This diminutive painting depicts Sultan Ibrahim ‘Adil Shah of Bijapur on the back of an elephant surrounded by attendants. The Sultan appears in royal finery amid a procession of attendants who surround the ruler with royal emblems including parasols, banners and scarves. This detailed work in miniature is attributed to the school of 'Ali Riza, who was a master of shading and stippling, techniques found here in the lively elephants.
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Credit Line:Howard Hodgkin Collection, Purchase, Florence and Herbert Irving Acquisitions, Harris Brisbane Dick, and 2020 Benefit Funds; Howard S. and Nancy Marks, Lila Acheson Wallace, and Friends of Islamic Art Gifts; Louis V. Bell, Harris Brisbane Dick, Fletcher, and Rogers Funds and Joseph Pulitzer Bequest; and funds from various donors, 2022
Accession Number:2022.207
Sultan Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II in Procession
The similarities between this diminutive painting of Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II (reigned 1580–1627) in a procession of elephants and the far larger Sultan Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II Riding an Elephant under a Canopy (fig. 52 in this volume), which is signed by 'Ali Riza, suggest that this example is a product of 'Ali Riza's school, perhaps by the master's pupil.[1] In terms of subject matter, the two works recall the portraits of Ibrahim riding elephants by Farrukh Husain (cat. 31 in this volume). However, whereas Farrukh adopted jewel-like colors to create ethereal landscapes, 'Ali Riza and his followers used refined line to record the material culture of Bijapur. Visible in this painting are many examples of Deccani portable arts, including a spiraling spittoon (cat. 51 in this volume); elephant goads (ankusha); a palanquin finial in the shape of a lotus (similar to that in cat. 142 in this volume); a lobed container for preserving a precious item; incense burners topped with peacocks; a red textile decorated with stripes and dots recalling Ottoman chintamani designs (see the one on Atash Khan in cat. 31 in this volume); and bejeweled necklace pendants (urbasi). Comparable snapshots of Bijapur's decorative arts are visible in fig. 52 in this volume, which includes a quintessentially Deccani canopy embellished with peacock-shaped finials and an ostrich egg (cat. 46 in this volume), water troughs similar to those in the Bijapur Archeological Museum, and two-pronged tridents identical to extant examples. Although incomplete—the artist did not finish his alterations to Ibrahim, which entailed turning his head—and often described as a "tinted drawing," Sultan Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II Riding an Elephant under a Canopy includes fine passages of gold paint in keeping with the signature cartouche.[2] In terms of composition and technique, it closely parallels the Bodleian Painter's Dervish Receiving a Visitor (cat. 38 in this volume), which depicts a sufi shrine in a similarly naturalistic yet contrived mode, and therefore lends further credence to the argument that 'Ali Riza and the Bodleian Painter may be one and the same.[3] Considered together, the dervish and elephant paintings epitomize the artist's divergent approaches to representing Ibrahim—an ascetic devotee versus a wealthy ruler—while simultaneously bearing the hallmarks of his realistic draftmanship (underdrawing, shading, pigment layering, and translucency). They also complicate the traditional divide between Deccani and Mughal painting, with the former presumed to be fantastical and dreamlike in contrast to the latter's naturalism and historicism.
Keelan Overton in [Haidar and Sardar 2015]
Footnotes:
1. For the attribution of this painting to a member of 'Ali Riza's school, see Overton, Keelan. "A Collector and His Portrait: Book Arts and Painting for Ibrahim 'Adil Shah II of Bijapur (r. 1580–1627)." PhD diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 2011, p. 281. Arguments in support of the master himself could be viable; at this stage, a definite conclusion cannot be reached.
2. For what was likely a preparatory sketch for the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, drawing, with Ibrahim's head facing the opposite direction, see Falk, Toby, and Mildred Archer. Indian Miniatures in the India Office Library. London: Sotheby Park Bernet; Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1981, no. 467. See also further discussion in Overton 2011 (see note 1), pp. 281–82.
3. For comparisons of the elephant and dervish paintings as well as the artist's commitment to "contrived accuracy" and " illusionary realism," see Overton, Keelan. "Ali Riza (The Bodleian Painter)." In Masters of Indian Painting, edited by Milo Cleveland Beach, Eberhard Fischer, and B. N. Goswamy, vol. 1, 1100–1650, 2011, p. 385, Artibus Asiae, Supplementum 48, Zurich; Artibus Asiae Publishers; Overton 2011 (see note 1), pp. 279–80; Overton, Keelan. "'Maid Killing a Snake' and 'Dervish Receiving a Visitor': A Re-Examination of Bijapuri Masterpieces through the lens of the Lucknow Copy." In Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition, edited by Alka Patel and Karen Leonard 2012, pp. 49–53. Leiden: Brill.
sale, Sotheby's, London, 10 October 1988, lot 40; sale, Christie's, London, 4 October 2012, lot 201 (to Hodgkin); Howard Hodgkin, London (2012–d. 2017); Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust, London (2017–2022; sold to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Sultans of Deccan India, 1500–1700: Opulence and Fantasy," April 20–July 26, 2015.
"London, 10 October 1988." In Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures. London: Sotheby's, London, 1988. lot 40, pp. 14, 64, ill. p. 64, pl. I (color).
"London, 4 October 2012." In Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds. London: Christie's, London, 2012. lot 201, ill. pp. 2, 118–19
.
Guy, John, and Navina Haidar. Indian Skies : The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting (Winter 2024). pp. 19, 22, ill. fig. 20.
Haidar, Navina, and Marika Sardar. "Opulence and Fantasy." In Sultans of Deccan India 1500–1700. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2015. no. 47, pp. 124–25, ill.
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