Mother and Child with a White Cat: Folio from a Jahangir Album
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This anonymous work has been attributed by Beach to Manohar and by Welch, Brand and Lowry, and Okada to Basawan. The chromatic subtlety, beautifully realized drapery, and sophisticated handling of linear perspective are worthy of both these artists. The subject matter clearly is inspired by multiple European models; the woman’s windswept drapery echoes that of the Pietas Regia depicted on the second frontispiece of the Royal Polyglot Bible, which was adapted to a reclining nursing posture, hence prompting the Virgin and Child identification. The four-cartouche inscription has no overt Christian associations, making this identification tenuous, although such imagery is undoubtedly embedded in this composition’s multifarious sources.
Artwork Details
- Title: Mother and Child with a White Cat: Folio from a Jahangir Album
- Artist: Attributed to Manohar (active ca. 1582–1624) or Basawan
- Date: ca. 1598
- Culture: India (Mughal court at Delhi)
- Medium: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
- Dimensions: Page: 14 9/16 x 9 5/8 in. (37 x 24.4 cm)
Painting: 8 9/16 x 5 3/8 in. (21.7 x 13.7 cm)
Framed: 27 1/8 x 21 1/8 in. (68.9 x 53.7 cm) - Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Lent by The San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, 1990.293
- Rights and Reproduction: The San Diego Museum of Art, Edwin Binney 3rd Collection
- Curatorial Department: Asian Art