Mounted Hunter with Dog Pursuing Game Birds

Unknown

16th century · Ink and transparent watercolor on paper · Islamic Art

The tiny holes around the figure of this hunter chasing game birds indicate that this sketch was used as a pounce, to copy the image onto another work. In Islamic paintings, stock figures that filled court or battle scenes or natural elements that elaborated landscape backgrounds were often copied into a number of compositions from preexisting sketches such as this. Holes were pricked around the image to be copied and transferred onto an underlying paper by dusting charcoal over it.

Artist

Unknown

Date

16th century

Medium

Ink and transparent watercolor on paper

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Gift of Richard Ettinghausen, 1975