Sale 218 Lot 316B

MONUMENTAL MUGHAL-STYLE COURT PROCESSION SCENE WITH AN EMPEROR Large processional painting, gouache heightened with gilt on cloth, depicting the royal procession (shahi sawari) of a Mughal emperor (possibly of Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar which is likely identified by an inscription), shown enthroned beneath a canopied howdah atop an elephant, flanked by attendants and shaded by a peacock-feather morchal, with a green pennant flying above. The procession continues with further richly decorated elephants each bearing courtiers in canopied howdahs, individually named in Persian/Urdu nasta'liq inscriptions above their figures (possibly including Mirza Mughal, Zauq Dehlvi, Jiwan Bakht, and Zeenat Mahal Begum), accompanied by mounted lancers, foot soldiers bearing swords, shields, standards, and matchlock torches, musicians with drums, and a bullock-drawn covered cart, all processing across a dark ground beneath a plain buff sky, the whole within a continuous inscribed cartouche and a floral meander border. Sight size within mat: 34 3/4 in. x 81 1/2 in.
$800-1,200

CONDITION REPORT: There is overall wear, cockling, and losses to the cloth support consistent with age and size, with some associated retouching; scattered losses to the pigment layer; the border fabric with fraying and minor losses; the frame with rubbing and losses to the painted / gilt surface.