Portrait unrecorded
The people behind the art
Active about 1590 to 1640
Attributed to Bishandas; Abu'l Hasan proposed in published scholarship.
Bishandas was a Mughal court painter associated with Emperor Jahangir, working at Allahabad before Jahangir's accession and later at Agra. The British Museum records his activity from about 1590 to about 1640. His birth and death dates are unrecorded. The Smithsonian attributes this painting to Bishandas; the article retains the alternative attribution to Abu'l Hasan discussed in scholarship.
1 artwork in the archive
In the archive
Artist: Attributed to Bishandas; Abu'l Hasan proposed in published scholarship
Two rival rulers sit together in a setting of jewels, vessels, flowers and winged figures. The meeting is imaginary: Jahangir and Shah Abbas never met. A tiny European mechanical sculpture adds another layer to the spectacle. The painting makes hospitality a claim to power, while its later Iranian borders and dispersed album history reveal a journey far beyond the Mughal court.
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