Posted on: 15 December 2011

Shah Jahan and Dara Shikoh

By Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn
Dutch, Amsterdam, 1654 - 1656
Pen and brown ink and brown wash, heightened with white bodycolor, on Japanese paper

Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn made twenty-five "Indian drawings," based on miniatures from the Mughal Empire that he saw in a Dutch collection and presumably studied over a long period. Adopting some aspects of the extremely precise manner of these miniatures--so unlike his usual loose, evocative style of draftsmanship--Rembrandt nonetheless enlivened the figures' poses by giving them more sense of action than did the Mughal style. Despite their looseness, his lines present the figures in the three-quarter body and profile head view common in Indian painting.

A contemporary of Rembrandt known for his building campaigns and as a patron of art, the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan is recognizable from his characteristic dress and face--and the aureole, which distinguished portrayals of Mughal rulers beginning with his father's reign. This depiction resembles the many portraits in the illustrated history that Shah Jahan commissioned of his reign. In characteristic Mughal fashion, he rather stiffly faces his eldest and most beloved son, Dara Shikoh. The falcon represents the popular courtly sport of hunting, often depicted in Mughal art.

Source : J. Paul Getty Museum


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superb!!!!!!!

beautiful !

beautiful

Wow! I didn't realize that the famous Rembrandt had also drawn Shah Jahan and Dara Shikoh. Thank you.

Yes..it is such a surprise ! Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn A LIFE SHROUDED IN MYSTERY Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn was born in 1606 and died in 1669. One of the supreme geniuses in the history of art, he is almost a separate dimension in Dutch art. His influence was felt in nearly every branch of it, and has recurred inexhaustibly in the history of art ever since. ...Dutch fortunes in the 17th century were principally made in shipping. Fully half of Europe's trade was carried in Dutch freighters. Holland possessed two thousand merchant ships, each with a capacity as high as 1000 tons. In 1602, the United East India Company was established to trade with Java and the Spice Islands (for indigo, rice, cinnamon, cloves and other rare and exotic spices). The year 1641 is the year in which the Dutch gained control of Malacca. With this victory came unlimited access to the aforementioned islands and their valuable trade routes. By 1650, the United East India Company's stock certificates were showing profits of 500 percent a year. Meanwhile, in the Americas, the West India Company traded with Brazil, Guiana and the Caribbean Islands for sugar and mahogany. Holland was also a leader in the slave trade. The Dutch imported approximately 15,000 black African slaves a year and sold them for an enormous profit to the Americas.... Read more : http://www.mama.org/exhibits/oldmast/rembrandt/