#basawan

"A Muslim Pilgrim Learns a Lesson in Piety from a Brahman", Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) of Amir Khusrau Dihlavi

Basawan and Suraj Gujrati. Illustration from Baburnama or Memoirs of Babur, ca. 183-1530.

Ascetics Making Bhang, Basawan, c. 1585, Harvard Art Museums: Drawings

This small drawing depicts four youths in a wooded setting. Three are handling pots and a basket while a fourth peers down from behind a tree. The figures are nude, covered if at all, only by wavy hair. A dog, with crossed forelegs observes from the ri... Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch Size: 16.7 x 8.8 cm (6 9/16 x 3 7/16 in.) Medium: Black and brown ink on off-white paper

Nath Yogi and Dog, Basawan, c. 1590, Harvard Art Museums: Drawings

This small drawing depicts a mendicant with companion dog. Leaning on his staff with open mouth, the mendicant gestures skyward. His prominent earring suggests he belongs to the Kanphata order, which takes its name, kan (ear) phata (split) from the lar... Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch Size: 26.2 x 26.6 cm (10 5/16 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Black ink and watercolor on beige paper

Nath Yogi and Dog, Basawan, c. 1590, Harvard Art Museums: Drawings

This small drawing depicts a mendicant with companion dog. Leaning on his staff with open mouth, the mendicant gestures skyward. His prominent earring suggests he belongs to the Kanphata order, which takes its name, kan (ear) phata (split) from the lar... Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, The Stuart Cary Welch Collection, Gift of Edith I. Welch in memory of Stuart Cary Welch Size: 26.2 x 26.6 cm (10 5/16 x 10 1/2 in.) Medium: Black ink and watercolor on beige paper

The Young Emperor Akbar Arrests the Insolent Shah Abu’l-Maali, page from a manuscript of the Akbarnama, Basawan, 1585, Art Institute of Chicago: Asian Art

This is a page from the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), a lavishly illustrated manuscript commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) to document the history of his rule. The scene depicts the emperor at age thirteen, three days after his accession. Seated on a gold throne placed on a carpeted platform, Akbar watches as his late father’s favorite is arrested for his insolent behavior toward the young emperor. The setting—a tented encampment pitched in a garden—is significant, for Akbar spent much of his reign on the move. Through his active campaigning and strong administrative skills, he greatly expanded the Mughal Empire, consolidating and securing it for his successors. In addition, he was a great patron of the arts, initiating a new style of painting and establishing a vast atelier and library. One of the new themes the emperor encouraged was the painting of historical manuscripts such as the Akbarnama. Commissioned in 1589, it was written by court historian and biographer Abu’l Fazl between 1590 and 1596. Simultaneously, a workshop of about fifty artists illustrated the text. Basawan, the designer of this painting, whose signature appears in the lower margin in red, was one of the studio’s leading painters. He was particularly skilled in portraiture and is known to have painted the faces of the young emperor and the two other figures in front of him: the regent Bairam Khan, who is standing, and the disgraced Shah Abu’l-Ma'ali, who crouches in a red robe. He also painted some of the nearby scenery, which attracted his interest; each painting was collaborative work and could take up to a month to complete. Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection Size: Image: 32 × 19.3 cm (12 5/8 × 7 9/16 in.); Outermost border: 33 × 19.6 cm (13 × 7 11/16 in.); Page: 34.4 × 20 cm (13 1/2 × 7 7/8 in.) Medium: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper

A leaf from Emperor Akbar's royal copy of the Jami al-Tawarikh of Rashid al-Din Fazlullah Hamadani (d.1318 AD): Burghul Nuyan killed on the battlefield, attributed to Basawan and Bhim Gujarati, India, Mughal, circa 1596