A Sufi Spiritual Concert, attributed to Hunhar, India, Mughal, circa 1650-60

Nana Phadnavis, Pune (1742-1800)

probably A.C. Ardeshir, Bombay, 1920s

Wilhelm Uhde Collection (1874-1947)

Oriental Splendour, Islamic Art from German Private Collections, Hamburg, 18 June - 22 August 1993

Dazzling Visions, Mughal and Deccani Paintings from the Collection of Konrad and Eva Seitz, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 30 November 2010 - 10 April 2011

J. Seyller and K. Seitz, Eva and Konrad Seitz Collection of Indian miniatures, Mughal & Deccani paintings, Zurich, 2010, p.61, no.14

C.P. Haase (ed.), Oriental Splendour, Islamic Art from German Private Collections, Hamburg, 1993, p.274, no.189c

The painting depicts a Sufi sama', a mystical concert, with a group of holy men and musicians seated in a circle on a reed mat, some singing and some in a trance like state, lost in their own meditative world.

An inscription below one of the holy man reveals one of the participants to be Hazrat Shaykh Sa'di (1213-91), the famous Persian poet. Seyller has identified an earlier painting by Abu'l Hasan depicting Sa'di with Jahangir in the Walters Art Museum (see Beach 1978, no.27) as the source of this image. The figure in the four pointed Central Asian hat and the standing figure alongside is also lifted from same painting by Abu'l Hasan (Seyller 2010, p.63). The white-bearded bald-headed man crouching in the foreground is seen in a number of Mughal paintings of the period including A Pious Conclave (see Mehta 1924, pl.40). His bare head, hunched form and down cast gaze is derived from European engravings that would have been in circulation within the Mughal court at the time. Seyller has managed to identify the exact prototype, an engraving by Jan Sadeler dated 1582, that shows a seated Joseph in Holy Family Journeying to Nazareth, that was in the Jahangir album. In both the present painting and A Pious Conclave the figure wears a distinctive robe that is secured at the shoulder exposing his upper arm that Seyller believes is a reinterpretation of Joseph's clothing in the Sadeler engraving (ibid.). This copying of figures from European art was a common feature of Mughal painting particularly from 1615-60. The central white-bearded singing figure is likely to be a representation of Shaykh Salim al-Din Chishti (1479-1572).

During this period Mughal artists often portrayed fabled holy men from the past as if they were still alive. Thus the present work, like others of the genre didn't depict an actual meeting but instead represented an imaginary and idealised assembly (Beach 2012, p.164). This concept has been explored in an article by Murad Khan Mumtaz who explains the importance of holy men as devotional images - as icons whose contemplation aided the visualisation of the spiritual master, and through them of God (Mumtaz 2020).

The painting displays the stylistic tendencies of several Mughal masters including Abu'l Hasan, Govardhan and Bichitr, however Seyller concludes that Hunhar is the most likely painter due to the simplified use of line (Seyller 2010, p.63). Hunhar painted in a manner that was reminiscent of Bichitr however he was not so meticulous when it came to detail. Hunhar whose career began in the late 1640s and ended in around 1690 was primarily known for his courtly portraits.

The reed mat decorated with a distinctive red-chequered pattern is known as a chata'i and is seen in other seventeenth-century Mughal paintings of holy men; see A Meeting of Sages circa 1670 in the Aga Khan museum (Canby 1998, no.113), and also a painting of Dara Shikoh with a group of holy men, attributed to Govardhan and formerly in the collection of Stuart Cary Welch, sold in these rooms, 25 October 2023, lot 20.

This folio once belonged to the Ardeshir album that was assembled during the reign of Muhammad Shah (1719-48) by the Maratha Peshwa, Nana Phadnavis. Characterised by wide margins decorated with a floral gold trellis pattern that Beach compares to the Padshahnama. The album takes its name from A.C. Ardeshir, who was a Parsi from Bombay who acquired the album in the 1920s. The majority of the album was sold and dispersed through Sotheby's on 26 March 1973. The present folio was not in the 1973 sale and so must have been disbound before it was sold at Sotheby's or acquired by Ardeshir.