1630
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Prince and ascetics, from the Late Shah Jahan Album is a 1630 unspecified by Govardhan, a Baroque work, depicting Mughal Court, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A prince in gold robes kneels before a bearded holy man in a rocky cave. Other ascetics sit nearby, wrapped in simple cloth. A conch shell lies on the ground. This painting was made for an album Emperor Shah Jahan put together in the 1630s. Some pages were new; others, like this one, were older works slipped into fresh borders. The conch is a quiet clue—it’s blown at the start of prayer, showing how the Mughal court mixed power with faith. Next, look up *reign of Shah Jahan (1628–1658)* to see more of these album pages.
Most paintings in the Late Shah Jahan Album were commissioned specifically for the album, but some older finished works were chosen to be incorporated; they were removed from their original housings and inserted into the new borders. This painting of a Mughal prince visiting a Sufi holy man in his cave dwelling is one example, chosen probably because it underscores the importance of the religious dimension of Mughal life. The conch on the ground before the ascetic is blown at the beginning of prayer, which in the Sufi tradition is often sung to the accompaniment of music. The pair of ducks in…
The holy man sits under a tree, an ancient Indian place of honor.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Govardhan (fl. 1595–1640) was a Mughal era Indian painter of the Mughal school of painting. His father Bhavani Das, had been a minor painter in the imperial workshop. Like many other Mughal painters, they were Hindus.…
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