Simeon Kneels in Front of Mary and Jesus after Recognizing Them (folio 40 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4): Art, History and Details

Simeon Kneels in Front of Mary and Jesus after Recognizing Them (folio 40 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier (1602–4) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Simeon had heard a prophecy that he would encounter the Messiah with his mother in the temple at Jerusalem. This painting depicts his moment of recognition that the prophecy had come true. The temple is populated by Jewish teachers and scholars, and a number of unusual visual elements. A dragon-headed vase is set by the stairs, and niches for vases flank the entrance, possibly in reference to Mary’s status as a vessel for the divine. The form of the temple itself seems to be an imaginative combination of Hindu temple architecture and a Mughal palace.

Object facts

• Title: Simeon Kneels in Front of Mary and Jesus after Recognizing Them (folio 40 recto), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
• Date: 1602–4
• Culture: Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim (1569–1627)
• Type: Manuscript
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.2 x 15.7 cm (10 5/16 x 6 3/16 in.); Image: 21.4 x 12.6 cm (8 7/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2005.145.40.a

A detail from the museum

A man in the lower left offers grapes to a dog.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby's (Firm). Arts of the Islamic World: Including 20th Century Middle Eastern Painting. London: Sotheby's, 2001.
• O’Malley, John W., Gauvin A. Bailey, and Giovanni Sale. The Jesuits and the Arts, 1540-1773. 1st English ed. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2005.
• 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.