A Courtier, Possibly Khan Alam, Holding a Spinel and a Deccan Sword (c. 1605–10): Art, History and Details

A Courtier, Possibly Khan Alam, Holding a Spinel and a Deccan Sword (c. 1605–10) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Govardhan (Indian, active c.1596–1645).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

According to Akbar's court historian, the emperor ordered likenesses to be taken of the grandees of his realm. "An immense album was thus formed: those that have passed away have received a new life, and those who are still alive have immortality promised them." Akbar's son and successor, Jahangir (reigned 1605-27), continued the tradition of commissioning works of lifelike portraiture for inclusion in imperial albums. This courtier wears an opulent fur-trimmed, fringed velvet coat over his belted white tunic and striped pants-the typical Mughal dress derived from their roots among the nomadic horse-riding people of Central Asia. The artist has reveled in creating the soft textures of the facial hair, fur and fabrics. He holds a ruby-like gemstone called a spinel, which was prized among the Mughals for its talismanic properties of protection during battle.

Object facts

• Title: A Courtier, Possibly Khan Alam, Holding a Spinel and a Deccan Sword
• Date: c. 1605–10
• Creator attribution: Govardhan (Indian, active c.1596–1645)
• Culture: Mughal India
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper, text on verso
• Dimensions: Page: 17.8 x 12.5 cm (7 x 4 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.323

Collection credit

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

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.