Cleveland Museum of Art
A royal ram with a gold chain
- Date
- c. 1585; border added probably 1700s
- Medium
- Gum tempera and gold on paper
- Culture
- India, Mughal
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
The ram in this painting is a particularly well-groomed animal that was probably kept in the royal menagerie and attended to by special keepers. The puffs of hair on the ram’s back have been colored with henna, and he wears a decorative chain of bells across his chest. The Mughal rulers collected and exhibited specimens of various animals from their territories out of a scientific interest as well as a desire to display the extent of their influence over the land and its inhabitants. Sheep with black and white markings like this are called Jacob sheep.
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