- Title
- Prince With a Falcon
- Date Made
- circa 1600-1605
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor, gold, and ink on paper
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 5 7/8 x 3 3/4 in. (14.92 x 9.53 cm); Image: 5 5/8 x 3 3/8 in. (14.29 x 8.57 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.83.1.4
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Hunting with sporting birds was a favorite activity at most Islamic courts and has been documented since the Umayyad period (661–750). The practice of hawking or falconry was probably introduced through contact with Iran following the Islamic conquests. The domesticated and specially trained birds of prey were highly prized at courts throughout Islamic lands, and frequently depicted in a variety of mediums, often with their royal owners—as in this painting of a Mughal prince with a falcon, perched on the royal falconer’s protective gauntlet.
The prince, perhaps Salim (the future Emperor Jahangir, r. 1605−27) or his half-brother Daniyal (1572−1605), is sumptuously attired in a Persian-style coat of the type worn for hunting and riding. Known from extant examples, such robes, as here, are elaborately and appropriately decorated with animals of prey and their predators. Such precision in detail, along with the naturalism of the bird, the individualized countenance of the prince, and the three-dimensionality of the figures despite the flat background, typify Mughal painting, distinguishing it from contemporaneous Iranian painting, with which it shares a common lineage.
- Selected Bibliography
- Thackston, Wheeler M. The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
- Trabold, J. The Art of India, An Historical Profile. Northridge, CA: California State University Press, 1975.
- Heeramaneck, Alice N. Masterpieces of Indian Painting : From the Former Collections of Nasli M. Heeramaneck. New York: A.N. Heeramaneck, 1984.
- Markel, Stephen. "The Use of Flora and Fauna Imagery in Mughal Decorative Arts." Marg 50, no. 3 (March 1999).
- Rosenfield, John. The Arts of India and Nepal: The Nasli and Alice Heeramaneck Collection. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1966.
- Pal, Pratapaditya. Indian Painting, vol.1. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1993.
- Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
- Verma, Som Prakash, ed. Flora and Fauna in Mughal Art. Mumbai, India: Marg Publications, 1999.
- Fotheringham, Avalon. The Indian Textile Sourcebook: Patterns and Techniques. London; New York: Thames & Hudson, 2019.
- Sen, Geeti. Alchemy: Contemporary Indian Painting and Miniature Traditions. Ahmedabad, India: Mapin Publishing, 2024.
