Page 68 - Indian and Himalayan Art Mar 21, 2018 NYC

PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF STAFFORD ELIAS

332
AN ILLUSTRATION TO THE DVADASA
BHAVA: MIR KANAK CONSULTS AN
ASTROLOGER
MUGHAL COURT ARTIST AT ALLAHABAD,
NORTH INDIA, 1600-1605
Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper,
two lines of black nasta’liq above and below, the
reverse with 15ll. black, nasta’liq, colored ruled
margins each side, mounted, framed and glazed
Painting 6¬ x 4¡ in. (17 x 11.3 cm.)
folio 13º x 8 ¬ in. (33.5 x 21.9 cm.)
$30,000-40,000
PROVENANCE
Sotheby’s London, 11 July 1972, part lot 45.
The story on the reverse begins with the narrator
describing how the people insisted he become a
kad-khoda (village headman). Despite originally
declining, in the end he is persuaded. The people
then brought the daughters of the previous ruler
for him to choose one as a wife. After discussing
the custom of sati in the village, of which he
disapproves, he then seeks an astrologer. He asks
the astrologer a number of questions about a ruler
he is seeking and is amazed at the precision and
accuracy of his answers: he is told the ruler is on
his way to China.
This painting illustrates the astrologer using a
“magic mirror” in order to foresee the future. It is a
very rare depiction of one of these mirrors in use.
The artist even depicts the face that appears in the
mirror, presumably that of the absent ruler.
The artist of this painting in the original catalogue
was identifed as “Artist A.” His work is very similar
to that of one or more of the artists on the Chester
Beatty manuscripts noted above. In this scene he
plays unusually with the perspective, such that the
building center right, while nearer than the palace
on the horizon, is rendered much smaller.