A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album (c. 1585; inner border added in Allahabad c. 1602; outer border added probably 1900s): Art, History and Details

A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album (c. 1585; inner border added in Allahabad c. 1602; outer border added probably 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600).

The work and its context

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

As the Mughal atelier grew into the 1580s, Indian artists become increasingly adept at incorporating Persian styles with a new dimensionality and naturalism that Akbar promoted, possibly based on his appreciation of European prints and paintings. Here, a sincere holy man wears robes tinged lightly with blue. He stands beneath a tree in the wilderness with a loyal jackal by his side. A devotee touches his head to his feet. The artist’s tiny signature is written on the alms bowl. Connoisseurs of Persian art in the Islamic world praised an artist’s virtuoso ability to work on a microscopic scale.

Object facts

• Title: A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album
• Date: c. 1585; inner border added in Allahabad c. 1602; outer border added probably 1900s
• Creator attribution: Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600)
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 32.7 x 21.1 cm (12 7/8 x 8 5/16 in.); Painting: 13.6 x 7.5 cm (5 3/8 x 2 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.296

A detail from the museum

The dog stares hungrily at the mendicant’s alms bowl, with the artist’s signature.

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

• Hodgkin, Howard and Terence McInerney. Indian Drawing: An Exhibition. London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1983.
• Wright, Elaine and Susan Stronge. Muraqqaʻ Imperial Mughal Albums from the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. Alexandria, VA; Hanover: Art Services International; Distributed by University Press of New England, 2008.
• Aitken, Molly Emma. The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010.

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.