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The Young Emperor Akbar Arrests the Insolent Shah Abu’l-Maali, Page from a Manuscript of the Akbarnama

Basawan · Mughal dynasty (1526-1857), c. 1590-1595

Artist: India Designed by Basawan, painted by Shankar
Date: Mughal dynasty (1526-1857), c. 1590-1595
Medium: Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
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
Made in: India
Style: Islamic (culture or style)
Where to see it: Art Institute of Chicago

Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection · CC0 Public Domain · Art Institute of Chicago · image via Wikimedia Commons · see it at the museum ↗

Notes from the museum

This is a page from the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar), a lavishly illustrated manuscript commissioned by the Mughal emperor Akbar (reigned 1556–1605) to document the history of his rule. The scene shows the emperor at age thirteen, three days after his accession. Seated on a gold throne on a carpeted platform, Akbar watches as his late father’s favorite courtier 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 expanded the Mughal Empire, securing and consolidating 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

Text: Art Institute of Chicago (open access). Our full story for this work is coming soon.

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About Basawan

Basāwan Yadav, or Basāvan Yadav, was an Indian miniature painter in the Mughal style. He was known by his contemporaries as a skilled colorist and keen observer of human nature, and for his use of portraiture in the illustrations of Akbarnama, Mughal Emperor, Akbar's official Biography, which is seen as an innovation in Indian art.

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