Sturdy, monumental, artfully rounded, richly adorned, and so weighty and well balanced that it could hardly be overturned, this dignified and useful inkpot can be seen as a poetic visual symbol of the empire inherited by Jahangir. If his father, Akbar, commissioned works of art as elements of a dynamic imperial vision, the son did so for delectation and spiritual nourishment. His miniatures, architecture, objects, and autobiography, the Tuzuk-i Jahangiri, reveal him as a responsible–if quirky, warm-blooded, and sometimes cruel–ruler, whose aesthetic concerns left enough time and energy for essential statecraft. Few rulers in world history match his artistic discernment or breadth of taste. He collected pictures and objects from the Islamic world and beyond: Chinese porcelains, Augsburg gilt-bronze statuettes, engravings by Dürer and the Flemish Mannerists, and Renaissance jewels as well as Persian miniatures. On coming to the throne, he released a large proportion of the imperial artists and craftsmen to feudatory courts and to the bazaar workshops, keeping only those whose work met his standards of seriousness and restraint.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Inkpot of the Emperor Jahangir
Maker:Mu'min Jahangir (Indian)
Date:dated 1028 AH/1618–19 CE
Geography:Attributed to India
Medium:Nephrite, gold
Dimensions:H. 2 1/2 in. (6.4 cm) Diam. 3 1/4 in. (7.9 cm)
Classification:Stone
Credit Line:The Sylmaris Collection, Gift of George Coe Graves, 1929
Accession Number:29.145.2
Inkpot of Emperor Jahangir
For years on end, Jahangir never handled a knife, cup, or buckle, never wore a turban, shoe, or robe that would not now grace an art museum. This compact, powerfully rounded jade ink pot, just the right size and weight for ink, and to dip reed pens into without tipping it over, may have been used by the emperor when writing his Tuzuk or signing imperial decrees. Although Jahangir is better known as a lover of painting, he was an equally discerning admirer of useful but superb objects.
In the Tuzuk, objets de vertu are mentioned as frequently as pictures or architecture; and inspecting those made or collected for him was part of his daily round. India's genius for sculpture was expressed during the Mughal period in objects of this sort, which are imbued with the same serious grasp of form and understanding of nature admired in the arts of other periods in less deceptively "ornamental" or even "frivolous" guise.
A very hard stone, difficult and slow to work, nephrite was imported from Khotan and from the K 'un-lun Mountains on the southern border of Sinkiang, where it was found in river beds into which it had tumbled due to erosion. It is still worked by craftsmen in Agra and Varanasi (Banaras). They sit on the ground, first cutting the material into convenient form with a bow saw fitted with two metal strings and an abrasive of sand moistened with water. Shaping and ornamenting is then accomplished with a bow lathe powered by one hand pulling back and forth on the bow while the other holds the object against the cutting wheel. Hollowing out an object such as the inkpot was accomplished with drill-like implements, similarly powered.
Stuart Cary Welch 1985
.
Signature: Signed by Mu'min Jahangir and dated A.H. 1028/A.D. 1618–19 Work of Mumin, the servant (or follower) of Jahangir.
Inscription: Surat-i itmam yaft az Jahangir Shah akbar Shah dar sanat 14 jalus-i Jahangiri mutabiq-i sanat 1028 Hijri [The completion of the form occured under Jahangir Shah, the great, in the 14th year from the coronation of Jahangir the just (corresponding to) the year 1028 of the Hegira (A.D. 1618–19)]
از جهانگیر شاه اکبر شاه/ در سنۀ 14 جلوس جهانگیري/ مطابق سنۀ 1028 هجري/ صورت اتمام یافت
Belongs to Jahānīr shah completed at the year 14th year of sitting on throne which it is equal to the hijri year 1028/ A.D. 1619
On the base
عمل مؤمن جهانگیري
Made by Mū᾽min Jahangir
(A.Ghouchani, 2011)
Lale Kashi Nath, Luchnow, India (until about 1904; to Lall); [ Ganeshi Lall & Son& Son, Agra, India, about 1904–29; to Graves]; George Coe Graves (American)Osterville, MA (1929; gifted to MMA)
New York. Asia Society Galleries. "Calligraphy in the Arts of the Muslim World," January 11, 1979–March 11, 1979, no. 79.
London. Victoria and Albert Museum. "The Indian Heritage: Court life and arts under Mughal rule," April 21, 1982–August 22, 1982, no. 352.
New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Celestial Pen: Islamic Calligraphy," September 28, 1982–February 7, 1983, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "INDIA !," September 14–September 14, 1985, no. 122.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Balcony Calligraphy Exhibition," June 1–October 26, 2009, no catalogue.
"Exhibition of Islamic Jades." Oriental Art, No. 3, vol. XII (Autumn 1966). pp. 202–3.
Skelton, Robert. "The Relations Between the Chinese and Indian Jade Carving Traditions." In The Westward Influence of the Chinese Arts from the 14th to the 18th Century, edited by William Watson. Colloquies on Art and Archaeology in Asia. 3 ed. 1972. p. 104, ill. fig. 27a.
Ettinghausen, Richard. "Islamic Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin vol. 33, no. 1 (Spring 1975). ill. p. 46 (b/w).
Welch, Anthony. Calligraphy in the Arts of the Muslim World. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1979. no. 79, pp. 184–85, ill. (b/w).
"Court Life and Arts Under Mughal Rule." The Burlington Magazine, no. 952, vol. CXXIV (July 1982). ill. fig. 79.
Skelton, Robert. "Court Life and Arts under Mughal Rule." In The Indian Heritage. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982. no. 352, p. 117.
Shu-ping, Teng. Catalogue of a Special Exhibition of Hindustan Jade in the National Palace Museum. 1983. ill. fig. 8.
Welch, Stuart Cary. India: Art and Culture 1300–1900. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1985. no. 122, p. 194, ill. (color).
Welch, Stuart Cary. The Islamic World. vol. 11. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. p. 142, ill. fig. 109 (color).
Schimmel, Annemarie. "Islamic Calligraphy." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., vol. 50, no. 1 (Summer 1992). p. 40, ill. fig. 49 (color).
Melikian-Chirvani, A. S. "Sa'ida-ye Gilani and the Iranian Style Jades of Hindustan." Bulletin of the Asia Institute, New Series, vol. 13 (1999). pp. 120–23, 139, ill. figs. 33, 34, 35.
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