2009.202.205: Portrait of Shah Abu’l Ma’ali
Albums
This object does not yet have a description.
Identification and Creation
- Object Number
- 2009.202.205
- People
-
Attributed to Mir Sayyid ‘Ali, Persian (16th century)
- Title
- Portrait of Shah Abu’l Ma’ali
- Classification
- Albums
- Work Type
- album folio
- Date
- c. 1545
- Places
- Creation Place: South Asia, India
- Period
- Mughal period
- Culture
- Mughal
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/217656
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Black ink, opaque watercolor and gold on beige paper
- Dimensions
- 25.3 x 16.5 cm (9 15/16 x 6 1/2 in.)
- Inscriptions and Marks
-
-
inscription: There is no angel with this beauty and
As if God had created him from light
The Tongue is helpless in describing his beauty
He is above any description I give of him
-
inscription: There is no angel with this beauty and
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
-
Stuart Cary Welch (by 1983 - 2008,) by descent; to his estate (2008-2009,) gift; to Harvard Art Museum.
Notes:
Object was part of long-term loan to Museum in 1983.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch
- Accession Year
- 2009
- Object Number
- 2009.202.205
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
Descriptions
- Description
- In this drawing, an elegant young man wearing the big, folded turban characteristic of the reign of Humayun kneels facing to the right. Beneath the figure a quatrain of Persian poetry extols angelic physical beauty.
Publication History
- Stuart Cary Welch, Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches , exh. cat., Asia Society Museum (Washington, D.C, 1976), Page 33/Figure 6
- Stuart Cary Welch and Kim Masteller, From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, 2004), p. 10, fig. 7 (detail); pp. 78-79, no. 16
Exhibition History
- Portraiture in Iran and India, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/09/1983 - 02/01/1984
- Five Masters of Persian and Indian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/11/1992 - 03/09/1992
- Linear Graces ... and Disgraces: Part I, Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India, 15th-19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/15/1994 - 12/11/1994
- From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from SCWelch, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/19/2005 - 06/02/2005
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu