Woman playing a zither (drawing, recto) after a European source; calligraphy (verso) by an unknown artist

Govardhan (active ca. 1596-1640) (attributed to)

Item type:

drawing

Date of creation:

ca. 1610

Height:

27.0 cm  (10 5/8 in.)

Width:

18.1 cm  (7 1/8 in.)

Technique / Medium:

black ink, opaque watercolor and gold on beige paper

Place of creation:

Bhārat [India]

School:

Mughal

Description

Description from museum website:
The recto of this album folio depicts a woman seated outdoors on an elaborately decorated chair, as she sings and plays the zither. Clad in European garments, her facial features and jewelry are clearly Indian, as is the pillow on which she rests her foot. The chair is ornamented with figures in European garb, some of which suggest Christian themes. A bushy-tailed animal, perhaps a cat, crouches just behind the chair. The landscape features architecture, rocky outcroppings, and trees of quite different scale. The top band and right side of the drawing are made on a different piece of paper. The verso of this folio holds a calligraphic composition consisting of two couplets of Persian poetry written in nasta’liq script in diagonal format.

Iconclass

48CC7325
dulcimer, zither - CC - out of doors
48CC7522
one person playing string instrument (plucked) - CC - out of doors

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Zither [3729] (possibly a qanun)

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

Notes

Inscriptions and marks from museum website:
inscription: Verso: “May your pomp and rank increase daily, May the whole world be your cavalry and army, May every place be the dust of your path, May your refuge be in the shadow of God's grace.” Translation by Sunil Sharma.
At the lower left corner of the page one may read part of the name of the calligrapher “Abdallah”, however, that area was badly damaged.

RIdIM record id

5796