Remarkable photographic album beautifully reproducing the paintings from the Shah Jahan Album, also known as the Kevorkian Album. The album, compiled by the Mughal emperor Jahangir (1569-1627) and his son, Shah Jahan (1592-1666), contains miniatures from the best painters of the Mughal era, such as Govardhan, Mansur, Daulat, Payag, and Chitarman, with calligraphic text by famous calligraphers such as Mir' Ali Haravi. The 50 exquisite photographs accurately reproduce the details of the original miniatures, highlighting the iconographic and stylistic richness of Mughal art.
Mughal albums (also known as muraqqa) usually included existing works in the patrons collection, as well as works created specifically for the album, such as paintings and drawings, folios from preparatory pattern books, and calligraphy specimens. They were not bought ready-made, but compiled over a longer period of time by its owners. Emperor Jahangir commissioned the first folios for the Shah Jahan Album around 1620, and his son continued after his death. Shah Jahan's additions are stylistically different from Jahangir's, with more portraits and illumination, and the inclusion of calligraphy pages. After his death, the muraqqa, now with 39 miniatures, passed onto his son Aurangzeb (1618-1707), who did not commission any more folios. The muraqqa left the royal library in the early 19th century and was likely acquired by an art dealer from Delhi, who added 11 miniatures around 1820. These were made in the 19th century, but imitated the 17th-century style of the others. In the 20th century, the muraqqa was bought by the New York art dealer Hagop Kevorkian, who sold 9 folios to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, and the remaining 41 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where they still reside.
The spectacular Shah Jahan Album is a collection of 50 single-page paintings, which include intimate nature studies, and portraits of the royal family and various dignitaries, framed by a beautiful floral border. Each painting is faced by a single page of illuminated calligraphy, made by renowned calligraphers. The photographs in the present work, each mounted in a passepartout, carefully reproduce the single-page paintings and three of the four calligraphic pages that open the collection. They are accompanied by a foreword and a short description of each painting, which appear to be taken from an auction catalogue and were likely added later. A valuable testament to the interest in Mughal art in the 20th century, this collection constitutes a seemingly unique iconographic resource, as we have not been able to find another copy. There is no mention of a publisher or photographer, but the quality of the prints suggests careful production, intended for, and commissioned by, a scholar or collector specialising in Indian art. The present copy was part of the collection of Dr Ebadollah Bahari (1929-2018), noted historian of Persian art, author of Bihzad, master of Persian painting (1996), and benefactor of the Bahari Curatorship of Persian Collections at the Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford.
The boards have been rubbed, with minor loss of material on the back board of both volumes, the joints are slightly weakened, but the structural integrity of the bindings is still intact. Some of the mounted descriptions are lightly foxed. Otherwise in good condition.