"Princess Entertaining a Visitor on the Balcony", Folio from the Davis Album

Unknown

mid–second half 17th century · Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper · Islamic Art

Mughal paintings from the seventeenth century depict the private life of the court, illustrating the quiet moments of emperors, queens, princes, and princesses in a manner very different from their formal portraits. This scene of a princess entertaining her visitor is filled with exquisite objects, including a carpet, ewers, a musical instrument, jewelry, and a fly whisk. The setting is the Kashmir valley, with distinctive fronds of land going into the lake and the distant snow clad peaks.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid–second half 17th century

Medium

Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915