The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Vertically oriented page of an album with a central shape like a stylized gold flower against a light brown background with faint, wispy gold drawings, and with a blue rectangle with gold floral patterns as a border. Blue outlines the radiating petal shapes, detailed with intertwining orange, white, and green lines, further floral shapes adorning the petals themselves. In a central circle a portrait, shoulders up, of Aurangzeb, a man with light skin tone and a fluffy brown beard, sits in profile, hands raised in prayer.

Shamsa (sunburst) with portrait of Aurangzeb (1618–1707), from the Emperor's Album (the Kevorkian Album)

illumination 1640–55; original portrait c. 1640–50; altered after 1658

probably by Bichitr

(Indian, active c. 1615–50)
India, Mughal court, made for Shah Jahan
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Page: 40 x 27.7 cm (15 3/4 x 10 7/8 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 2013.331
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Tooling the gold cloud motif with pinpricks makes it catch more light and shimmer.

Description

This closing page of an imperial Mughal album originally had the shamsa, or sunburst, with a plain gold disc in the center, referencing the light of God as divine sanction for Emperor Shah Jahan’s rule. The depiction of divine light by means of floral and geometric patterns was painted by hand with mathematical precision in gold and lapis lazuli. The portrait of Aurangzeb was probably added when he took over the imperial library after seizing the throne from his father, Shah Jahan, in 1658 and adopting the name Alamgir, which means “Seizer of the Universe.” The string of prayer beads in his right hand points to his extreme religious orthodoxy, which dramatically altered the culture of the Mughal court from what had previously been an openly ecumenical center.
  • December 1967–2013
    Ralph Benkaim [1914–2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    2013–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • 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. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. 58, pp. 237–238
  • Shahzia Sikander: Collective Behavior. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 14-June 8, 2025).
    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).
  • {{cite web|title=Shamsa (sunburst) with portrait of Aurangzeb (1618–1707), from the Emperor's Album (the Kevorkian Album)|url=false|author=Bichitr|year=illumination 1640–55; original portrait c. 1640–50; altered after 1658|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2013.331