Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) Receiving Prince Dara Shikoh, Folio from the Late Shah Jahan Album

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Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) Receiving Prince Dara Shikoh, Folio from the Late Shah Jahan Album

India, Mughal Empire, circa 1650
Drawings; watercolors
Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
Sheet: 14 5/8 x 10 in. (37.15 x 25.4 cm); Image: 10 1/8 x 7 7/8 in. (25.72 x 20.0 cm)
From the Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection, Museum Associates Purchase (M.83.105.21)
South and Southeast Asian Art
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

Imperial Mughal portraits from the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) were designed to proclaim the glory of his sovereignty....
Imperial Mughal portraits from the reign of Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) were designed to proclaim the glory of his sovereignty. They are often characterized as idealized formal portrayals devoid of the frenzied energy found in works produced for his grandfather Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) or the penetrating introspection favored by his father Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627). Here, the enthroned and nimbate Shah Jahan receives his favorite son and presumptive heir apparent Prince Dara Shikoh (1615-1659), who humbly stands in front of the emperor with his hands joined in supplication. An unknown courtier and an attendant with an honorific fly whisk complete the ensemble. The artist responsible for this portrait is unidentified, but scholars have suggested it could have been done by Bichitr (active circa 1610-circa 1660), Hashim (active circa 1598-1654), or Hunhar (active circa 1650-1657). This folio was originally part of a double-page symmetrical composition with a posthumous portrait of Jahangir receiving his prime minister Asaf Khan, now in the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C. (S1986.407). Both were once part of the Late Shah Jahan Album, which was assembled in circa 1650-1658 and dispersed in Paris in 1909. The album seems to have been primarily a hierarchical compendium of the courtiers and officers of Shah Jahan’s vast bureaucracy, as the subsidiary subjects of the dispersed folios appear to be grouped by subject and rank. See also M.78.9.15 and M.83.1.3.
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Bibliography

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