c. 1595-1600
This composition of the Virgin and Child, painted after a Flemish engraving by Antonius Wierix dated 1584, is attributed to an unnamed Portuguese artist brought by the Jesuit mission to the court of Mughal emperor Akbar in 1595. The Jesuits mistook the Mughals’ appetite for Christian iconography as an openness to convert to Catholicism, when in fact such images were exploited to articulate Akbar’s religious policy of “universal peace” (sulh-i kull) with all faiths. Mary (Maryam) is venerated by Muslims as well as Christians. An entire chapter in the Qurʾan is dedicated to her as the mother of Jesus (ʿIsa), the penultimate prophet before Muhammad. She is exalted as the woman chosen “over all women of the world” (Qurʾan 3:42). Furthermore, the Mughals linked the virgin birth to that of Queen Alanqua, a mother figure of the Mongols to whom their ancestry was traced. The title Maryam was conferred on the mothers of Akbar and Jahangir, and the motif of Mary and Jesus provided a visual parallel to the queen mother and emperor in the Mughal royal lineage. The combination of these factors helped elevate the Virgin Mary to a special place in Mughal painting during this period, as Mughal artists reinterpreted Marian imagery based on European prints and paintings, and presumably, they would have learned from visiting European painters such as the Portuguese artist of this painting.
image with border: 42 x 26.5 cm (16 9/16 x 10 7/16 in.)
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
18th centuryIndianOpaque watercolor and gold on paper
19th centuryIslamicInk, color, and gold on paper
18th centuryIndianOpaque watercolor and gold on paper
19th centuryIndianWatercolor, black chalk, blue colored pencil with touches of graphite on off-white wove paper; pricked (recto); Brown ink with touches of pink ink on off-white wove papers (verso); Note: drawings mounted overall with colored paper borders (verso)
19th centuryPersianInk, opaque watercolor and gold on paper
17th centuryIndianOpaque watercolor on paper
19th centuryIndianInk, wash, and gold on paper
16th centuryPersianInk, opaque watercolor and gold on paper
16th-17th centuryPersianOpaque watercolor on paper
19th centuryIndianRelief monoprint on off-white glossy coated wove paper
19th centuryPersianOpaque watercolor and gold on paper
17th centuryIndian