Miniature pasted on an album leaf. ‘A young prince with a falcon’

With its glowing colors, lush ve­getation, and elegant, slightly mannered way of depicting the character, this miniature is a good example of visual art as it developed in Bijapur under Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah (r. 1579-1626). Because of his strong personal involvement, many art forms flourished during his long reign, from music and poetry to painting and architecture.

One can detect a measure of influence from the Persian artist Farrukh Beg, who after a period at the court of the Great Mughal Akbar came to the Deccan, where he was active from 1590 to around 1605-1609 and developed a highly personal style.¹

The painting has a poetic undertone and a lack of focus on naturalism, something emphasized by the rich use of gold — not only in the prince’s costly garments and weapons, but also in the landscape and the over-dimensioned falcon’s beak and eyes.

It is uncertain who produced this expressive miniature. A related painting in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin has an inscription with the name Abd al-Karim, but the colors in that work are more garish and the drawing style is harder.²

On the obverse is an 18th century painting of a tall and stylized marigold plant flanked by a pair of much smaller peacocks below and flying peahens above.