Collection Online as of March 20, 2023

Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza)

c. 1560s–70s

Mughal India, court of Akbar

(reigned 1556–1605)

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on cotton and paper

Page: 83.7 x 67 cm (32 15/16 x 26 3/8 in.)

Gift of George P. Bickford 1976.74

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

The title in the bottom margin is a continuation of the text on the previous page.

Description

Wielding a curved sword, and with a stabbing dagger tucked into his belt, the hero, Alamshah the Greek, perches on a cliff above a rushing torrent of water. He has just slain the villain who raised the massive bronze plug on the dam in order to wash away the camp of Alamshah’s father, Hamza. The villain here was a demon; this epic elides the historical with the mythical. Hamza was battling forces of infidelity to Islam as well as enemies of Iran.
This page came from a 14-volume book commissioned by Emperor Akbar. Astonishing in size and scale, the paintings reveal Akbar’s preference for dramatic action.

Provenance

Tabbagh

?–1976

George Bickford [1901–1991] and Clara Louise Gehring Bickford [1903–1985], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art

1976–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 303 archive.org

Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986. cat. no. 10

Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 170-171

Sporre, Dennis J. The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 327, no. 11.8

Seyller, John William, and W. M. Thackston. The Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2002. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 51, pp.162-163, R78, p. 266

Sporre, Dennis J. The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 332, no. 11.19

Douglass, Scott, and Dennis J. Sporre. The Creative Impulse. Seventh Edition. Seventh Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2006. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 322, fig. 10.18

Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 174-175

Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie. "From the Fifth Vizier's Story to the Gifts of Timur: Mughal Paintings by Sravana in the Cleveland Museum of Art." Orientations: The Magazine for Collectors and Connoisseurs of Asian Art, November/December 2013, pp. 13-18. Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 5

Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 211–212

Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 35

Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245); December 31, 2013 - June 30, 2014.

Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).

The Year in Review for 1982. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 6, 1983).

The Adventures of Hamza. Smithsonian Institution Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, DC (organizer) (June 21-September 29, 2002); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (November 1, 2002-January 26, 2003).

Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).

Martial Art of India (Indian Painting rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 11-August 21, 2022).