Composite Album Page with Standing Figure of Jahangir
Not on view
This folio from an album contains three separate compositions of the seventeenth century. On the upper part is a standing portrait of the Mughal emperor Jahangir and an unidentified Mughal courtier. Below is a composition which captures the interaction between the elephant family. While the exacting observation of individuals elephants was the hallmark of Mughal painting, Deccan artists were much more interested in their behavior and emotions. The calf reaches its trunk up to its father, while its mother gently caresses its back with hers, the three elephants thus interlocked in a circle of familial care and connection to which any human family can relate.