Johnson 67,4

An assembly of animals and birds.

Mughal, c.1610.

Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807.

Inscribed at bottom in Persian characters: ‘‘amal-i nadir al-zaman’ (the work of Nadir al-Zaman) - this inscription is unreliable; numbered ‘9’ in Persian inventory note.

Gouache; inner border of gilt flowers, outer pink border.

217 by 117 mm; page 410 by 285 mm.

Reverse: seven ‘misra‘‘ of’ nasta‘liq’ calligraphy; 18th century.

A crow and partridges sit on a hill at top centre while a simurgh, an oriole and other birds fly around. The assembly beneath includes a pink horse, a lion, a tiger, leopards, a jackal, a cat, cobras, a crocodile, elephants, a dragon and rabbits, all encircling a central group of four horses.

Note: From a series of pictures, probably once contained in a single manuscript, now dispersed in various albums (Warren Hastings Album, subsequently Phillipps Ms. 14170, Sotheby, 26 November 1968, lot 388, and Binney (1973), no.50; second Warren Hastings Album, subsequently Phillipps Ms. 14166, Sotheby, 27 November 1974, lot 797; a Mughal album in the Gulistan Palace Collection, Godard (1937), fig. 108; a Mughal album from the collection of the Kevorkian Fund, New York, Sotheby, 3 April 1978, lot 84; Sotheby, 1 July 1969, lot 81).

The subjects of these various pictures indicate that the manuscript may have been a version of the stories contained in Nizami’s ‘Khamsa,’ notably the ‘Iskandarnama,’ but the treatment of the subjects shows a very fanciful approach taken by the artist, who was working in a style influenced by the artists Farrukh Beg and Aqa Reza Jahangiri. Another miniature of almost the same composition is in the British Museum, 1920-9-17-05 (Pinder-Wilson (1976), no.68; Welch (1978), pl.11). A related version executed in the style of the present group is in the Freer Gallery, Washington (Krishna (1955-56), fig.1). That this arrangement of animals is constantly used in varied versions through Indian painting is borne out by J.10, 10, an eighteenth century Lucknow rendering of the theme used to illustrate Majnun’s animals.