CDS (I) 2020 General Knowledge · Question 59 of 120

Correct — B, Abul Hasan. The painting is the allegory of about 1618 in which Jahangir, standing on a lion, embraces Shah Abbas of Persia, who stands on a lamb, the two of them on a globe with a haloed sun behind. It is the work of Abu'l Hasan, whom Jahangir titled Nadir-uz-Zaman, the Wonder of the Age, in 1618 in a note written on the frontispiece of his own memoirs. The painter's own account is that the picture came out of a dream. What it says is political rather than documentary: the two rulers were rivals over Qandahar and never in fact met, and the composition makes the Mughal much the larger figure, pushing the Safavid to the edge of the world. The picture is in the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington.

• (a)Abd al-Samad — A generation and more too early. Abd al-Samad came from Safavid Tabriz to work for Humayun and then for Akbar, where he supervised the Hamzanama. He is a founder of the Mughal atelier, not a painter of Jahangir's allegories.
• (c)Dasavant — Akbar's celebrated painter, singled out by Abul Fazl in the Ain-i-Akbari, and dead before the end of Akbar's reign. He belongs to the narrative manuscript painting of the sixteenth century.
• (d)Bishandas — The strongest distractor in the set, and worth knowing exactly why. Bishandas was the portraitist Jahangir actually sent to Persia with the embassy of Khan Alam, and he drew Shah Abbas from life. So he is the painter with the real connection to the Safavid king — but the dream allegory of the embrace is Abu'l Hasan's.

Jahangir's reign is the point at which Mughal painting turns from illustrating manuscripts to making single portraits and political allegories, produced as album leaves rather than book pages. The emperor was a close judge of the work and claimed he could tell which hand had painted which face in a group picture. The allegorical portraits — Jahangir preferring a Sufi shaykh to kings, Jahangir shooting the head of Malik Ambar, this embrace of Shah Abbas — are the signature form of the period.

Sort the four names by reign and most of the difficulty goes. Abd al-Samad belongs to Humayun and Akbar, Dasavant to Akbar, and Abu'l Hasan and Bishandas to Jahangir. That leaves two, and the split between them is the one the examiner wants: Bishandas went to Isfahan and painted Shah Abbas from life, while Abu'l Hasan stayed at the Mughal court and painted the imagined meeting. Note the spellings the paper uses — Abul Hasan, Dasavant, Bishandas — which vary between textbooks and are not the point being tested.

• Abu'l Hasan, about 1589 to about 1630, was titled Nadir-uz-Zaman by Jahangir in 1618.
• His allegory of about 1618 shows Jahangir on a lion embracing Shah Abbas on a lamb, and is in the Freer Gallery of Art.
• The painter said the composition came to him in a dream; the two rulers were rivals over Qandahar and never met.
• Bishandas travelled to the Safavid court with the embassy of Khan Alam and drew Shah Abbas from life.
• Abd al-Samad came from Tabriz to serve Humayun and Akbar; Dasavant was Akbar's celebrated painter.

• Choosing Bishandas because he really did paint Shah Abbas; the dream allegory is by Abu'l Hasan.
• Placing Abd al-Samad or Dasavant in Jahangir's reign; both belong to the sixteenth century.

As a painter-to-painting or painter-to-emperor match, or as a statement-set on the character of Jahangir's atelier.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Which Mughal painter was sent to the Safavid court with the embassy of Khan Alam and drew Shah Abbas from life?

  • (a)Abu'l Hasan
  • (b)Mansur
  • (c)Bishandas
  • (d)Basawan

  Answer(c) Bishandas — Jahangir sent him to Persia specifically to bring back a likeness of Shah Abbas.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The title Nadir-uz-Zaman, meaning Wonder of the Age, was conferred by Jahangir on which one of the following?

  • (a)Mansur, the painter of birds and animals
  • (b)Abu'l Hasan, the painter
  • (c)Abd al-Samad
  • (d)Dasavant

  Answer(b) Abu'l Hasan, the painter — Jahangir gave him the title in 1618; Mansur was titled Nadir-ul-Asr.