Cleveland Museum of Art

Simeon Kneels in Front of Mary and Jesus after Recognizing Them (folio 40 recto), 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

Simeon had heard a prophecy that he would encounter the Messiah with his mother in the temple at Jerusalem. This painting depicts his moment of recognition that the prophecy had come true. The temple is populated by Jewish teachers and scholars, and a number of unusual visual elements. A dragon-headed vase is set by the stairs, and niches for vases flank the entrance, possibly in reference to Mary’s status as a vessel for the divine. The form of the temple itself seems to be an imaginative combination of Hindu temple architecture and a Mughal palace. A man in the lower left offers grapes to a dog.

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