The Patched Cloak of the Celestial Sphere

By Karen Rosenberg, "An Emperors’ Art: Small, Refined, Jewel Toned" - The New York Times - New York, NY, USA
Friday, July 18, 2008

Muraqqa is the Persian term for a patched garment traditionally worn by Sufi mystics as a sign of poverty and humility.

Yet it is also the word for a gilded and lavishly calligraphed album.

This type of muraqqa, a luxury object from the Mughal empire in India, is a patchwork of imagery: portraits of emperors and courtiers, Eastern mystics and Western religious figures; examples of plant and animal life.

For just two more weeks muraqqa commissioned by the Mughal emperors Jahangir (ruled 1605-1627) and his son Shah Jahan (ruled 1627-1658) will be on view at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of theSmithsonian Institute here [Washington DC].

“Muraqqa: Imperial Mughal Albums” showcases 82 rarely seen paintings from six albums. These muraqqa are indeed patchworks, of the most elegant and refined variety.

Accompanied by an informative (and, at 528 pages, intimidating) catalog, the show inaugurates a yearlong festival of India-related programming at the Sackler and Freer Galleries of Asian art that will include performances, films and an exhibition in the fall titled “Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur.”

The works in “Muraqqa” were collected by the American-born industrialist and philanthropist Alfred Chester Beatty (1875-1968), who established a library in Dublin for these and other treasures.

One imagines that Beatty, a mining magnate, was drawn not only to the jewel tones and gilded surfaces of Mughal paintings, but also to their intimations of empire.

Formal and informal portraiture, naturalism, spirituality, worldly extravagance and history are condensed into images no bigger than a notebook. (The museum has thoughtfully provided magnifying glasses.)

A typical album is composed of folios, or double-sided sheets, made up of several layers of paper pasted together. Each folio pairs a painting with a section of calligraphy, both surrounded by decorative borders; the relationship of image and text varies from illustration to loose association.

While the paintings in “Muraqqa” are by many different artists, much of the text can be credited to the famed calligrapher Mir Ali of Herat, who often signed his works in abject fashion, “the sinful slave Mir Ali the scribe” or “the poor Ali.” His voice, sometimes plaintive and sometimes mocking, is as distinct as his handiwork.

(...)

Bridging the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan are 19 folios from the Minto album, a collection of 40 folios currently divided between the Chester Beatty Library and the Victoria and Albert Museum [in London, UK]. Among the most lavish in the show, these folios are distinguished by elaborate, gilded borders of flowering plants.

(...)

In a portrait that hangs in the final gallery of the exhibition the Sufi shaykh Shah Dawlat wears a short patched shawl. The garment’s colors echo the red-and-yellow border of the painting, linking one type of muraqqa to another.

A preface by Mir Ali, reproduced in the catalog, comes to mind: “As long as the patched cloak of the celestial sphere contains the sun and moon, may this album be the object of your perpetual gaze.”

“Muraqqa: Imperial Mughal Albums From the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin” continues through Aug. 3 at the Smithsonian Institution, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave., SW, Washington; (202) 633-1000, asia.si.edu.

[Pictures: left, "Mu'in al-Din Chishti Holding a Globe" from the Minto album. Painting by Bichitr and calligraphy by Mir'Ali; right, "Majnun in the Wilderness" from the album of Shah Jahan (circa 1640-45).
See more images at http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2008/07/18/arts/0718-MUGH_index.html].