2009.202.205: Portrait of Shah Abu’l Ma’ali

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2009.202.205

People

Attributed to Mir Sayyid ‘Ali, Persian (16th century)

Title

Portrait of Shah Abu’l Ma’ali

Classification

Albums

Work Type

album folio

Date

c. 1545

Places

Creation Place: South Asia, India

Period

Mughal period

Culture

Mughal

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/217656

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Black ink, opaque watercolor and gold on beige paper

Dimensions

25.3 x 16.5 cm (9 15/16 x 6 1/2 in.)

Inscriptions and Marks

• inscription: There is no angel with this beauty and
  As if God had created him from light
  The Tongue is helpless in describing his beauty
  He is above any description I give of him

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Stuart Cary Welch (by 1983 - 2008,) by descent; to his estate (2008-2009,) gift; to Harvard Art Museum.

Notes:
Object was part of long-term loan to Museum in 1983.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch

Accession Year

2009

Object Number

2009.202.205

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description

In this drawing, an elegant young man wearing the big, folded turban characteristic of the reign of Humayun kneels facing to the right. Beneath the figure a quatrain of Persian poetry extols angelic physical beauty.

Publication History

• Stuart Cary Welch, Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches , exh. cat., Asia Society Museum (Washington, D.C, 1976), Page 33/Figure 6
• Stuart Cary Welch and Kim Masteller, From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, exh. cat., Yale University Press (New Haven, 2004), p. 10, fig. 7 (detail); pp. 78-79, no. 16

Exhibition History

• Portraiture in Iran and India, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 12/09/1983 - 02/01/1984
• Five Masters of Persian and Indian Painting, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/11/1992 - 03/09/1992
• Linear Graces ... and Disgraces: Part I, Drawings from the Courts of Persia, Turkey, and India, 15th-19th Centuries, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/15/1994 - 12/11/1994
• From Mind, Heart, and Hand: Persian, Turkish, and Indian Drawings from SCWelch, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 03/19/2005 - 06/02/2005

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