Cleveland Museum of Art

Leaf from the Late Shah Jahan Album: Harem Night-Bathing Scene (recto); Calligraphy Framed by an Ornamental Border of Flowers and Birds (verso)

Date

c. 1650

Medium

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

Culture

Mughal India, court of Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–58)

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The subject of women bathing persisted throughout the 1500s and into the 1600s. Akbar’s grandson Shah Jahan—the Mughal emperor who built the Taj Mahal—continued to support the work of artists in the imperial atelier. His taste was more formal and subdued, without as much interest in illuminations of fantastic tales. This scene is a single painting mounted in an album. The white marble terraces glow under the moonlight. An attendant carrying a cloth over one arm looks on with awe at the beauty of the scene. He is probably a eunuch, since men were not permitted to serve in the women’s quarters of a Mughal palace. The lone male figure points to his mouth in a gesture of astonishment, perhaps at the beauty of the scene.

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