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A Girl Being Lifted By A Prince From The Harem To An Upper Chamber
A Girl Being Lifted By A Prince From The Harem To An Upper Chamber
Image © Worcester Art Museum, all rights reserved.

A Girl Being Lifted By A Prince From The Harem To An Upper Chamber

Artist
Dateabout 1610
Mediumwatercolor and gold metallic paint on paper, mounted on an 18th c. album page
Dimensions35.9 x 28.4 cm (14 1/8 x 11 3/16 in.)
ClassificationsNon-Western Miniatures
Credit LineIslamic Rug Fund
Object number1989.111
Label TextIndian painted scenes of this subject type usually concern an elopement where a prince arrives to carry off his mistress; the characters ae fictional. The prince portrayed here, however, is not an idealized type but the portrait of an actual person. He is probably a Mughal prince and this painting may relate to a particulr occurance or story, rather than an imaginary situation. The unknown manuscript from which this rare and fine painting was detached belonged to a small but important group of "pocket-size" deluxe manuscripts made for Emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-27) during the early years of his reign. Jahangir did not shae the taste for the vast historic, religious, and scientific manuscripts, illustrated with hundreds of miniatures, which occupied pride of place in the great library assembled by his father Akbar. His own taste inclined toward the small and exquisite. Jahangir commissioned only a relatively small number of books. When compared to the Akbari norm, his books are smaller in size and have fewer and finer illustrations. This painting is a characteristic example of the type of illustration that Jahangir admired. The colors have a jewel-like intensity. The dark ground, enamel-like surfaces and color range tending to deep purple and blue are quite distinctive and allow one to relate this painting on stylistic grounds to a small gr4oup of Jahangiri manuscripts dating from about 1605. This painting has a fascinating providenance. It belonged to Warren Hastings, the greatest viceroy of British India who collected an important group of Mughal miniatures in India in the 1770s and 1780s. It was sold after his death in a public sale in 1853 and went into the collection of sir Thomas Phillips who had one of the most renowned collections of books and manuscripts in 19th century England.ProvenanceTerence McInerney, New York NY
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