Johnson 2,13

A ruler, probably Babur, holding court.

Mughal, c.1615.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Inscribed above the door behind the throne in Persian: ‘shah Jahangiri salamat’ (good health to the emperor Jahangir); Persian inventory note (not numbered).

Gouache with gold; on an album leaf with a gold-decorated blue border and a margin of formal tulip diaper.

217 by 110 mm; page 435 by 300 mm.

Reverse: a quatrain written in ‘nasta‘liq’ calligraphy with an illuminated floral background; signed: ‘javahir raqm-i thani’; early 18th century. This is probably Jawahir Raqm II, a court calligrapher of Aurangzeb who died in the first quarter of the 18th century (Huart (1908), 256).

Attended by several courtiers, the ruler is receiving a minister who reads from a book. He is seated on a throne on a verandah facing onto a small courtyard. In the foreground an envoy arrives bearing a dish.

Note: From an unidentified manuscript which was dispersed probably in the eighteenth century. The inscription above the door suggests that the painter was employed by Jahangir. This could have been a ‘Baburnama’ although the composition does not occur in other illustrated copies of the work. Another illustration from the same manuscript was previously in the Kaiser Friedrich-Museum, Berlin, I.4593 (Strzygowski (1933), Taf. 5, Abb. 15; Hickmann (1979) no.1). ‘See also’ J.26,21, which uses the same composition.