Cleveland Museum of Art
Mary and Joseph Travel to Bethlehem (folio 24 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
- Date
- 1602–4
- Medium
- Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Culture
- Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim (1569–1627)
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 163665
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Joseph leads the heavily pregnant Mary riding on a camel. In the text Father Jerome wrote that Mary rode a “pack beast,” so the Indian artist opted to portray her on a camel. An ox in the foreground carries their belongings, and the bent trees indicate the journey’s harsh conditions. They are on the way to Bethlehem, the city of King David, from whom Joseph was descended, in order to register for a census. Father Jerome often emphasized the royal lineage of Jesus, apparently in an effort to impress the Mughals. Wearing a green coat, Joseph carries a sword over his shoulder, suggesting that he is ready to face any potential trouble.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Provenance
- before 1930s–2005: An Indian family in Great Britain, whose grandfather brought the manuscript to England in the 1930s or 1940s | 2005: (Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) | 2005–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.