"Spotted Forktail", Folio from the Shah Jahan Album

Abu'l Hasan|Mir 'Ali Haravi

recto: ca. 1610–15; verso ca. 1540 · Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on silk · Islamic Art

Jahangir (r. 1605–27) ordered this portrait of a spotted forktail from Abu'l Hasan, the artist upon whom he bestowed the honorific title "Wonder of the Age." The inscription states that the emperor’s servants hunted this particular bird but does not say whether they killed it or merely captured it before it was portrayed. The silk ground adds a particular luster to the painting, further enhanced by the bird’s shiny eye, which contains glittering chips of a reflective material, probably mica.

Artist

Abu'l Hasan|Mir 'Ali Haravi

Date

recto: ca. 1610–15; verso ca. 1540

Medium

Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on silk

Department

Islamic Art

Credit line

Purchase, Rogers Fund and The Kevorkian Foundation Gift, 1955