eastiseverywhere: centuriespast: Nan va Halva (Breads and Sweets)Author: Muhammad Baha’ al-Din

eastiseverywhere:

centuriespast:

Nan va Halva (Breads and Sweets)
Author: Muhammad Baha’ al-Din al-‘Amili (1547–1620)
Object Name: Illustrated manuscript
Date: ca. 1690
Geography: India, Deccan, Aurangabad
Culture: Islamic
Medium: Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper Binding: leather

The Metropolitan Museum

The Metsays:

The text of this book is a series of moralizing poems on the merits of the ascetic life, three of which are illustrated. The painting illustrates the parable of a recluse who accepts bread from an infidel (depicted here as the English monarch Charles II) and is chided by a dog. The beautiful birds in the margin of the page compete for attention with the witty illustration.