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Apr 25, 2012

Page from the Late Shah Jahan Album: Prince and Ascetics

c. 1630

attributed to Govardhan

(Indian, active c.1596–1645)

India, Mughal court, reign of Shah Jahan (1628-1658), Mughal Dynasty

(1526-1756)

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

Image: 20.3 x 14.3 cm (8 x 5 5/8 in.); Sheet with border: 37.5 x 25.2 cm (14 3/4 x 9 15/16 in.)

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund 1971.79

Location

not on view

Did you know?

The holy man sits under a tree, an ancient Indian place of honor.

Description

Most paintings in the Late Shah Jahan Album were commissioned specifically for the album, but some older finished works were chosen to be incorporated; they were removed from their original housings and inserted into the new borders. This painting of a Mughal prince visiting a Sufi holy man in his cave dwelling is one example, chosen probably because it underscores the importance of the religious dimension of Mughal life. The conch on the ground before the ascetic is blown at the beginning of prayer, which in the Sufi tradition is often sung to the accompaniment of music. The pair of ducks in the foreground imply the harmonious union of the spiritual and temporal in the Mughal realm. Mendicant Islamic ascetics fill the borders on this page, except for the one noble retainer standing by the prince.

Provenance

?-1971

(John D. MacDonald, Manchester, NH, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1971-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1971.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 59, no. 1, 1972, pp. 3–46. Mentioned: p. 46, no. 159 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 305 archive.org

Beach, Milo Cleveland, Stuart Cary Welch, and Glenn D. Lowry. The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India, 1600-1660. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1978. Reproduced and Mentioned: cat. no. 22

Desai, Vishakha N., B. N. Goswamy, and Ainslie Thomas Embree. Life at Court: Art for India's Rulers, 16th-19th Centuries. Boston, MA: Museum of Fine Arts, 1985. Mentioned: p. 96, cat. no. 78; Reproduced: p. 97

Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986. Mentioned; pp. 95-99; Reproduced: pp. 97-98, fig. 28i; and colorplate VIII

Pal, Pratapaditya. Romance of the Taj Mahal. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.

Okada, Amina. Imperial Mughal Painters: Indian Miniatures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Paris: Flammarion, 1992. Mentioned: p. 188; Reproduced: color plate 223

Divyabhanusinh. The End of a Trail: The Cheetah in India. New Delhi: Banyan Books, 1995. Reproduced: p. 55

Masselos, Jim, Jackie Menzies, Pratapaditya Pal, and Reis Wenger Flora. Dancing to the Flute: Music and Dance in Indian Art. Sydney, Australia: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997. Mentioned: cat. no. 106, p. 170; Reproduced: p. 171

Wade, Bonnie C. Imaging Sound: An Ethnomusicological Study of Music, Art, and Culture in Mughal India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998. Reproduced: fig. 165

Sugimura, Tō 杉村棟 . Isurāmu [イスラーム = New history of world art, Islam].Tōkyō: Shōgakukan, 1999. no. 209, p. 288

Cross, Stephen. Ex Oriente Lux: How the Upanishads Came to Europe. London: Temenos Academy, 1999. Reproduced: plate 1, p. 112

Gloire des princes, louange des dieux: patrimoine musical de l'Hindoustan du XIVe au XXe siècle : 19 mars-29 juin 2003, Musée de la musique, Paris. Paris: Cité de la musique, Musée de la musique, 2003. Mentioned: cat no. 40, p. 82

Diamond, Debra, and Molly Emma Aitken. Yoga: The Art of Transformation. Washington, DC: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, 2013. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 19C, pp. 226-227

Ballanfat, Marc. La Bhagavadgītā: illustrée par la peinture indienne. Paris: Diane de Selliers, 2016. Mentioned: p. 216; Reproduced: p. 217

Exhibition history

The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India, 1600-1660. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (September 25 - November 5, 1978);Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD (November 20, 1978 - January 10, 1979); Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (February 2 - March 25, 1979); Asia House Gallery, New York, NY (April 10-June 10, 1979).

Life at Court: Art for India's Rulers, 16th through 19th Centuries. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (November 20, 1985-February 9, 1986); Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (March 14-May 9, 1986).

The Romance of the Taj Mahal. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA (December 17, 1989-March 11, 1990); Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, OH (April 29-June 24, 1990); Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA (August 23-November 25, 1990); Asia Society Gallery, New York, NY (January 10-March 17, 1991).

Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH(April 28-November 2, 2015).

The Grand Mughals: Imperial Painting in India 1600 - 1660. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (September 25-November 5, 1978); Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, MD (November 20, 1978-January 10, 1979); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA (February 2-March 25, 1979); Asia House Galleries, New York City, NY (April 19-June 10, 1979).

Dance of the Gods: Indian Art Inspired by Music. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-December 8, 1996).

Dancing to the Flute: Music and Dance in Indian Art
. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia (organizer) (June 12-August 24, 1997).

North India: The Glory of Princes, Tribute to the Gods. Musée de la Musique, Paris, France (organizer) (March 18-June 29, 2003).

Yoga: The Art of Transformation. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (October 19, 2013-January 26, 2014); Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA (February 21-May 25, 2014); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 22-September 7, 2014).

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{{cite web|title=Page from the Late Shah Jahan Album: Prince and Ascetics|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.79|author=Govardhan|year=c. 1630|access-date=28 November 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Page from the Late Shah Jahan Album: Prince and Ascetics

Page from the Late Shah Jahan Album: Prince and Ascetics

attributed to Govardhan

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