1648
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Shamsa (sunburst) with portrait of Aurangzeb (1618–1707), from the Emperor's Album (the Kevorkian Album) is a 1648 unspecified by Bichitr, a Baroque work, depicting Mughal Court, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a golden sunburst of tiny flowers and stars around a small portrait of a man in a white turban. This page started as a blank sun—symbol of God’s light blessing the emperor. Later, the new ruler pasted his own face over the gold. The change turns a sacred sign into a family scrapbook. Look up *Mughal court* to see more pages from the same album.
This closing page of an imperial Mughal album originally had the shamsa , or sunburst, with a plain gold disc in the center, referencing the light of God as divine sanction for Emperor Shah Jahan’s rule. The depiction of divine light by means of floral and geometric patterns was painted by hand with mathematical precision in gold and lapis lazuli. The portrait of Aurangzeb was probably added when he took over the imperial library after seizing the throne from his father, Shah Jahan, in 1658 and adopting the name Alamgir, which means “Seizer of the Universe.” The string of prayer beads in his…
Tooling the gold cloud motif with pinpricks makes it catch more light and shimmer.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Bichitr was an Indian painter during the Mughal period, patronized by the emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan. The earliest known painting of his is a mature work from c. 1615.
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