A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album
Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560–1600)
c. 1585; inner border added in Allahabad c. 1602; outer border added probably 1900s
- Medium
- Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Page: 32.7 x 21.1 cm (12 7/8 x 8 5/16 in.); Painting: 13.6 x 7.5 cm (5 3/8 x 2 15/16 in.)
- Culture
- Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556–1605)
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Indian and Southeast Asian Art
- Credit line
- Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
As the Mughal atelier grew into the 1580s, Indian artists become increasingly adept at incorporating Persian styles with a new dimensionality and naturalism that Akbar promoted, possibly based on his appreciation of European prints and paintings. Here, a sincere holy man wears robes tinged lightly with blue. He stands beneath a tree in the wilderness with a loyal jackal by his side. A devotee touches his head to his feet. The artist’s tiny signature is written on the alms bowl. Connoisseurs of Persian art in the Islamic world praised an artist’s virtuoso ability to work on a microscopic scale.
