Mahliqa, Daughter of the Emperor of China, Pointing at the Bird-Man Khwaja Mubarak: A Leaf from a Poetical Romance Relating to Shah Alam I (recto)

Cleveland Museum of Art

Mahliqa, Daughter of the Emperor of China, Pointing at the Bird-Man Khwaja Mubarak: A Leaf from a Poetical Romance Relating to Shah Alam I (recto)

Date
c. 1710
Medium
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Culture
Mughal India
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Institution
Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID
170856

From the Cleveland Museum of Art record

A Persian inscription identifies the bird-man in the tree by name, but the text in which he appears remains unidentified. Also unknown is the Chinese princess Mahliqa (“she who has a face like the moon”), named in a Persian inscription written in front of her face. The artist depicts her in the dress of a Mughal court lady, except for the addition of an unusual headdress, and her handmaidens all look Indian. They gesture to the bird-man from the opposite side of a formal garden canal with fountains. A fortified city lies in the distance behind the walled garden, while creatures peer up at the fabulous composite figure from the water below.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
Provenance
March 17, 1988: (Sotheby’s, New York, NY, Indian, Himalayan and South-East Asian Art and Indian Miniatures, 16–17 March 1988, lot 327, sold to Ralph and Catherine Benkaim) | 1988–2013: Ralph Benkaim [1914-2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art | 2013–: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

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