The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child above, folio from the Salim Album

Unknown

The Virgin Mary with the Christ Child above, folio from the Salim Album. This Christian scene is probably drawn from a European print source. The Persian calligraphy above describes the power of the sun, perhaps referring to Jesus's appearance in the clouds overhead: "if there were a hundred stars in view (ahead), the magnitude of one sun would be greater than that". The Salim Album refers to a group of thirty (known) folios, today dispersed in international collections. These were once part of a small album of paintings and calligraphy, assembled for the Mughal prince Salim (who from 1605 would reign as the emperor Jahangir), probably during the brief years (1600-1604) that he spent in his own court at Allahabad. Eight of these folios are in the Chester Beatty. Although many have been trimmed down, the surviving Salim Album folios share a similar border scheme, of distinctive gold-painted geometric, cloud collar and floral motifs. The art collection mounted in the prince's album deals mainly with single or paired figures, framed by couplets of Persian poetry: these are contemporary court portraits, small compositions adapted from European print media, or studies of spiritual figures. Folio, ink, colours and gold on paper, mounted on gold-painted card, painting of the Virgin Mary standing in a landscape, with a boy holding a cross (Jesus) in the clouds above, Persian verses in nasta`liq script, folio from the Salim Album, assembled Allahabad, India, c. 1600-1605.