Princes hunting in a rocky landscape

c. 1580–85; borders added c. 1700s

India, Mughal, 16th century

Medium

Ink, slight color, and gold on paper

Measurements

Image: 26.4 x 15.8 cm (10 3/8 x 6 1/4 in.); Overall: 40.5 x 26 cm (15 15/16 x 10 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Edward L. Whittemore Fund 1940.1197

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Location

Not on view

Did You Know?

A hunter with gunpowder pouch hurriedly loads a musket with a scouring stick.

Description

The subdued palette of this tinted drawing belies the dire events of the scene. A group of Mughal nobles out hunting with falcons has chanced upon two lions in the wilderness, and one of the men has been attacked. The bearded figure with the falcon at the upper left and the huntsman about to retrieve a duck caught by one of the trained falcons at the lower left are reminiscent of an earlier work, Hunting with Falcons in a Landscape (CMA 2013.292), painted by a Persian artist. By the time this painting was made Akbar exerted more direct influence on his artists’ work, and it reveals his taste for dramatic action and climactic moments where life and death hang in the balance.