Classical Indian paintings from𓆉 a Distinguished New York Private Collection
Auction Closed
March 20, 05:22 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Classical Indian paintings from a Distinguished New York Private C🌊ollection
Opaque water-based pigments on paper
Mounted onto later album fo༺lio with scrolling gold and
gilt sprinkled outer buff ♊borders and ruled lines.
Image size: 6½ by 4 ¾ in., 16.5 by 12 cm
Album folio: 14¼ by 10 in., 36 by 25.5 cm
Collection of Dr. Wilꦜliam K. Ehrenfeld (1934-2005), San Francisco꧟.
Acquired directly from the Ehrenfeld collection by the current owner, 8th December🍒 1988.
Daniel Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, New York, 1985, cat. no. 8.
Indian Miniatures from the Ehrenfeld Collection, The American Federation of the Arts, New York
September 1985 - March 1988.
A simurgh responds to the supplication of two colorful birds. They stand on a mint green ground amidst sprays of flowering plants. Possibly an illustration to the Anvar-i-Suhayli (Chapter I Story XXIII also known as "The Lights of Canopus" a book of fables. The present painting is a version of the "Kalīlah wa-Dimnah" written in Persian by Husayn Va'iz al-Kashivi i𓆏n the 15th Century. The fables were originally written in India and known in Sanskrit as the "Panchatantra".
Intriguingly, when the present painting was exhibited in 1985 as part of the Ehrenfeld Collection, it had been catalogued as Mughal, circa 1590 by the scholar Daniel Ehnbom. However, it is interesting to note that another painting with a very related subject and composition is in the Musee Guimet, Paris (3619 m,a) which is described as being from Bijapur in the Deccan circa 1650 and which bears the signature Isma'il. The scholar Catherine Glynn explains the relationship of Bijapuri subjects and style influencing interacting Deccan, Rajasthani and Mughal painting in Catherine Glynn, 'Bijapur Themes in Bikaner Painting' in A. Topsfield (ed.), Court Painting in Rajasthan, Mumbai, 2000, cat. no. 5
Another closel🔯y related example in the Freer and Sackler Gallery, also depictin꧂g two colorful birds, executed in a similar style with very related sprays of flower blossoms on a flat verdigris ground, originally from the Kirkor Minassian collection (before 1929) described there as being from Golconda in the Deccan. Another interesting comparison is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession number: IS:13:103-1962) of a similar subject and described as being from Golconda in the Deccan in the later 16th Century - the composition of that painting having somewhat more landscape detail.
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