Notes on a Folio from the Gulshan Album in the Collection of the Náprstek Museum, Prague

Abstract

In 2015 the Naprstek Museum, in cooperation with the National Library of the Czech Republic, carried out a conservation survey of two rare folios from the Gulshan Album of the Mughal emperor Jahāngīr which form part of the Naprstek Museum’s Indian collection. During the survey an unknown signature by the painter Āqā Rezā was discovered in the border of one of them. The new finding was the impetus for this study, looking at the folio in more detail. In addition to the introductory part, which looks at the form and function of illustrated albums in the Mughal Empire, the study describes in detail both a miniature on one side of the folio and the calligraphy and border with human figures on the other side, and explains the relationship between them.