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Friends of Krishna, folio 163 from a Bhakti Ratnavali of Vishnu Puri

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

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

Abhisarika Nayika (Heroine Running to Meet her Lover)

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

A Disconsolate Lady on a Terrace with Attendants

Queen Kaikeyi reminds King Dasharatha about the sacrifices of King Bali and King Shivi, folio 39 from the Ayodhya Kanda (Book of Ayodhya) of a Ramayana (Rama's Journey)

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

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

Durga Slaying Mahisha

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.

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

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

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

A Messenger is Dispatched: Page from a Dispersed Manuscript

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

"Black Buck", Folio from the Shah Jahan Album

Prince and Princess Hunting Blackbuck

Ragini Gaudi, Page from a Jaipur Ragamala Set

Portrait of Prince Sur Singh Rathor of Bikaner (1594–1631)

Portrait of Emperor Jahangir

Young Woman Smoking a Huqqa

Krishna and Balarama Fight the Evil King Kamsa’s Wrestlers: Page from a Dispersed Bhagavata Purana

Alexander the Great Enthroned at Persepolis

Angel (Peri) Riding a Composite Camel

Maharana Bhim Singh in Procession

Krishna with an Ascetic

A Monumental Portrait of a Monkey

Folk Painting

Green Tara

A Stallion

Asavari Ragini, page from a Garland of Musical Ragas (Ragamala) Set

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

An Old Sufi Laments His Lost Youth

Tathagata Buddha

Maharana Sangram Singh Riding a Prize Stallion

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

"Dancing Dervishes", Folio from a Divan of Hafiz

Sceneries in the Tropical Land, by Imamura Shiko, Tokyo National Museum, Japan

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

Thanka with Buddha

Alauddin Khilji Conquering Ranthamore Fort, Kangra school, India, late 18th century, opaque watercolor on paper, Tokyo National Museum

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.

Silk Animal Carpet

Ōtsu-e of a Youth Holding Irises (Yarō)

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

Excellent Ox, Tokyo National Museum, Japan

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

A Young Prince on Horseback

Silk Kashan Carpet

Leaf from Album of Persian Calligraphy

Courting flute (siyotanka)

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

Saint in Red Cloak

A Virtuous Woman Placates the King by Plucking Out Her Eyes

Close to us, a bearded, balding man leads a donkey carrying a woman and child to our right against a hilly landscape in this horizontal painting. All three people have pale, peachy skin and halos. The man has a gray beard and hair, and wears a royal-blue tunic under a ruby-red robe. He leans on a walking stick and looks back at the donkey. The woman riding the donkey wears a blue and gold brocade-like cloak covering her head and body. She has a straight nose, small pink lips, and she looks toward the infant she holds close to her body. The baby wears a white garment and reaches for the woman’s face with one hand as he turns to look over his shoulder toward us. The path they walk on is lined with grass and detailed plants. A river runs parallel to the path a short distance away. The horizon line comes about two-thirds of the way up the painting is lined with green trees, blue mountains, and a few buildings to our left. Wispy white clouds sweep across an azure-blue sky streaked with peach near the horizon.

Portrait of a Ladakhi Mountain Goat

Collection of Poems (Divan)

Denshin kaishu Hokusai manga nihen

Three men with crowns and wearing gold-trimmed robes stand and kneel before a woman sitting on a wooden, box-like seat holding a baby to our right, in front of a rocky cave and landscape, in this horizontal painting. A balding man with a gray beard and hair, Joseph, and two younger people with blond hair stand around the woman, Mary, to our right, while a group of five young men or boys and three horses gather near the left edge. All the people have pale skin. Mary, the baby Jesus, Joseph, and the three men closest to them all have shimmering gold halos. One balding man with a long white beard kneels and kisses the baby’s feet. He wears a gold and crimson-red brocade-like robe over a burgundy-red garment, and he holds a pointed gold crown in his right hand, which rests on the ground. Behind him and to our left, a younger man with curly blond hair and goatee, wearing a wine-red tunic belted with gold and a gold crown on his head, holds his hands in prayer as he kneels down on one knee. The third stands to our left, cleanshaven with long blond hair. He wears a fur-lined, thigh-length scarlet-red robe and a gold crown, and he holds up a gold vessel in one hand. To our right, Mary wears a lapis-blue robe that covers her head and falls to her feet. The baby is covered only by a white cloth across his hips, and he has short blond hair. He touches the kneeling man’s head with one hand. His body is pudgy but his face has more adult-like, delicate features. Joseph stands at the woman’s far shoulder, wearing a butter-yellow robe over a rose-pink garment. His hands are gathered on a walking stick in front of his chest and his brows are furrowed with deep lines. One of the two younger people behind Mary, to our right, holds a lidded gold vessel. The group of five attendants to our left gather around cream-white, gray, or chestnut-brown horses. These blond people wear garments of dark olive-green, coral-red, royal-blue, or rose-pink tunics over black stockings. The rocky, brown cave behind Mary and Jesus, to our right of center, is occupied by a donkey and an ox behind a wooden trough. The landscape beyond is segmented into quilt-like squares of stylized crops. The horizon line comes almost to the top edge of the panel beneath a narrow strip of vivid, cobalt-blue sky. A gold star like a sunburst with rays of light hovers over the woman and child.

慈眼大師像

Thangka with the Seventh Bodhisattva

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

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

Peonies

Tile Panel

Peahen and hibiscus

Tigers Chasing Deer, with Dragon

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.

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.

Panel with the god Zeus/Serapis/Ohrmazd and worshiper

The Greedy Dog

This is a landscape painting depicting a body of water surrounded by greenery, with tall green and purple mountains in the background under a sky full of dark pink clouds and a strip of bright blue-green. To the right of center, a person stands in the water, submerged up to their thighs. The person faces away from us. Their skin is painted in shades of light orange and tan, and they have an orange cloth wrapped around their waist. They hold a long, thin spear, and look down at the water. Behind them, on the opposite shore, another indistinct person looks on, standing on the grassy green ground. At the edge of the tall mountains is a line of green trees. The wide water reflects the green and purple of the mountains, as well as the pink of the sky.

Ruler Entertained by Dancers in a Paradise Garden

The image shows a young child standing next to a rocking horse. The child is standing upright with one hand resting on the rocking horse's head and the other hand holding a whip. The child has fair skin, blue eyes, and short blonde hair with a small curl at the top. The child wears an orange dress with floral patterns, white lace-trimmed pantaloons, white stockings, and black shoes. The background includes red drapery on the left side and a bright landscape visible through a window, as well as a deep green hue on the right side.

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

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.

Cuckoo Flying under a Full Moon

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

Pichhwai for the Festival of Cows

Stela of Amenemhat and Hemet

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.

Chinese Bird on Snow-Laden Branch

Girl Arranging Flowers

Annunciation

Canopy with Dragon among Flowers

Insects and Flowers, Ming dynasty, 14th-15th century, color on silk, Tokyo National Museum

Japan; Illustrated book; Illustrated Books

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

Ema (Votive Painting) of a Chinese Lion and Peony Tree by Flowing Water

Scholar admiring plum blossoms

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.

Hell Courtesan

St Fredianus Diverts the River Serchio

This folio from Walters manuscript W.677 depicts Bahram Gur in a peasant's house.

The Milkmaid

Returning Sails off a Distant Shore, from Eight Views of Xiao-Xiang

Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary)

Hydrangea and Swallow, from an untitled series of large flowers