Johnson 25,14

A mulla with two partridges.

Bijapur, c.1620.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Numbered 22 in Persian inventory note (repeated on slip of paper on reverse).

Gouache with gold; on an album page with gold-ruled borders and plain margin.

150 by 75 mm; page 303 by 196 mm.

Reproduced: Ashton (1950), no.813, pl.145; PinderWilson (1976), no.175; Losty (1986), 52.

The grey-bearded mulla, probably a minister at the Bijapur court, stands facing half right, holding a staff, rosary and book; he is dressed in a pale yellow full-length jama and ochre shawl over a white under-garment and orange shoes; his white turban has a wine-red cap. Two partridges are pecking in the foreground near water, and a blue-leaved iris is on the right. The fawn background has conventional clouds at the top.

Note: A portrait of another Bijapuri courtier, apparently by the same artist, is in the British Museum, 1937-4-10-1-03 (Barrett and Gray (1963), 126). A portrait of the ruler of Bijapur, Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah II (1579-1627), showing the same features of the thin swirling clouds, the pair of birds, and the plants by water in the foreground, is in the Binney Collection (Binney (1973), no.121.