Jesus on Mount Tabor, near Nazareth where he Chooses Twelve of his Followers and Calls them Apostles (folio 87 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–04): Art

Jesus on Mount Tabor, near Nazareth where he Chooses Twelve of his Followers and Calls them Apostles (folio 87 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–04) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

When Jesus arrived at Mount Tabor, he left his followers at the foot of the hill and spent the entire night in prayer. This is the only night scene in the manuscript, and the artist has used glowing colors and gold paint to dot the night sky with stars. Seven of the 12 apostles mill around the foreground; some converse with animated gestures, possibly debating the contents of a text. At dawn Jesus will have summoned the 12, named them his apostles and given them the power to drive out unclean spirits and heal the sick and infirm.

Object facts

• Title: Jesus on Mount Tabor, near Nazareth where he Chooses Twelve of his Followers and Calls them Apostles (folio 87 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
• Date: 1602–04
• Culture: Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim (1569–1627)
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, color, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.2 x 15.7 cm (10 5/16 x 6 3/16 in.); Image: 20 x 10.9 cm (7 7/8 x 4 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2005.145.87.b

A detail from the museum

The Apostles are shown wearing contemporary Mughal fashions.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Carvalho, Pedro de Moura, and W. M. Thackston. Mirʼāt al-quds (Mirror of holiness): a life of Christ for Emperor Akbar: a commentary on Father Jerome Xavier's text and the miniatures of Cleveland Museum of Art, Acc. no. 2005.145. Leiden: Brill, 2012.

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.