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).
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).
See Laura E. Parodi, Jennifer H. Porter, Frank D. Preusser, and Yosi Pozeilov, "Tracing the History of a Mughal Album Page in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art," Asianart.com (March 2010), https://www.asianart.com/articles/mughal/index.html.
