), when he established an independent court at Allahabad in 1600-1604. Folios from this now-dispersed manuscript, which share uniform stylistic and compositional characteristics, are now in Chester Beatty Library, Dublin (50.1), Cleveland Museum of Art (1939.66), Indian Museum, Kolkata (R13029/S.160), San Diego Museum of Art (1990:316), and the Keir Collection. See also M.84.32.7. Recto: Salim sits in a howdah on an elephant with a rifle cradled against his left shoulder. He gestures with his right hand extended towards a large retainer, who seems to be presenting him with a baby rhinoceros whose mother had just been shot. A dead antelope lies nearby. In the background, there are two scenes of cheetahs hunting prey and various servants engaged in the hunt. The peach-colored inner border, added later, is erroneously inscribed with the name of Shah Jahan. Verso: A page of calligraphy featuring a quatrain of Persian poetry composed by Muhammad Nasir al-Munshi: O Beloved O your magnanimity is like a roof from the corner of which nine firmaments hang like candles. On the battlefield your sword overthrows an elephant like a pawn. (Translation by Z. Faridany-Akhavan.)
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Bibliography

  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
  • Pal, Pratapaditya, Thomas W. Lentz, Sheila R. Canby, Edwin Binney, 3rd, Walter B. Denny, and Stephen Markel. "Arts from Islamic Cultures: Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Arts of Asia 17, no. 6 (November/December 1987): 73-130.

  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
  • Pal, Pratapaditya, Thomas W. Lentz, Sheila R. Canby, Edwin Binney, 3rd, Walter B. Denny, and Stephen Markel. "Arts from Islamic Cultures: Los Angeles County Museum of Art." Arts of Asia 17, no. 6 (November/December 1987): 73-130.

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