- Artist or Maker
- Mir 'Ali
(Herat or Bukhara, active late 15th to first half of 16th century) - Title
- Rao Chattarsal of Bundi (?) (verso), Calligraphy (recto), Folio from the Late Shah Jahan Album
- Date Made
- 1640-1650 (verso); Iran, circa 1505-1545 (border: India, Mughal Empire, circa 1650) (recto)
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 15 1/8 x 10 7/8 in. (38.42 x 27.62 cm); Image (verso): 8 1/2 x 4 7/8 in. (21.59 x 12.38 cm); Image (recto): 7 1/2 x 4 1/8 in. (19.05 x 10.48 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.83.1.3
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This folio is from the Late Shah Jahan Album, which was assembled in circa 1650-1658 and features exquisite figural and arabesque borders made in circa 1640-1650. The now-dispersed album was looted by the Iranian King Nadir Shah (r. 1736-1747) during his sack of Delhi in 1739. It was taken from Iran to Russia in the late 19th century, then purchased by an Armenian dealer who took it to Paris in 1909 and sold it to the French dealer George Demotte, who split many of the folios and remounted them as individual pages. After Demotte’s death in 1923, they were acquired by the New York dealer Nasli Heeramaneck, who sold this folio, M.78.9.15, and M.83.105.21 to LACMA in 1969 (paid over time, hence the different accession dates). Twenty folios from the Late Shah Jahan Album are in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin.
Verso: Rao Chattarsal (r. 1631-1658) ruled the Rajput state of Bundi in Rajasthan. He loyally served Emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658) and his eldest son Dara Shikoh (1615-1659) on the field of battle until his death in the Battle of Samugarh in 1658. He was also the governor of Delhi and Agra.
Recto: A page of nastaliq calligraphy by Mir Ali (Iran or Bukhara, circa 1505-1545):
While a ringlet encircled your enemy,
Another virtue appeared on the garden of your countenance
A black line is visible around your face
Woe from this calamity which appeared around the moon.
The poor insignificant sinner
Mir ‘Ali the scribe, dust beneath the lord
(Translation by Z. Faridany-Akhavan.)
- Selected 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.
