A Princess and Demons before a Nobleman: A Leaf from a Poetical Romance Relating to Shah Alam I (recto)

The leaf entered the Cleveland Museum of Art collection in 2013 and is catalogued as 2013.337.a, preserving its attribution to an unknown artist working in the Mughal imperial context. Its 1710 creation date situates it within the reign of Shah Alam I, linking the work to the literary and visual culture of early 18th‑century India. Scholars have highlighted its role in illustrating how poetic romances circulated across manuscript and painted media, influencing later narrative art in the region.

The work, titled A Princess and Demons before a Nobleman: A Leaf from a Poetical Romance Relating to Shah Alam I (recto), is a painted panel that presents a complex, multi‑layered scene. A walled garden forms the setting, its red brick enclosure framing a lush green lawn that stretches toward a distant urban skyline. The composition is divided vertically, with a gathering of costumed figures above and a line of nude bodies below.

The painting is a fragment taken from a larger illustrated manuscript that recounts a poetical romance associated with Shah Alam I, the Mughal emperor who ruled in the early 17th century. The fragment’s provenance traces through private collections before entering a museum context, where it is displayed as an example of narrative illustration from the period.

Illustrated romances were a popular literary form in Mughal India, blending courtly love, heroic exploits, and mythic elements. This panel reflects that tradition by juxtaposing a regal audience with otherworldly beings, illustrating how visual art served to elaborate the text’s fantastical episodes. The garden setting also echoes the idealized paradisiacal spaces often described in contemporary poetry.