Related

Garden Gathering

European Banquet Scene (or The Marriage Feast at Cana?)

Collection of Poems (Divan)

"Dancing Dervishes", Folio from a Divan of Hafiz

Alexander the Great Enthroned at Persepolis

A Messenger is Dispatched: Page from a Dispersed Manuscript

Mandala Base

Zal Climbing to Rudaba, page from a copy of the Shahnama of Firdausi

Vasant Ragini: Folio from a ragamala series (Garland of Musical Modes)

On this folio from Walters manuscript W.604, King Qizil Arslan welcomes the poet Nizami.

An Old Sufi Laments His Lost Youth

Maharana Amar Singh II with Ladies of the Zenana outside the Picture Hall at Rajnagar

"Black Buck", Folio from the Shah Jahan Album

This illustration from Walters manuscript W.644 depicts Zulaykha in a blue-domed litter on a camel led by a cameleer. The retinue is entering the capital of Egypt.

Krishna's Fifth and Sixth Avatars, page from a copy of the Gitagovinda of Jayaveda

Canopy with Dragon among Flowers

Kichik Beg Wounded during Babur's Attack on Qalat, from a copy of the Baburnama (Book of Babur)

Velvet Fragment with Design from Nizami of Ganja's Khusrau and Shirin

Animal-Spouted Pitcher

Silk Animal Carpet

Portrait of Emperor Jahangir

Prince and Princess Hunting Blackbuck

Textile Fragment

Silk Kashan Carpet

This drawing, Walters manuscript leaf W.749, was executed in Safavid Iran, most probably in the late 10th century AH/AD 16th, in Qazvin or Isfahan. Above, a farmer plows; below, a seated young man watches a produce seller weigh his purchase. On the rocks in the center foreground is inscribed the name of one of the most famous painters in Iran in the 11th century AH/AD 17th, Riza 'Abbasi (active 1001-1044 AH/AD 1591-1592 to 1634). As the handwriting does not match that of the artist, an admirer of Riza's work seems to have attributed the drawing to him. The execution and the bucolic subject matter of this drawing relate closely to the oeuvre of the Persian artist Muhammadi Haravi (active late 10th century AH/AD 16th), who worked in Qazvin. It is possible that this composition was conceived as a manuscript page.

Carpet

Young Woman Smoking a Huqqa

A Disconsolate Lady on a Terrace with Attendants

Walters manuscript W.619 is an illuminated manuscript containing 2 works by Sa"di (died 691 AH/AD 1292): the Gulistan (Rose garden) and the Bustan (Orchard). It was copied in 980 AH/AD 1572 by Muhammad Riza al-Tabrizi in Iran. The text of the Gulistan appears in the main area, while that of the Bustan is inscribed obliquely around the main text area on three sides. Both texts are written in black and gold nasta"liq script. The margins are multi-colored, gold-sprinkled tinted or marbled paper. The original leather binding dates to the 10th century AH/AD 16th and has dentelle-style decorated boards and doublures with gold filigree work over a multi-colored ground of blue, green, red, and black.

Abhisarika Nayika (Heroine Running to Meet her Lover)

"The Concourse of the Birds", Folio 11r from a Mantiq al-Tayr (Language of the Birds)

Four Portraits from the St. Petersburg Album. Painters unknown, borders by Muhammad Sadiq. Top left: Nadir Shah, Iran, ca. 1740. Top right: Adil Shah, Iran, ca. 1748. Bottom left: Unidentified nobleman, Mughal school, 18th century. Bottom right: Unidentified nobleman, Mughal school, 18th century. Art Institute of Chicago 1919.952 recto

Carpet with Scrolling Vines and Blossoms

Ovoid jar with women with a yoke in scalloped panels

Angel (Peri) Riding a Composite Camel

Amir Khusrau Dedicates His Poem to Sultan Ala al-Din Khalji, page from the Quintet (Khamsa) of Amir Khusraw Dehlavi

Spiegellijst, beschilderd met vier allegorische vrouwenfiguren

Maharana Bhim Singh in Procession

Pradyumna and Samvara fight with maces, from the "Large Basohli Bhagavata Purana"

Tile with Floral and Cloud-band Design

The Adoration of the Magi

Waistcoat

Pichhwai for the Festival of Cows

The Emperor's Carpet

Tigers Chasing Deer, with Dragon

Ingelijste muurschildering voorstellende Xiwangmu en dienaressen

Carpet with Triple-Arch Design

Portrait of a Ladakhi Mountain Goat

A Procession Scene with Musicians, from a copy of the Padshanama

Al-Mu'tazz Sends Gifts to Abdulla ibn Abdulla, from a copy of the Tarikh-i Alfi

The Young Emperor Akbar Arrests the Insolent Shah Abu’l-Maali, Page from a Manuscript of the Akbarnama

"The Funeral of Isfandiyar," Folio from a Shahnama (Book of Kings)

Royal Carpet with Silk and Metal Thread

Khambavati Ragini: Page from a Dispersed Ragamala Series (Garland of Musical Modes)

Dragon in foliage with lion and phoenix heads

The Infant Krishna Spirited Away by Vasudev, from a copy of the Dispersed Bhagavat Purana

Ragini Gaudi, Page from a Jaipur Ragamala Set

Thangka with the Seventh Bodhisattva

A Virtuous Woman Placates the King by Plucking Out Her Eyes

This folio from Walters manuscript W.580 is the left side of an illuminated double-page frontispiece of geometric design in gold, red, blue, and green, with a marginal rosette at the left.

On this folio from Walters manuscript W.653, a middle-aged woman stands in a landscape, holding a vase of flowers. The salmon pink margins are stenciled with animal and floral forms. The catchword at the lower left indicates that the following folio is missing.

This folio from Walters manuscript W.596 depicts the fall of Samarqand.

"Lotto" Carpet

Panel with the god Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd and worshiper

Tile Panel

Paradise

This page from Walters manuscript W.674 bears 4 diplomas written within illuminated cartouches inscribed in ijazah script by the following master calligraphers: Yaziji zadah, Isma'il al-Zuhdi Katib al-Saray al-Sultani, Muhammad Hasib, and 'Ali al-Wasfi. The page is dated 1219 AH/AD 1804-1805.

Woman Addressing a Peacock: Gujari Ragini of Megh, from a Ragamala

Carpet with Palm Trees, Ibexes, and Birds

This is the final illuminated page in the codex, Walters W.582. The last panel contains the colophon, written in Riqa' script, giving the name of the scribe as Habib Allah ibn Dust Muhammad al-Khwarizmi.

Daibutsu and Scaffolding, by Migita Toshihide, 1895, Meiji 27, from the Hood Museum of Art - PR.995.23.9ab.

This illuminated title page from Walters manuscript W.581 gives the title of the work, as well as the authors' names. There is also a statement referring to the patronage of the manuscript, indicating that it was made for the Mawlawi (Mevlevi) Library (bi-rasm al-Khizanah al-Karimah al-"Aliyah al-Mawlawiyah).

Rustam's seventh course: He kills the White Div, folio 124 from a Shah-nama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (Persian, about 934–1020)

About three dozen people gather in a grassy field to either side of a crumbling structure to kneel and pray before a woman and baby in the center of this horizontal painting. The woman, Mary, and baby, Jesus, have smooth, pale skin while the others have light or tanned skin. The structure has sand-colored stone pillars, a wooden triangular, pitched roof, and a straw floor. Mary, who has an elongated torso, sits facing us with her knees apart. She wears an azure-blue robe over a rose-pink dress. A shell-pink veil covers her head and body. Jesus sits on her left knee, his pudgy body angled to our left. He is nude except for a transparent cloth wrapped over one shoulder and the opposite hip. Mary’s left hand braces his torso. On Mary’s right, our left, Joseph, an older man, stands facing us. He clasps his hands at his chest and leans on a long stick. He has wrinkled skin, long, gray curly hair, and a full beard. Both Mary and Joseph tilt their heads to their right, our left, as they look down at Jesus. Joseph wears a golden yellow robe over a blue tunic. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus have faint gold halos. Behind them, a brown cow and gray donkey rest on the straw. People closest to Mary and Jesus kneel and bow their heads while the people to the left and right sides mostly stand. Three men kneeling closest to Mary and Jesus offer gifts, including a bronze vessel and a gold jar. One man has long dark brown hair and a beard, and wears a gold crown. Another man is bald with long gray hair and beard, while the third is cleanshaven with shoulder-length brown hair. These men wear robes in powder blue, carnation pink, or celery green with delicate silver and gold embelishments. Others in the crowd range in age from young and cleanshaven to older and bearded. They wear robes and tunics in shades of raspberry pink, butterscotch yellow, lapis blue, plum purple, or forest green. Several horses, their coats white or cinnamon brown, stand among the crowd, a few with riders. To our right, one horse rears its head and two others stand facing each other. Beyond the crowd, grassy green meadows and hills dotted with trees lead back to the horizon. A pale blue sky fills the top third of the composition.

Viewing the Seashore at the Eguchi Inn

Folk Painting

Hinds House Window

The Greedy Dog

Fragment (Dress Fabric)

Palampore

Manuchehr Kills Tur, Manuscript from Shahnama

Floral Tent Panel

Leaf from Album of Persian Calligraphy

慈眼大師像

Dozens of people form a line starting from an opening in a city wall or building in the background to a rustic shed-like structure close to us, to kneel before a seated woman holding a baby on her lap in this vertical painting. All of the people have pale skin tinged faintly with green. The top edge of the panel is shaped so it has two rounded sections like shoulders leading to a stepped, crown-like form with an inward curving triangle at the top. A nickel-gray, crenelated stone wall of a distant city is nestled into the top, stepped section, with a glimmering gold sky above filling the uppermost triangle. Tile-roofed and domed buildings and a few towers appear densely packed beyond the wall. People on foot and horseback create a line from an arched opening in the wall toward us and to our right. Three of the people on horseback in the distance wear long robes and have gold halos. The line of people winds behind a tall, narrow hill to our right and it continues close to us. Two horses, two camels, and several people wait to the right but our attention is drawn to the trio in the foreground, Mary, Jesus, and Joseph, and the three men near the infant, the Magi. Mary wears a lapis-blue mantle covering her head and shoulders over a petal-pink dress, and she sits on a wooden or stone chest in the center of the painting. Her body faces us but she turns her face to look with pale blue eyes off to our right. In one hand she holds a hexagonal gold vessel that tapers to a flame-like finial. With the other hand, on our left, she supports the blond infant sitting in her lap. He is covered only with a white cloth around his waist, and he looks toward the vessel as he holds up the index and middle fingers of his right hand. To our left and slightly behind Mary, a balding man with white hair and beard and wearing a blue garment under a red robe sits with his head propped in his hand, looking down. His other hand rests on what might be the handle of a crutch or staff. The man, woman, and child have gold halos with what appears to be writing. The three Magi also have gold halos and they all wear scarlet-red shoes. The oldest kneels before Mary and kisses Jesus's feet. He has a long, light gray beard and is balding. He wears a brocade-like gold robe over pale brick-red sleeves. A cleanshaven man with dark brown hair and wrinkles around his mouth kneels to our left as he raises a jewel-encrusted gold crown from his head. He wears a gold and red floral-patterned garment and holds a rounded vessel, also with a flame-like finial. A younger, cleanshaven man with smooth features and shoulder-length, curling blond hair to our right also wears a gold crown. A dagger hangs from the waist of his sky-blue tunic, and his leggings are pale plum purple. Both arms are bent to his hands are held up, and in his right hand, he holds another tabernacle-like gold vessel. The structure to our left houses a donkey and bull munching hay. A gold sunburst floats above the roof, which seems to be built up against the stone wall of a building. The hills and trees beyond the people is painted with pine and moss greens and brown.

Heer Ranjha: Lady with Water Jug on her Head and Lady Holding out her Arms, Jodhpur school, India, c. mid-18th century, opaque watercolor on paper, Tokyo National Museum

Jewelry Elements

A Young Prince on Horseback

Hunting Scene

Krishna and Radha in a Pavilion, from a copy of the Seven Hundred Verses (Sat Sai) of Bihari

The top and bottom panels of this illuminated finispiece from Walters manuscript W.578 are inscribed with the basmalah and hamdalah in white Thuluth script. The Qur'anic verses in the central panel are written in Square Kufic.

Thanka with Buddha

Tile Panel

Buddhist Priest's Ceremonial Robe

Green Tara

Six women, eight men, two satyrs, and one child gather in pairs and trios in a loose row that spans the width of this nearly square painting. They are set within a landscape with craggy rocks, cliffs, and trees. Most of the people face us, and the men, women, and child have pale skin. The two satyrs have men’s torsos and furry goat’s legs, and they have darker, olive complexions. Most of the men wear voluminous, knee-length togas wrapped in short robes in shades of white, topaz blue, grass green, coral orange, or rose pink. Most of the women wear long, dress-like garments in tones of shell pink, apricot orange, or lapis blue over white sleeves. For all but one woman, their garments have fallen off one shoulder to reveal a round, firm breast. Several objects are strewn on the rocky, dirt ground in front of the group, including a wide, wooden bucket with a piece of paper affixed to its front to our right, a glass goblet, a pitchfork, a large blue and white ceramic dish filled with grapes and small yellow fruits, and an overturned cup near the center. Cliff-like, craggy rocks rise steeply behind the group to our left, filling much of the sky opposite a tall grove of leafy, dark green trees to our right. A few puffy white clouds float across the vivid blue sky. The slip of paper on the barrel has been inscribed, “joannes bellinus venetus p MDXIIII.”

Phoenixes and Paulownia

A Stallion