Page de l'Album tardif de Shah Jahan : Portrait de Maharana Karan Singh du Mewar (r. 1620-1628), le recto calligraphié d'un quatrain signé Mir 'Ali, Iran, XVIème siècle et Inde, art moghol, vers 1650-58

gouache rehaussée d'or et encre sur papier, montée sur une page d'album, le recto calligraphié d'un quatrain en persan, en écriture nasta'liq, en réserve sur un fond enluminé en polychromie et or, signature de Mir 'Ali en bas du texte, les marges finement décorées, en polychromie et or, de tiges fleuries et de petits nuages, au verso, le portrait de Karan Singh, debout, vêtu d'une tunique (jama) orange, coiffé d'un turban rouge, tenant un sabre richement serti de pierres précieuses, sur un fond vert encadré d'un filet blanc, les marges intérieures saumon à motifs floraux or, enserrant un encadrement or sur un fond noir, à décor de rinceaux sinisants, larges marges extérieures, animées de sept personnages, tenant des boucliers et des sabres, séparés par des tiges fleuries, le chiffre 4 inscrit en bas à droite du portrait, et le numéro 14 inscrit en bas à gauche, dans la marge extérieure.

Ancienne collection Mrs Hamilton Rice ;

Acquise lors de la vente à Paris : Me Boscher assisté de l'Expert M. Michel Beurdeley, Collection de Mrs. Hamilton Rice, Palais Galliera, 24 juin 1965, n°32.

Sotheby's, Islamic Works of Art, Carpets and Textiles, Londres, 17 octobre 1984, n°70

Christie's, Islamic Art, Indian Miniatures, Rugs and Carpets, Londres, 20 octobre 1994, n°34

Citée, sans être illustrée, dans : Wright, E., Muraqqa', Imperial Mughal Albums, from the Cheasty Beatty Library Dublin, Art Service International, Alexandria, Virginia, 2008, Appendix 3, n°20, p. 462) 

In good overall condition. Light abrasions to the green background of the central portrait with associated loss to the paint. Damages to borders, mainly to the corners, with old repairs. light strains to the margins. Minor tiny holes to the borders. usual wear to the illuminated calligraphy with minor smudgings. As viewed.
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The Album

This page was taken from the Late Shah Jahan Album which comprises a body of major portraits and their calligraphy folio counterparts generally executed by the Great Master Mir ’Ali al-Harawi. The term “late” comes from the period during which the paintings are supposed to have been assembled. Recent studies indicate that the pages of this album were gathered at the end of the Emperor’s reign, circa 1650–58 (Wright, 2008, p. 107), in view of the numerous portrayals of mid-seventeenth century dignitaries, the representation of an elderly Emperor, and the absence of later royalty portraits.

Nader Shah presumably took the compilation with him to Persia in 1739, after the siege of Delhi. Most of the pages of the album remained untouched, but some folios were set into different margins and integrated into other collections. At the end of the nineteenth century, one of Naser al-Din Shah brothers brought the album to Russia and sold it to an Armenian merchant. The latter took it to France in 1909 where Georges Demotte, an antique dealer, bought it from him (Martin, 1912, 2:85). Demotte took several leaves out of the book and split the front sides from their backs to sell them separately, thus making a significantly higher profit.

If a hundred pages, and probably a hundred and nine pages survived, sadly only nineteen are still complete and display both the portrait and the calligraphy (Wright, 2008, p. 107 and app. 3:462-466).

The Maharana Karan Singh (r. 1620-1628)

Karan Singh was Maharana Amar Singh of Mewar’s son and successor, and Maharana Pratap’s grandson. His son and heir, Jagat Singh, ruled twenty-four years until he died and the kingdom was lost to Emperor Shah Jahan.

In 2005, the folio facing this portrait in the original album was auctioned off at Sotheby’s (Art of the Islamic World, 2005, lot 25). It portrayed Amar Singh of Mewar and was dated AH 1034-1624 AD. On it, a note by the hand of Emperor Jahangir ascribe it to the artist Bishin Das.

The outer margins, on both this page and the one already sold, are identical with the exception of one of the men circling the main portrait. The men in the margin are meant to come as an echo of the main subject.

The black and gold, unique and rare ornamentation of the inner margins of the two folios are exactly the same. The ranas face each other and the margins, when brought next to one another, form a harmonious whole. It is interesting to note that the two ranas are related as Amar Singh was Karan Singh’s father.

Elaine Wright references these folios, without illustrating them or mentioning the relationship between the two sovereigns, as belonging to one of the rare recognized “pairs” of portraits. She has identified eight leaves, including this page and the matching one sold in 2005, as forming four “pairs” (Wright, app. 4, no 2:467). 

The above-mentioned dignitaries are historically linked to the Mughal Empire, and even specifically to Jahangir and Prince Khurram (later known as Emperor Shah Jahan). In 1615, Amar Singh, following the advice of his son Karan, agreed to sign a peace treaty with the Mughal Empire, thus putting an end to decades of war with Jahangir’s armies. At his father’s request, Prince Khurram, had positioned his troops along the Mewar borders and defeated Amar Singh, who then had no choice but to recognize Mughal sovereignty. In exchange for his submission, he was able to keep his land. As Jahangir did not want to humiliate the Rana, he did not insist on him coming to the Mughal Palace to pledge his allegiance, and allowed the former’s son Karan to represent him in Ajmer before Prince Khurram. The young prince rewarded Karan generously, and gave him a superb robe, jewels, as well as a sword richly set with gemstones (Thackston, 1999, 165–167). 

The portrait is true to Maharana Karan Singh. He is depicted wearing an outstanding tunic tied to the right in the Muslim way and holding a saber covered with precious stones. He is probably wearing the gifts that were given to him in Ajmer (Rosemary Crill and Kapil Jariwala, 2010, 130).

A later event reinforced the relationship between Prince Khurram and Karan Singh. In 1622, the Mughal Prince, supported by Mahabat Khan, raised an army against his father. But he was defeated in 1623 at Bilochpur and found shelter on Karan Singh’s land. It is said that in gratitude for his help, the future Shah Jahan exchanged turbans with the Maharana. Jahan’s turban can now be seen in the Pratap Museum in Udaipur (Somani, 1976).

These historical facts, in addition to the homogeneity of the adornments, confirm that the two folios originally faced each other in the album.

It is interesting to notice the fourteen written in Indian numbers outside the margin on the bottom left side of the page. Other leaves display the same type of figures and are all right-sided portraits. There are several theories explaining the numbering. According to one of them, these portraits were produced in small series in order to be integrated into separate albums. To learn more about this topic, see: Wright, 2008, 108 and note no. 10, 135.

The Margins

The magnificence of the inner margins circling Raja Karan’s portrait is particularly meticulous and unique. The gold on black-background frame with spiraling flower buds and flame-like leaves demonstrates an exceptional and rare, if not unparalleled, quality (Wright, 2008, app. 4, II, no. 14 and 20, 467).

The Calligraphy

Mir 'Ali is one of the greatest Persian calligraphy masters. He learned his trade from Zayn al-din Mahmud and Sultan Ali Mashhadi. He worked in Herat until 1528, when the Uzbek invaded the city and 'Ubayd Khan brought him to Bukhara, where Mir 'Ali spent the rest of his life (until the mid-sixteenth century). Qadi Ahmad considered him to be the founder of the nasta'liq script and the initiator of new creative rules (Minorsky, 1959, 126).

 

The calligraphy side of the page is very similar to one that used to be part of the Jean Pozzi collection (but can no longer be located), and which was detached from its portrait (Rheims,1970, no 101). Its inner and outer margins were practically the same to these, and its illuminated triangle register above the poem strongly resembled the present one. The likeness of these elements was essential in identifying “pairs.” The calligraphy folios of the album could not mirror each other because of writing direction, but the matching counterparts could be gathered by finding similar margin patterns and identical illuminations above the texts (Wright, 2008, 120–122).

The plants decorating this page are very close to the ones found on the former Pozzi leaf. And although they do not exactly mirror each other it is reasonable to think that the two pages once formed one of the “pairs.”

Several folios of the Late Shah Jahan Album are conserved in museums and institutions, such as the: Musée du Louvre (two pages; OA 7170 and OA 7156); Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet (four pages; 7164, MA 2473, MA 2471 and MA 3543); and the Cheaster Beatty Library in Dublin which owns about twenty pages of which ten remain intact (Wright, 2008, 366–409, cat. 55–70 and 459-61, app. 2:1–4).