TWO MUSICIANS SEATED UNDER A FLOWERING TREE, MUGHAL, HUMAYUN PERIOD, CIRCA 1550

Opaque watercolor with gold on paper, mounted with borders of red and buff paper

India, Art and Culture 1300-1900, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1985

Welch 1985, no.86, pp.146-147

Generally in fair condition. Background, female figure and tree in fair to good condition. Faces of both figures with some discolouration. Yellow pigment of male figure's robe with overall crackelure. Green pigment of musical instrument oxidized. Small patch of uncoloured background paper at lower left abraded.
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This is an extremely rare and highly important example of Mughal painting from the reign of the  Emperor Humayun (r.1530-1556). The stylistic influence of the painting is unmistakably that of the Bukhara school, reflecting the wider Central Asian and Persian influence on the early Mughal artistic output. The distinctive turban of the male figure (the Taj-i Izzat), which is specific to Humayun's close entourage, marks it out as Mughal. In the 1985 catalogue accompanying the exhibition India, Art and Culture 1300-1900, Cary Welch described the painting eloquently as follows:
"Were it not for the characteristic turban unique to Emperor Humayun and his court, this miniature might be ascribed to the Uzbek tradition, centered at Bukhara. Instead, the pleasingly moon-faced musicians, with their deftly drawn bird-beak noses, fingers suitably shaped like plectra, and gracefully arching brows, must be assigned to the little-known early phase of Mughal art. One senses non-Uzbek verve in the lyrically dancing trees keeping time with the music, in the zestful interaction of the lovers, and in the spritely duet of the tambourine and lute." (p.146)

Cary Welch rightly considered this painting to be an absolutely key work of early Mughal painting, and his hand-written notes on the backboard of the frame contain not only lyrical descriptions of the painting, but also striking art-historical insights, including a suggestion that the picture was painted for Mirza Kamran, Humayun's brother. Welch's notes are repoduced here verbatim:

"Musical Lovers: probably painted for Mirza Kamran mid 16th century." "Does this picture contain hints as to art of Babur's court? Does this represent a mode disliked by Akbar?"
"Mirza Kamran: bn 1508/9, mother Gulrukh Begam, Kabul entrusted to him at 18, Bada'uni says M K was brave, ambitious, liberal, good-natured, sound of religion, clear of faith"
"By Dust Mohammad Moghul ca. 1550"
"Kamran Mirza was Babur's second son, in 1530, Humayun conferred on him the government of Kabul, Qandahar, Ghazni and the Punjab. He was blinded at Kabul in 1553 because of his repeated offenses. Later he went to Mecca, where he died in 1556. He left three daughters and one son, Abul Qasim Mirza, who was imprisoned at Gwalior and eventually strangled by Akbar's order in 1565. An excellent poet and connoisseur of poetry. E & D IV, p.498"
"Strong Central Asian element of Uzbek tradition, a style in which artists reveal only moderate interest in most aspects of nature. Not easy, for instance, to identify species of birds and flowers, or to discover much about people, or their ages. Here we can say that the musical pair is young - but they could be anything from 16 or 17 to 25. This lack of concern for the facts of nature contrasts markedly with the character of the Moghul tradition, and it invites speculation as to what Moghul art might have been had Mirza K rather than Humayun been in the seat of power."
"Artist works in bold, sure, precise style markedly individual. Each area of colour separately pleasing as well as appealing in relation to the whole."
"Mood: musical, lyrical, he rapt in his music, she attentive to him."
"Figures large in scale - on white paper, bgd. [background] tinted yellowish cream; a flat world - not one that invites empathy. We "read" the picture rather than sense it. The forms indicate the subject but we do not hear the sound of music."
"Undulating dancing tree - lilting seemingly sways to music of lute and tambourine. Pleasingly moon-faced lovers with happy, bird-like features, his perfectly arched eyebrows, she bemused."
"Boldly composed, clean precision of forms - abstract patterns of blacks, blues, pinks, repeated circles, artfully placed black accents of hair, lute, collars and shoes. Large areas ... smaller, down to tiny 'grace notes' of pearls,  jewels, edges of musical instruments - all contributing to vibrant whole."
"Colour: as in Bathhouse painting powdery blues, blue-greens, brownish red (rusty red). Flipper-like, tiny hands, large bulbous heads. Her face lighter-hued, nose orange, his darker, red brown."
"Line: with sharp point of brush, calligraphic, supple, "snappy", surprisingly graceful, musical."
"Influence of Safavid art in "Chinese" crown of princess and in overall elegance and courtly fripperies."

Other examples of early Mughal art from Humayun's reign are extremely rare, and those showing Bukhara influence even rarer. The most famous painting of Humayun's reign is the large painting known as Princes of the House of Timur, in the British Museum, datable to circa 1550-1555, with later additions (see Seyller 1994), and a small number of pages in the Jahangir Album in the Golestan Palace Library, Tehran and Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin are of the same period (see Tehran 2005, pp.420-421; Welch 1985, no.85, pp.144-5; Canby 1994, pp.20, 35). A drawing of the same period is in the Topkapi Saray Library, Istanbul (see Canby 1994, p.45). All of these are either signed by or attributable to Persian masters of the Safavid court of Shah Tahmasp who had come in to the employ of Humayun during his exile in Iran.

While Bukharan influence on early Mughal painting and the popularity of Bukharan works at the Mughal court is acknowledged (see Beach 1987, pp.37-49, 66-67, 69, 72, 76, 131), surviving early works that exhibit this influence are extremely rare. A key document of this early phase is an album known as the Fitzwilliam Album (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge and a few dispersed pages, see Beach 1987, figs.8, 16, 25-33), which contains an important group of paintings from the 1550s and 1560s, including several in Bukharan style and some in early Mughal style. It has been suggested that at least some of these may be Bukharan originals re-worked by Mughal artists a few years later (see Seyller 1994, pp.69-77, figs.24-26). A miniature in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, of a courting couple is painted in a similar Bukharan style to the present work, although, since the figures are devoid of the distinctive Humayun-style turban, assigning this miniature to the incipent Mughal school rather than the existing Bukharan one is open to debate (Coomaraswamy 1930, pl.XXIV; and Welch 1985, no.86, footnote 1, p.146). A group of Bukhara school miniatures in a copy of Jami's Yusuf va Zuleykha written for Humayun's brother Mirza Kamran have probably been inserted in to the text manuscript at a later date (see Schmitz 1992, II.15, p.114). The present painting is therefore an extremely rare work, which is of central importance to the history of early Mughal painting. For a full discussion of early Mughal painting see Beach 1987.

There are several interesting decorative details in the present painting. One is the small disc of micro-mosaic inlay in the centre of the lute. Another is the form of the brazier in the foreground, and a third is the style of heavy, ornate jewellery worn by the female musician.