Cleveland Museum of Art

A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album

Basavana

Date

c. 1585; inner border added in Allahabad c. 1602; outer border added probably 1900s

Medium

Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper

Culture

Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)

Department

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

As the Mughal atelier grew into the 1580s, Indian artists become increasingly adept at incorporating Persian styles with a new dimensionality and naturalism that Akbar promoted, possibly based on his appreciation of European prints and paintings. Here, a sincere holy man wears robes tinged lightly with blue. He stands beneath a tree in the wilderness with a loyal jackal by his side. A devotee touches his head to his feet. The artist’s tiny signature is written on the alms bowl. Connoisseurs of Persian art in the Islamic world praised an artist’s virtuoso ability to work on a microscopic scale. The dog stares hungrily at the mendicant’s alms bowl, with the artist’s signature.

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