The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 17, 2025

Vertically oriented painting depicting animal heads transitioning to leaves, floating against the cream, paper background. Birds scatter the painting on the lower and particularly upper edge. In the lower center, leafy stalks sprout from an elephant head, and ibex, cow, deer, big cat, and more surround, some biting at leaves. Animal heads including a lion, leopards, and donkey create a circle in the center left. Colorful birds arc in a circle around gold just above.

A floral fantasy of animals and birds (Waq-waq)

early 1600s

Mughal India

Gum tempera and gold on paper
Page: 37.6 x 26.6 cm (14 13/16 x 10 1/2 in.)
Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection 2013.319
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

The dragon threatens to singe the boar’s beard.

Description

A magical plant simultaneously brings forth and eats animal life in multiple forms. Playfully rendered, real and mythic creatures ripen on the vine. All stems issue from the elephant, who is about to eat the main branch, while he, in turn, emerges from one that is about to be cut by the teeth of an ibex at the lower right.

This painting would have beguiled courtly connoisseurs who enjoyed discovering visual puns in a royal album. Learned viewers would note that an animal-bearing plant recalls medieval Persian stories about the mythical island of Waq-waq, inhabited by half-plant/half-animal creatures.
  • ?–December 1967
    Motichand Khajanchi, Bikaner, India, to Ralph Benkaim
    December 1967–2013
    Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim Collection
    2013–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Fraser, Marcus. Deccan and Mughal Paintings: The Collection of Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim. Volume 2. England: Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 55, pp. 82–89 library.clevelandart.org
    India 1966: A Pictorial Diary Depicting Indian Birds and Animals [= India 1966: agenda illustre sur les oiseaux et animaux l'Inde = India 1966: ein Bildkalender indischer Vögel und Tiere]. New Delhi: Government of India, 1966. Reproduced: back cover
    Welch, Stuart Cary, and Mark Zebrowski. A Flower from Every Meadow: Indian Paintings from American Collections. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1973. Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 60, frontispiece
    The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors (May 1973). Reproduced: p. 48
    Archives of Asian Art 64, no. 2 (2014): p. 227. Reproduced: p. 227, fig. 13.
    Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie. “Art and Stories: Dazzling paintings and luxurious objects tell tales from Mughal India.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 56, no. 4 (July/August 2016): 5–7. Reproduced: Cover; Mentioned: p. 6 archive.org
    Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016. Reproduced: cat. no. 28, Figure 4.75; Mentioned: pp. 220–222, 319.
    Okada, Amina. Les Animaux Magiques dans la Peinture Indienne. [Paris]: Circonflexe, 2017. Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 7, 10
    Lal, Ruby. Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. Reproduced: color plate after p. 142
    Singh, Kavita, editor. Scent Upon a Southern Breeze: The Synaesthetic Arts of the Deccan. Mumbai, India: Marg Foundation, 2018. Reproduced: fig. 10, p. 101, and back cover
    "Permanent Collection Installations." Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 63, no. 4 (2023): 18–19. Reproduced: p. 18; Mentioned: p. 19 archive.org
  • Nature Supernatural. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 22, 2023-March 3, 2024).
    Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
    Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 31, 2013-June 30, 2014).
    A Flower From Every Meadow. Asia House Gallery, New York, NY; Center for Asian Art and Culture, San Francisco, CA; Albright-Know Gallery of Art, Buffalo, NY (1973)
  • {{cite web|title=A floral fantasy of animals and birds (Waq-waq)|url=false|author=|year=early 1600s|access-date=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.319