This painting is one of only a few known portraits of Sultan ‘Ali ‘Adil Shah II of Bijapur, India (r. 1656–72). It depicts the ruler engaged in a demonstration of his hunting prowess-- iconography meant to illustrate his role as a strong leader. In reality the sultan was met with continual infiltrations by the rival Mughals and Marathas, and eventually left the affairs of the state to his minister. This fragmentary painting captures a moment when the sultan used his patronage of the arts to project an image of himself as an ideal and convincing ruler.
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Credit Line:Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions, Harris Brisbane Dick, and 2020 Benefit Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks, Lila Acheson Wallace, and Friends of Islamic Art Gifts; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and funds from various donors, 2022
Accession Number:2022.199
Sultan 'Ali 'Adil Shah II Slays a Tiger
The Bombay Painter was a powerful force in Bijapur's final phase of painting, in which he captured his patron 'Ali 'Adil Shah II (reigned 1656–72) in several opulent works. In this fragmentary painting, 'Ali II is resplendent in gold as he draws his bow to discharge a second arrow on a tiger crouching on the rocks. The rising golden finial below is thought to be either from the tail of a griffin or lion stand or an element from a royal barge.[1] Either case would indicate an unusual iconography for such a subject. Several allusions have been read into this image, including a reference to ancient Middle Eastern friezes and Gupta-era coinage of kings slaughtering lions, symbols that must have held meaning for the ruler.[2] The small size of the tiger suggests hierarchical scaling rather than distant perspective, while the hidden grotesques in the rock are a throwback to an earlier Persian convention.
An inscription on a woman's portrait from a dispersed Bijapur album by the same artist—'abdul hamid naqqash or 'amal-i (work of) muhammad naqqash—provides the Bombay Painter's name.[4] Blunt features, including well-articulated, reddened lips and a prominent eye with a sweeping brow, are marked qualities of his portraits. His influence made its way to the Rajput court of Kishangarh, where several of the Bombay Painter's work somehow arrived by the end of the seventeenth century, paving the way for the curvaceous eye and elongated nose to become major hallmarks of the eighteenth-century painting style of Nihal Chand.[5]
'Ali II reigned as the penultimate ruler of Bijapur for sixteen years. Plagued by pressure from the rising strength of the Marathas under Shivaji in the west and the relentless pressure of the Mughals from the north, he nevertheless managed to maintain active patronage of the arts. Some of the most evocative painted works of the Deccan come from his age.
Navina Haidar in [Haidar and Sardar 2015]
Footnotes:
1. Zebrowski, Mark. Deccani Painting. London: Sotheby's; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983, p. 140; Welch, S.C. India: Art and Culture, 1300–1900. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985, p. 307.
2. S.C. Welch 1985 (see note 1), p. 307.
4. Zebrowski 1983 (see note 1), p. 143, ill. no. 112; Okada, Amina. "Miniatures of the Sultanates of Bijapur and Golconda in the Museé Guimet," Orientations 22, no. 5 (May), 1991, pp. 112–13.
5. Zebrowski 1983 (see note 1), p. 142, ill. no. 111.
Collection of Martha Lyon Slater; Offered at Christie's London, 24 April 1980 by her estate (Lot 55) and purchased by Stuart Cary Welch (1928-2008); Collection of Stuart Cary Welch until 2008; By bequest to his family; Purchased by Howard Hodgkin at Stuart Cary Welch sale, Sotheby's London 6 April 2011 (Lot 113)
Martha Lyon Slater, New York (until d. 1977); her estate sale, Christie's, London, 24 April 1980, lot 55 (to Welch); Stuart Cary Welch, Warner, N.H. (1980–2011); his sale, Sotheby's, London, 6 April 2011, lot 113 (to Hodgkin); Howard Hodgkin, London (2011–d. 2017); Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust, London (2017–2022; sold to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy," April 20–July 26, 2015.
Barrett, Douglas. "Some Unpublished Deccan Miniatures." Lalit Kala No. VII (April 1960). p. 13 and color frontispiece.
Skelton, Robert. "Indian Painting of the Mughal Period." In The Keir Collection, Islamic Painting & The Arts of the Book. Vol. V. London, 1976. no. 101, pp. 272–73.
"24 April 1980." In Important Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and Miniatures. London, 1980. lot 55, p. 27, ill. (b/w).
Zebrowski, Mark. Deccani Painting. Berkeley, CA: Sotheby Publications, 1983. p. 142, ill. fig. 110.
Welch, Stuart Cary. India: Art and Culture 1300–1900. New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1985. no. 205, pp. 306–07, ill. (color).
Michell, George, and Marc Zebrowski. "Art and Architecture of the Deccan Sultanates." In The New Cambridge History of India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. p. 188, ill. fig. 138.
Nayeem, M. A. The Heritage of the Adil Shahis of Bijapur. Hyderabad Publishers, 2008. p. 281, no. 28.
Michell, George, and Mark Zebrowski. The Architecture and Art of the Deccan Sultanates. The New Cambridge History of India. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. p. 188, ill. fig. 138.
"Sotheby's London, 6 April, 2011." In The Stuart Cary Welch Sale Part I: Arts of the Islamic World. London: Sotheby's, London, April 6, 2011. lot 113, pp. 152–53, ill.
Topsfield, Andrew. "The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, February 2-–April 22, 2012." In Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2012. no. 37, pp. 96–97, ill. cover and p. 97.
Guy, John, and Navina Haidar. Indian Skies : The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting (Winter 2024). pp. 22–23, ill. fig. 23.
Haidar, Navina, and Marika Sardar. "Opulence and Fantasy." In Sultans of Deccan India 1500–1700. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015. no. 66, pp. 148–150, ill.
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