Hunters in a Forest (recto), Calligraphy (verso), Folio from the Gulshan Album

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Hunters in a Forest (recto), Calligraphy (verso), Folio from the Gulshan Album

India, Mughal Empire, mid-16th century - early 17th century (recto), 16th - early 17th century (verso)
Drawings; watercolors
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
Sheet: 16 5/8 x 10 1/2 in. (42.23 x 26.67 cm); Image (recto): 10 1/4 x 7 1/4 in. (26.04 x 18.42 cm); Image (verso): 10 x 6 3/8 in. (25.4 x 16.19 cm)
From the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase (M.78.9.11)
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Technical research on this painting has revealed a complex sequence of successive interventions—including overpainting, enlargement, and reframing of the central image—executed from the mid-16th to th...
Technical research on this painting has revealed a complex sequence of successive interventions—including overpainting, enlargement, and reframing of the central image—executed from the mid-16th to the early 17th century. The most important discovery is an earlier figure under the current central one. The underlying figure can be stylistically attributed to circa 1550 in Kabul for the Mughal Emperor Humayun (r. 1530-1540 and 1555-1556). (See https://www.asianart.com/articles/mughal/index.html.) The now-dispersed Gulshan Album, also known as the Jahangir Album, was assembled in circa 1595-1618 for the Mughal Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627; previously Prince Salim). It consists of loose illustrations and calligraphic panels from diverse sources and dates, which were remounted with elaborate borders featuring figural and floral decoration. Ninety folios are now in the Gulistan Palace Library, Tehran, and twenty-five folios are in the Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. Recto: The central figure of a young prince on horseback on a hunting expedition was reworked so that his original Humayun-period headgear, known as a Taj-i ‘Izzat, was changed to a later style turban with a feather plume (jigha). Verso: The central quartet of Chagatai Turkish calligraphy panels are from the Divan of the Timurid Sultan Husayn Bayqara of Herat (r. 1469-1506). The border has Persian mathnavi (rhymed couplets). The outer margin has a golden landscape with figures attributed to Govardhan (active c. 1596-1645).
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Bibliography

  • Markel, Stephen. Mughal and Early Modern Metalware from South Asia at LACMA: An Online Scholarly Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020. https://archive.org/details/mughal-metalware (accessed September 7, 2021).
  • Markel, Stephen. Mughal and Early Modern Metalware from South Asia at LACMA: An Online Scholarly Catalogue. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2020. https://archive.org/details/mughal-metalware (accessed September 7, 2021).
  • Rosenfield, John.  The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection.  Boston:  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
  • Heeramaneck, Alice N.  Masterpieces of Indian Painting : From the Former Collections of Nasli M. Heeramaneck.  New York:  A.N. Heeramaneck, 1984.
  • 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.
  • Thackston, Wheeler M.  The Jahangirnama:  Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
  • Beach, Milo.  "Le jardin des roses."  Connaissance des Arts Magazine 85 (December 2001).
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