INDIA, circa 1800 - Lot 33

INDIA, circa 1800 Album page with a portrait of a Sufi sheikh Polychrome pigments and gold on paper. A Sufi saint with a halo is seated in a meditative position on a green carpet, hands folded on his thighs, gazing into the distance. He wears a turban with golden bangs and a long yellow striped garment, curved and buttoned in gold. Beside him lie a tesbih rosary, a manuscript and a dervish's staff. Behind him, twilight shines over a wooded mountain. The painting is framed by two friezes of gold-painted floral motifs on a bluish and cream background. Traces of black oxidation are visible on the figure's face and hands. Miniature: 20 x 13.5 cm Page: 27.5 x 19.5 cm 500/700 The old Mughal album page mount is visible on the back, where we note the presence of a quatrain written in in elegant black ta'liq calligraphy in clouds on a gilded background, framed by a succession of friezes (partly cropped) of floral motifs. of gold-painted floral motifs on a cream or blue background. The quatrain is signed Abdollah al-Yazdi. From the mid-17th century onwards, portraits of Muslim clerics proliferated at the Mughal court. two of Emperor Shah Jahan's children joined a Sufi order: Princess Jahanara Begum, and her brother Dara Shikoh. The emperor's favorite daughter commissioned numerous paintings of living Muslim saints, including portraits of her Sufi master, the famous Mulla Shah. Portraits of mystics, previously less widespread and mainly for historical purposes, became a kind of meditation aid in North India, and became a tradition that lasted for centuries. For an article on portraits of Sufi saints as a tool for meditation in Mughal India, see the article: M. K. Mumtaz, "Contemplating the Face of the Master. Portraits of Sufi Saints as Aids to Meditation in Seventeenth-Century Mughal India", Ars Orientalis, n° 50, 2020, pp. 106-128.