Cleveland Museum of Art

Harem night-bathing scene, from the Late Shah Jahan Album (recto)

Date

c. 1653

Medium

Gum tempera, gold, and ink 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 fully dressed women in the top and bottom border examine strings of pearls and other jewelry pieces while the attendants on the side bring perfumes and containers probably with other jewels for inspection.

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