MUGHAL INDIA, LATE 17TH CENTURY

The wide blue margins of this album page, with their gold scrolling arabesque decoration, are similar in terms of style and size with folios from the St. Petersburg Muraqqa’. The margins on this album page are not signed which is unusual for the St. Petersburg Album. The St. Petersburg album contains a wide variety of Mughal paintings mostly ranging in date from the early 16th century right up until the end of the 17th century. The way in which this album page is split between two scenes is also characteristic of the way works were mounted into the famous album. The St. Petersburg Album travelled from India to Iran and the margins and calligraphy date from the 18th century when it was mounted up in its present form. A folio from the St. Petersburg Muraqqa’ depicting ladies visiting a yogini and a lady preparing for her lover which has two paintings mounted side by side in a similar fashion to this album page is dated slightly later than our present work to the early 18th Century by Stuart Carey Welch, (Francesca von Habsburg et al., The St. Petersburg Muraqqa', Lugano, 1996, pl. 13, fl 61 recto, p. 52). A folio from the St. Petersburg Muraqqa’ that depicts a scene of women bathing under trees inspired by European prints which is closely related to our present album page was sold in these Rooms, 25 April 2013, lot 49. It is probable that this album page was originally from the St. Petersburg album but the fact that the margins are unsigned makes it possible that this is from a closely related album which also travelled from India to Iran.