Oval portrait of a woman in a Chaghtai hat
1745
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
1745
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Oval portrait of a woman in a Chaghtai hat is a 1745 unspecified by Unknown, a Baroque work, depicting Mughal, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a woman in profile, wearing a tall, flat-topped hat covered in pearls and jewels. Her face is calm, her clothes rich but simple. This hat is called a Chaghtai hat—it comes from Central Asia, not India. The Mughal rulers, who were from that region, brought the style with them. The painting is small, meant to be held like a jewel itself. If you like this, look up more works tagged mughal.
The tall, flat-topped hat is an element of the native dress of the Mughals from eastern Uzbekistan. Of mixed Turkic and Mongol ethnicities, they spoke a Turkic language known as Chaghatai. Chaghatai refers to the name of the son of the Mongol Chingiz (Genghis) Khan, who ruled this area of Central Asia from 1246 to 1282. This woman’s hat has been studded with jewels and strings of pearls. The portrait jewel format that was once reserved for the emperor has now been expanded to include ladies of the court. The woman holds a jade wine cup and wears a draped upper garment with a woven or…
She holds a delicate jade cup of the type for which the Mughals were famous.
Read the full account in the museum source.
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