Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza)
1570
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1570
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza) is a 1570 unspecified by Unknown, a Mughal Painting work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A man in gold armor swings a sword at a giant bronze chain. Below him, water crashes through a broken dam. The hero stands on a cliff, muscles tense, while soldiers and tents wash away in the flood. This painting comes from a huge storybook made for Emperor Akbar in the 1560s. It’s one of the first big projects from his new art workshop—1,400 pictures in all, though most are lost now. To see more like it, look up Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605).
The hero, Alamshah the Greek, perches on a cliff above a rushing torrent of water. He has just slain the villain who raised the massive bronze plug on the dam in order to wash away the camp of Alamshah’s father, Hamza. The Hamza-nama recounts the adventures of an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. It was the first major undertaking of the fledgling painting workshop created by Akbar. Originally in 14 volumes of 100 illustrations each, just a little more than 10 percent of the pages survive.
The title in the bottom margin is a continuation of the text on the previous page.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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