Tobias and the Angel, attributable to Manohar, Mughal, circa 1610

brush and ink heightened with gold and colour on paper, laid down on an album page with inner borders of gold scrolling flowers, wider outer margins filled with a repeating flower pattern in gold

Kasmin Ltd., London
Acquired in 1967

A Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, Drawings of Flora and Fauna 1630-1830, Eyre & Hobhouse Ltd, London, 1983

Okada 1988, pp.8-9, fig.6.
Eyre & Hobhouse 1983, no.51

In very good overall condition, upper edge of album page slightly trimmed, as viewed.
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This small but intense drawing, like lots 3 and 10 in this catalogue, depicts a variation on the Biblical story of Tobias and the Angel, which was a popular theme in early Mughal art. Attributable to Manohar, one of the great Mughal artists of the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, it reflects Emperor Akbar’s strong interest in different religions and artistic traditions. The arrival at the Mughal court of engravings by or after European artists, initially through the missionary activity of the Jesuits, raised the pictorial as well as religious curiosity of the Emperor, who encouraged his artists to be influenced both iconographically and stylistically by European works.

The present work is a combination of European iconography gleaned from engravings and Biblical illustrations circulating in India in the late-sixteenth and early-seventeenth century, and like the other versions of this scene in this catalogue, shows elements from different western and Indian sources. In the Biblical story (Book of Tobit, chapters 5-6), the young Tobias, son of Tobit, is sent by his father from Nineveh to the Median city of Rages (modern Rayy) to collect a debt. The angel Raphael, disguised in human form, offers to accompany Tobias, an offer readily accepted by both father and son. They set out, and on reaching the river Tigris, Tobias goes to the water's edge to wash, where he is confronted by a huge fish. The angel advises him to catch the fish by the gills and bring it ashore, which Tobias does. On the angel's advice he then guts the fish, preserves the heart, liver and gallbladder for warding off evil spirits and cooks the rest of the fish. In this version the main figure has become female, has no angel's wings and lifts her skirt in a rather un-angelic manner, while the smaller figure of the young Tobias is depicted semi-nude, wearing a Bhil skirt and sporting angel's wings. As well as images of the Biblical story itself, the other likely sources for these variants are engravings such as Sebald Beham's Infortunium and Marten de Voss's Luxuria, both of the sixteenth century and both of which show a classically-dressed (or undressed in the case of Luxuria) female figure raising her skirt up her thigh, while a figure of Infortunium by Beham also shows the raising of the skirt in this manner. A very similar figure to the present one, albeit male and with wings, can be seen in a background wall painting in an illustration in the 1595 British Library Khamsa of Nizami (the Dyson-Perrins Nizami), see Okada 1992, p.130, no.143. The figure of the young boy probably derives from a figure of Cupid or a putti in a European print, who are often shown nude or semi-nude and have small wings. The leafy skirt worn by the boy relates to those worn by the Bhil tribes in India. The winged figure of the boy and the idiosyncratic inclusion of the Bhil skirt relate to the iconography of another of the scenes of Tobias and the Angel in this catalogue, also attributable to Manohar (lot 10). For a discussion of the theme of Tobias and the Angel in Mughal painting, see Okada 1988, pp.5-12.

Manohar was one of the leading artists of the ateliers of Akbar and Jahangir. Glenn Lowry describes him as "subtle and extremely gifted" (Beach 1978, p.130). Born in the 1560s, he was the son of the great master Basawan (see lot 90) and inherited not only his father's talent, but also some of his stylistic traits, which were further honed by working alongside his father in his early years. His career spanned approximately four decades and he was a prolific painter. Verma lists 114 surviving signed or attributed works in his biographical account (Verma 1994, pp.248-259). The earliest dated work by him is a self-portrait in a manuscript of the Gulistan of Sa'di (Royal Asiatic Society, see Okada 1992, pp.138-9), when he must still have been a teenager. Manohar joined his father in the court atelier of the Emperor Akbar in the 1580s and it was at this time that he and his father produced their versions after European prints. Lowry points out that, whereas Basawan was interested in volume, recession and roundness of form, his son Manohar was more concerned with line and surface pattern (Beach 1978, p.131). This observation is borne out by the present work. For further discussion of the artist see Lowry in Beach 1978, pp.130-7; McInerney in Pal et al. 1991, pp.53-68; Okada 1992, pp.136-147; Seyller in Beach, Fischer and Goswamy 2011, vol.I, pp.135-152.

As well as the two other versions of Tobias and the Angel in the present sale (lots 3 and 10). related scenes can be found as follows: Okada 1989, pp.208-211, nos.64-65; Okada 1992, p.102, no.109; Leach 1995, vol.I, pp.143-4, no.1.239.