An Ambassador before Humayun (c. 1610): Art, History and Details

An Ambassador before Humayun (c. 1610) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Miskin (Indian, active 1570s–c. 1604).

The work and its context

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

Humayun, the second Mughal emperor of India, son of Babur and father of Akbar, is enthroned in an outdoor royal encampment. The scene recalls Humayun’s 15 years of exile between 1540 and 1555, many of which he spent traveling through Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran, after an Afghan rebel ousted him from India.

Object facts

• Title: An Ambassador before Humayun
• Date: c. 1610
• Creator attribution: Miskin (Indian, active 1570s–c. 1604)
• Culture: Mughal India
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 20.9 x 11.7 cm (8 1/4 x 4 5/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.320

A detail from the museum

Humayun wore a special type of turban, his Taj-i Izzat (Crown of Power and Glory).

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

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.