Court Lady Pouring Wine (recto); Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains (verso)

c. 1760; borders mid-1700s

Maker Unknown

Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Court Lady Pouring Wine (recto); Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains (verso), c. 1760; borders mid-1700s. Mughal India, probably Lucknow. Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; page: 30.6 x 25 cm (12 1/16 x 9 13/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.348 The bird-headed decanter evokes blood rites of kingship in pre-Islamic Iran.

Original Source

Maker/Artist: Maker Unknown
Classification: Painting
Formatted Medium: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Medium: gum, tempera, ink, gold, paper
Dimensions: Page: 30.6 x 25 cm (12 1/16 x 9 13/16 in.)
Inscribed: Inscription: verso: Persian verses in nasta‘liq script. Whoever set eyes on the Opening Verses of your face recited “Say He is the Only God” and breathed it out in pure sincerity. “God has made her grow in purity and beauty,” So recited and passed by Khizr, the moment he saw the green [pubescent] sprouting around your lips. Inscription: verso: Persian verses in top horizontal border, right to left, in nasta‘liq script. My heart became shackled to her tresses; You have lost your head in fulfilling this desire. Go and become entangled in her tresses. If you see her mouth, do not say a word. Inscription: verso: Persian verses in bottom horizontal border, right to left, in nasta‘liq script. If she asks you what you desire, say “your heart.” Since once she knows it, one could never banish her from one’s heart. For one cannot assure one’s heart based on her words of promise; It is not fitting that one should lose one’s heart for naught. Inscription: verso: Persian verses in right vertical border, top to bottom, in nasta‘liq script. From the anguished mood and state of this sorrowful heart, Narrate down the story as you brush down her tresses [conjectural] Of me, in an unfit state, shackled and in chains How I fare in that stifling prison. If you go and seek her out in that abode Once you find her, you should say of me, the heartbroken. Inscription: verso: Persian verses in left vertical border, bottom to top, in nasta‘liq script. I have a heart ensnared by her tresses Exiled in foreign lands [. . .] of her tresses The tale of this broken-hearted soul, like disheveled hair Bring to her ears in a well-composed manner, like well-arranged hair Enchain her tresses in your speech Brush her locks behind her for a while.
Departments: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Accession Number: 2013.348
Credit Line: Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection
Exhibitions: Art and Stories from Mughal India, <em>Beauty in Asia</em>. Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (May 3-September 23, 2007).
Rights Statement: CC0