Calligraphy: Preface to the Anvar-i Suhaili (c. 1590): Art, History and Details

Calligraphy: Preface to the Anvar-i Suhaili (c. 1590) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The lovers have met in a remote wilderness location, away from the city shown in the distance. However, their affair has run its course, and they decide to part ways, each walking in opposite directions through an ominous landscape, where strange rock formations and an oversized serpent-slain by foxes gnawing on its innards-lend a sense of foreboding. As Mughal court painting developed into the last decades of the 16th century, artists began using increasingly muted colors and gentler shading techniques than they did in the more robust Adventures of Hamza at the left. The omission of a light source and shadows adds to a timeless, otherworldly impression to the landscape.

Object facts

• Title: Calligraphy: Preface to the Anvar-i Suhaili
• Date: c. 1590
• Culture: Northern India, Mughal court, 16th century
• Type: Calligraphy
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 36.1 x 24.8 cm (14 3/16 x 9 3/4 in.); Text field: 16 x 8.3 cm (6 5/16 x 3 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.303.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

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.