A Royal Picnic on a Terrace (c. 1620): Art, History and Details

A Royal Picnic on a Terrace (c. 1620) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Muhammad Ali (Persian, active 1590–1620).

The work and its context

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

A richly patterned carpet spans the width of the composition and forms the setting for a royal visit. The status of the highest-ranking person is indicated by the tan cloth placed over the carpet and the voluminous wine-colored cushion ornamented with stylized gold clouds. An attendant holding an emblem of Indian royalty, the fly whisk, stands to one side. At the far right of the carpet are two books, indicating that they are learned men. Like the carpet, the book covers have central medallions and borders, in line with the Persian aesthetic that the Mughals of India held in high regard.

Object facts

• Title: A Royal Picnic on a Terrace
• Date: c. 1620
• Creator attribution: Muhammad Ali (Persian, active 1590–1620)
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 23.4 x 14.6 cm (9 3/16 x 5 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1920.1966

A detail from the museum

A gentleman connoisseur has tucked a flowering sprig into his voluminous turban.

Collection credit

Gift of J. H. Wade

Further reading listed by the museum

• Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition June 6-September 20, 1916. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916.

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.