Mirza Tahamtan at the age of twelve, with a teacher and fellow pupils (cat.13)
Deccan, Golconda, circa 1685
Opaque watercolor with gold on paper
Verso: Inscription in Persian tasvir-e baradar-e 'aziz mirza tahamtan dar senn-e davazdah salegi (portrait of brother
Mirza Tahamtan at the age of twelve)
Miniature: 10¼ x 7½ in (26 x 19 cm)
Provenance:
Acquired from Shawn Ghassemi, San Francisco, April 2007
This miniature shows a princely pupil being schooled by a wise sheikh. The main figure is identified in an
inscription on the reverse at Mirza Tahamtan, and tells us that he is aged twelve. He wears a gold tunic and a
gold turban, from which hang down his cheek two fashionable long curls of hair. With him are two fellow pupils
and several books and a calligrapher’s box lie scattered on the floor. The terrace is set in a garden with grass,
flowers and a fountain with ducks in the foreground, and trees in the background.
There appears to be no record of a prince of this name at Golconda at this period. There were several earlier
dignitaries with the name Tahamtan (Persian: “strength, power”), including an Indian king at the end of the 14th
century. However, the fact that his head is surrounded by a gold nimbus certainly indicates that he is of royal, or
at least very noble birth. The use of a nimbus in Golconda portraiture was reserved for sultans or princes, either
of the Qutb Shahi dynasty or the Mughal. In literary manuscripts, religious figures from the past, such as Old
Testament prophets or important figures from early Islamic history would be accorded a nimbus, but in
portraiture it was for royalty only. Even the revered local sufi saint Shah Raju was depicted without a halo in a
well-known equestrian portrait (see Zebrowski 1983, fig.161, p.196; Sotheby’s 2011, lot 127).
The bright palette in this picture, with a dominant use of pale blue, white and gold, is quite distinctive, as are
the rather square profile faces of Mirza Tahamtan and his fellow pupil at the lower right. In these aspects the
painting relates to several other Golconda works of the period. A generally close comparison can be found in a
portrait of Iraj Khan with two attendants (British Library, IOL Collections, Johnson Album, 64.26, see Falk and
Archer 1981, no.462), Two Women on a Terrace (Brooklyn Museum of Art, 78.260.4, see Poster et al 1994,
no.116, described as a Bikaner work, but this author feels Golconda is more likely), while a related, but simpler
scene of Pir Ashraf Salun is in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, London (Mss.461, see Leach 1998, no.76,
pp.252-3). The rather square faces can be found in An officer smoking on a terrace (Ashmolean Museum, Howard
Hodgkin Collection, see Zebrowski 1983, fig.190, p.219, Overton 2011, fig.14, p.389) and Sultans of Golconda
(Salar Jang Museum, Hyderabad, see Zebrowski 1983, fig.191, p.220). An extensive album illustrating Niccolo
Manucci’s History of the Mogul Dynasty in India from Tamerlane to Aurangzeb, painted at Golconda between 1678
and 1686 provides a number of comparisons among its fifty-four paintings (Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris,
Estampes, Reserve Od 45 pet, see Hurel 2010, no.226, pp.156-166). However, while the palette and general
style is akin (see for instance, Hurel 2010, fig.226-13, p.163), the present work is executed in a more refined
and delicate manner, evident in flowers in the foreground.