Portrait of Asaf Khan (1569–1641), from the Late Shah Jahan Album (c. 1653): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Asaf Khan (1569–1641), from the Late Shah Jahan Album (c. 1653) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Asaf Khan, born in Iran, was a general and close advisor to Mughal emperors Jahangir (reigned 1605–27) and Shah Jahan (reigned 1627–58). He was also Jahangir’s brother-in-law and Shah Jahan’s father-in-law. The figures in the borders show that Asaf Khan was both a scholar and a soldier. At the top, mullahs (learned Muslim clerics) with books gesture in discourse, while two soldiers converse at ease below. Three retainers stand at the side presenting a sword, a vase of narcissus, a bow, and arrows. He has strapped on a sheathed sword and tucked a stabbing dagger and book into his elegantly embroidered floral sash.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Asaf Khan (1569–1641), from the Late Shah Jahan Album
• Date: c. 1653
• Culture: Mughal India, court of Shah Jahan (1627–58)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 19 x 11.9 cm (7 1/2 x 4 11/16 in.); Overall: 38 x 24.8 cm (14 15/16 x 9 3/4 in.); with mat: 49 x 36.3 cm (19 5/16 x 14 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1945.168

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Hollis, Howard. “Portrait of a Nobleman.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 33, no. 10, 1946, pp. 180–181, 185.
• Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.
• Tōyō kaiga no seika: tokubetsuten: Kurīvurando Bijutsukan no korekushon kara [東洋絵画の精華: 特别展: クリーヴラント美術館のコレクションから= Highlights of Asian painting from the Cleveland Museum of Art]. Nara, Japan: Nara National Museum, 1998.

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.