This young beauty seen through a cusped arch has been idealized as the daughter of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. The convention of a woman holding a parakeet is seen in Deccani painting and textiles and is also known from a long-standing tradition in Indian sculpture; here the prominent use of gold is typical of Deccani taste. The bird sits on the maiden’s henna-reddened fingers, each one of which is separately adorned by a diamond ring.
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Title:A Bejewelled Maiden with a Parakeet
Date:ca. 1670–1700
Geography:Made in India, Golconda, Deccan
Medium:Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
Dimensions:Image: H. 8 3/4 in. (22.2 cm) W. 12 1/2 in. (31.8 cm)
Classification:Codices
Credit Line:Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, 2011
Accession Number:2011.585
Bejeweled Maiden with a Parakeet
Seen through a cusped arch, this young beauty holding a parakeet in her jeweled hand is perhaps an allegory for the gul-o-bulbul, or the rose and nightingale. In Persian mystical poetry, the nightingale was the traditional lover of the rose, symbolized here by the beautiful girl.[1] Pink roses cover the golden cloth under the maiden’s left arm, and her trousers are adorned with pink flowers on a gold ground, further reinforcing this symbolism. An inscription identifies her as Zib al-Nisa, daughter of Emperor ‘Alamgir (reigned 1658–1707), but this is likely a later addition. In a comparable, mirror-reversed composition in the San Diego Museum of Art (1990.489), the woman does not wear garments ornamented with roses, but her transparent blouse is rose-colored. These two works belong to a larger group of similar compositions, including an example in the Cincinnati Art Museum and one in a private collection.[2]
Courtney Stewart in (Haidar and Sardar 2015)
Footnotes:
1- Zebrowski, Mark, "Deccani Painting". London: Sotheby’s; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983, p. 201.
2- See Seated Lady Holding a Flower, Cincinnati Art Museum (1991.139); for the work in a private collection, see Kramrisch, Stella, "Painted Delight: Indian Paintings in Philadelphia Collections. Exh. cat. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1986, p. 37, no. 32.
Inscription: Inscribed in Persian: tasvir-i zib al-nisa dakhtar-i ˓Alamgir Portrait of Zib al-Nisa, daughter of 'Alamgir
[ John Lawrence Fine Arts Inc., London, until 1990; sold to Polsky]; Cynthia Hazen Polsky, New York (1990–2011; gifted to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy," April 20–July 26, 2015, no. 172.
Topsfield, Andrew. "Selections from the Polsky Collections and the Metropolitan Museum of Art." In In the Realms of Gods and Kings: Arts of India. New York, 2004. no. 142, pp. 322–23, ill. p. 323 (color).
Haidar, Navina, and Marika Sardar. "Opulence and Fantasy." In Sultans of Deccan India 1500–1700. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015. no. 172, p. 296, ill. (color).
Muhi al-Din Lari (Iranian or Indian, died 1521 or 1526/27)
dated 1089 AH/1678 CE
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