The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 25, 2024
A prince riding a composite elephant
c. 1590
Page: 28.8 x 18.6 cm (11 5/16 x 7 5/16 in.); Painting: 14.5 x 11 cm (5 11/16 x 4 5/16 in.)
Location: not on view
Did You Know?
Two lions share one head at the top of the elephant’s head.Description
A prince sits cross-legged in a covered howdah seat secured to the back of a royal elephant with golden rings on its tusks. The elephant is being driven by attendants, one of whom holds a goad. Artists in the southern Indian region known as the Deccan expanded upon Persian practices of embedding creatures in landscape scenes—like a visual double-entendre—and created inventive images of composite creatures made up of figures that invite extended close looking. This painting would have been mounted in an album that was brought out for entertainment in elite intimate gatherings.- Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).The Cleveland Museum of Art (7/31/2016-10/23/2016); Art and Stories from Mughal India, cat. 15, p. 225.
- {{cite web|title=A prince riding a composite elephant|url=false|author=|year=c. 1590|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.282