Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains (verso) (mid-1700s): Art, History and Details

Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains (verso) (mid-1700s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Floral sprigs illuminate the central calligraphic work, and paired verses have been written in smaller script all around the border. All the verses are about the beauty of—and longing for—the beloved.

Object facts

• Title: Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains (verso)
• Date: mid-1700s
• Culture: Mughal India, probably Lucknow
• Type: Calligraphy
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: calligraphy: 17 x 9.6 cm (6 11/16 x 3 3/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.348.b

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

• Sotheby's, London. Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures. December 10, 1962.
• 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.