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    Attributed to Miskin
    Buffaloes in Combat, late 16th century
    India
    Ink, gold, and washes on paper; 6 7/8 x 9 1/2 in. (17.5 x 24.1 cm)
    The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1983 (1983.258)

    Curator Comment

    Animal combats were a favorite form of entertainment at the Mughal court, viewed by the emperor, his courtiers, and guests from a terrace or rampart. Miskin, Akbar's best animal painter, may have sketched this scene from life. While he has captured the excitement of the fiercely partisan royal servants on the ground, they look unsubstantial compared to the thrusting power of the buffaloes' bodies. The rounded haunch, long straight line of the back, and bulging shoulder and neck muscles of the animal on the left all point to inexorable victory, already sensed by the other, pushed off balance, a foreleg curling under him. The technique of nimqalam (tinted drawing) used here was consistently practiced alongside the execution of fully painted works during the Mughal period.

    Navina Haidar Haykel, associate curator, Department of Islamic Art

    Provenance

    Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., London, November 24, 1952, lot 107; sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., New York, December 15, 1962, lot 285; Lt.-Col. Wingate Wemyss-Muir, C.B.E., M.V.O; Christian Humann, New York; sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet & Co., June 20, 1983, lot 143.

    Bibliography

    Stuart Cary Welch, "Buffaloes in Combat," in Notable Acquisitions 1983–1984 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984), pp. 6–7; Stuart Cary Welch, India: Art and Culture, 1300–1900 (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985), p. 167; Stuart Cary Welch, The Islamic World (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987), p. 136.

    Related Links

    Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History