Falcon on a Perch (c. 1610): Art, History and Details

Falcon on a Perch (c. 1610) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Falcons were prized participants in royal hunting expeditions, and this painting may be a portrait of a favorite bird or a gift from an ally. The bird faces left, and the talons are tied to the perch with a black string. The light green background, flowering trees, and plants provide dynamism to the composition and reveal the artist’s awareness of Persian, Mughal, or Deccani styles of painting.

Object facts

• Title: Falcon on a Perch
• Date: c. 1610
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Amber
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera on paper
• Dimensions: Miniature: 12.8 x 8.9 cm (5 1/16 x 3 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2018.165

A detail from the museum

A thin coat of malachite was applied for the background.

Collection credit

Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

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.