Akbar

ca. 1590-95 · Painting · 33 × 20 cm

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Victoria and Albert Museum

London, Vereinigtes Königreich

Es gehört zur Sammlung, ist derzeit aber nicht ausgestellt.

Geprüft: vor 7 Tagen
Unverändert seit: 25. Sept. 2026
Quelle: Sammlungsdaten des Museums selbst

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About the painting

This illustration by the Mughal court artists Basawan and Tara the Elder to the Akbarnama (Book of Akbar) depicts the Mughal emperor Akbar (r.1556–1605) slaying a tiger near Narwar, central India, in 1561. The royal entourage disturbed a female tiger, who sprang out from the forest and lashed out to protect her five cubs. The emperor’s companions were said to have frozen in terror, but the emperor reacted instantly, killing the tigress with one blow of his sword. His men then killed the five offspring. The event is depicted over two pages, the other page being Museum no. IS 2:18-1896. The image is overlaid by a Persian text panel.

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The Akbarnama was commissioned by Akbar as the official chronicle of his reign. It was written in Persian by his court historian and biographer, Abu’l Fazl, between 1590 and 1596, and the V&A’s partial copy of the manuscript is thought to have been illustrated between about 1592 and 1595. This is thought to be the earliest illustrated version of the text, and drew upon the expertise of some of the best royal artists of the time. Many of these are listed by Abu’l Fazl in the third volume of the text, the A’in-i Akbari, and some of these names appear in the V&A illustrations, written in red ink beneath the pictures, showing that this was a royal copy made for Akbar himself. After his death, the manuscript remained in the library of his son Jahangir, from whom it was inherited by Shah Jahan.

The V&A purchased the manuscript in 1896 from Frances Clarke, the widow of Major General John Clarke, who bought it in India while serving as Commissioner of Oudh between 1858 and 1862.

Victoria and Albert Museum