Cleveland Museum of Art
A Princess and Demons before a Nobleman: A Leaf from a Poetical Romance Relating to Shah Alam I (recto)
- Date
- c. 1710
- Medium
- Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Culture
- Mughal India
- Department
- Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
The source story of this painting remains enigmatic to scholars, but it includes a range of depictions of the “other”––from the foreign to the demonic. A prince kneeling in front of his horse addresses a lady; the moon in front of her face may identify her as Mahliqa (“moonlike” in Arabic), the Chinese princess identified by inscription on the adjacent page. A group of men whose eyes hang vertically stand behind her. Horned figures with grass skirts lie slain behind them, presumably killed by the kneeling prince conspicuously holding a bow. The city in the background, at the top of the painting, is populated solely by women, and its eight surrounding walls are interspersed with slain composite creatures wearing leaf skirts, which may identify them as bands of forest-dwellers, or tribal groups.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.
A Princess and Demons before a Nobleman: A Leaf from a Poetical Romance Relating to Shah Alam I (recto); Stenciled Scenes of Lion and Gazelle (verso)
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)
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 (verso); Stenciled Scenes of Lion and Gazelle (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art
Leaf from the Late Shah Jahan Album: Harem Night-Bathing Scene (recto); Calligraphy Framed by an Ornamental Border of Flowers and Birds (verso)
Cleveland Museum of Art
A princess reclining on a terrace with attendants
Cleveland Museum of Art
A blindfolded suitor is brought before a princess (recto)
Cleveland Museum of Art
A blindfolded suitor is brought before a princess; verso: scrolling floral vines
Cleveland Museum of Art
The prince rejects the amorous advances of the king’s handmaiden, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighth Night
Cleveland Museum of Art
The king of Bahilistan offers his daughter to the King of Kings, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Seventh Night
Cleveland Museum of Art
The merchant’s daughter encounters a wolf and bandits on her way to meet the gardener in order to keep her promise, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Twelfth Night
Cleveland Museum of Art
A Mounted Prince Hunting Lion in a Rocky Landscape
Cleveland Museum of Art
Nikfal, the fortune of the prince in the form of a woman, offers to accompany him, from a Tuti-nama (Tales of a Parrot): Eighteenth Night
Cleveland Museum of Art