The Virgin and Child Attended by Angels
The Virgin Mary and infant Jesus, seated on a floral carpet, are honored with an offering of a plate of fruit, visible in the foreground, consistent with the Hindu devotional practice of prasad (offering). They are attended by three angels, one bearing a gold censer and another with a Chinese-style blue-and-white porcelain bowl decorated with geese. Their feathery bodies and faces resemble those of the peris, or fairies, of Indo-Islamic painting. This hybridity of style and cultural reference is a hallmark of Mughal painting at the turn of the sixteenth century, when European influences in subject matter and technique were being absorbed by court artists such as Manohar. The artist used a tinted drawing method known as nimqalam (half-pen), to create this delicate image.
Artwork Details
- Title: The Virgin and Child Attended by Angels
- Artist: Attributed to Manohar (active ca. 1582–1624)
- Period: Mughal period (1526–1858)
- Date: ca 1600
- Culture: Islamic
- Medium: Brown and blue ink with gold on paper
- Dimensions: Page: H. 12 5/8 in. (32.1 cm)
W. 9 3/16 in. (23.3 cm)
Drawing: H. 6 3/16 in. (15.7 cm)
W. 3 5/16 in. (8.4 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Steven Kossak, The Kronos Collections, 2015
- Object Number: 2015.785
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art
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