European Costume Scene

Description

This painting of European subjects by an unnamed Indian artist depicts an unidentified scene in which two merchants approach a pavilion where a seated lady receives a kneeling holy man unrolling a scroll before her. The figures wear garments associated with different periods, which increases the painting’s ambiguity. The distant cityscape in the upper left corner is a Mughal version of the type introduced into India by Jesuit missionaries who brought gifts of European paintings and engravings.

Provenance

(John D. MacDonald, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (?–1971); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (1971–)

European Costume Scene

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c. 1590–1595

Accession Number

1971.89

Medium

Gum tempera and gold on paper

Dimensions

Image: 21.5 x 13.4 cm (8 7/16 x 5 1/4 in.)

Classification

Painting

Museum

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Cleveland, United States

Credit Line

Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund