Collection Online as of March 25, 2023

A prince visiting a holy man in a rocky landscape

India, Mughal court, 16th century

Opaque watercolor on paper

Page: 34 x 20.7 cm (13 3/8 x 8 1/8 in.); Painting: 18.4 x 10.1 cm (7 1/4 x 4 in.)

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.302

Location

not on view

Description

A recurring theme in the art of India is the relationship between rulers and the religious practitioners who were believed to control supernatural forces that would aid in the success of rule and war. A prince has come to the abode of a Sufi mystic dervish, who sits with two acolytes in front of a rocky cave that may be his dwelling. The dervish appears to be blessing the prince and the weapons carried by his retinue to help assure success in an upcoming battle. In the foreground, a princely figure leading a horse meets surreptitiously with an eccentric figure holding a squat vessel, possibly filled with a narcotic substance such as bhang, used by many groups of mystics to aid in reaching trance states.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Recto: Arabic verses in nasta‘liq script: O Immutable in Your attributes!/ O Gatherer of that which is dispersed!/ You who make plants bloom;/ You who quicken the dead from decayed bones;/ You who send down succor/ From those bowing and kneeling/ To the grieving and sick/ To the hungry and famished/ From the routing and flooding,/ O Creator of the constellations,/ In the seamless heavens/ From the onset of night/ To the brightening of the light of dawn.

Provenance

(Heeramaneck Collection, New York, NY)

The Pan-Asian Collection, New York, NY

Robert Ellsworth [1929–2014], New York, NY

June 20, 1983

(Sotheby’s, London, Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, 20 June 1983, lot 65, sold to Ralph and Catherine Benkaim)

1983–2001

Ralph [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, by descent to his wife, Catherine Benkaim

2001–2013

Catherine Glynn Benkaim, Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art

2013–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Sotheby's London. Fine Oriental Miniatures and Manuscripts. 20 June 1983.

Heeramaneck, Alice N. Masterpieces of Indian Painting: From the Former Collections of Nasli M. Heeramaneck. [Place of publication not identified]: A.N. Heeramaneck, 1984. cat. no. 168

Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016. cat. 27, p. 195

Exhibition history

Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (July 2, 2014-January 5, 2015).