Prince and ascetics, from the Late Shah Jahan Album (c. 1630): Art, History and Details

Prince and ascetics, from the Late Shah Jahan Album (c. 1630) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Govardhan (Indian, active c.1596–1645).

The work and its context

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

Most paintings in the Late Shah Jahan Album were commissioned specifically for the album, but some older finished works were chosen to be incorporated; they were removed from their original housings and inserted into the new borders. This painting of a Mughal prince visiting a Sufi holy man in his cave dwelling is one example, chosen probably because it underscores the importance of the religious dimension of Mughal life. The conch on the ground before the ascetic is blown at the beginning of prayer, which in the Sufi tradition is often sung to the accompaniment of music. The pair of ducks in the foreground imply the harmonious union of the spiritual and temporal in the Mughal realm. Mendicant Islamic ascetics fill the borders on this page, except for the one noble retainer standing by the prince.

Object facts

• Title: Prince and ascetics, from the Late Shah Jahan Album
• Date: c. 1630
• Creator attribution: Govardhan (Indian, active c.1596–1645)
• Culture: India, Mughal court, reign of Shah Jahan (1628-1658), Mughal Dynasty (1526-1756)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Image: 20.3 x 14.3 cm (8 x 5 5/8 in.); Sheet with border: 37.5 x 25.2 cm (14 3/4 x 9 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1971.79

A detail from the museum

The holy man sits under a tree, an ancient Indian place of honor.

Collection credit

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “The Year in Review for 1971.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 59, no. 1, 1972, pp. 3–46.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.
• Beach, Milo Cleveland, Stuart Cary Welch, and Glenn D. Lowry. The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India, 1600-1660. Williamstown, MA: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1978.

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.