A holy man prostrating himself before a learned prince (c. 1585; border added probably 1700s): Art, History and Details

A holy man prostrating himself before a learned prince (c. 1585; border added probably 1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Manohar (Indian, active late 1500s).

The work and its context

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

Manohar riffs on the work of his father, Basavana, by showing a holy man bowing at the feet of a prince, instead of another holy man. Those who could recognize the relationship between this work and that of his father (CMA 2013.296) would impress gatherings of courtly connoisseurs, who prided themselves on being able to identify the hand of individual artists just by looking at the paintings. Recitation of poetry would accompany the viewing of paintings and drawings. Virtuoso artists reflected glory on their patrons. As an Islamic ruler, Akbar and his court participated in these activities—a new purpose for art that Indian artists had to learn.

Object facts

• Title: A holy man prostrating himself before a learned prince
• Date: c. 1585; border added probably 1700s
• Creator attribution: Manohar (Indian, active late 1500s)
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: ink on paper, laid down with borders of gold-decorated blue paper
• Dimensions: Page: 31.5 x 19.7 cm (12 3/8 x 7 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.297

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.