Posted on: 27 October 2012

Relief portrait bust of Shahjahan
Mughal India, second quarter of the 17th century
Alabaster with remains of gilding and polychromy
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

The Mughal empire encompassed large parts of the Indian sub-continent (India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh) from 1526 to the mid-nineteenth century. The rulers were the Great Moguls. In fact the name Mogol and Grand Mogul were coined by Europeans in India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They thought that this dynasty came from Mongolia (Central Asia). The Grand Moguls referred to their own dynasty as the Timurids, after the Central Asian conqueror Timur or Tamberlaine (d. 1405); the title they gave themselves was Padishah, not Grand Mogul. A number of the Mughal emperors contributed significantly to the development of art and architecture in the empire. These included Akbar, Jahangir and Shah Jahan.

Source: The Rijksmuseum, Netherlands


 View Post on Facebook

Comments from Facebook

If it is done in 2nd quarter of 17th century it is almost contemporary as he died at Agra Fort in 1664 or 1666. He does look like his paintings in Mughal Miniatures.

neat one...

Extraordinary skill debased to such an unworthy subject! With great power comes great insecurity and the need to leave behind impressions for posterity of the egotistical self?

A gift, perhaps? :-)

Stolen property

Exquisite carving. Years ago, 1974, while I was living in London and selling antiques, a man asked if I wanted to work for him in Delhi at the National Museum there. He said the Museum was in total disarray, there was no catalog system and artifacts were being stolen regularly by the staff there.

Why is this in The Netherlands???