Description
Without reading the text, it would be difficult to identify the adorers as shepherds, because they are clothed as Portuguese merchants with ruffed collars and broad-brimmed hats. Mary stands with her divine newborn in a fenced enclosure, evocative of a sacred or royal space within a rather palatial setting, complete with pseudo-Ionic columns and heavy red draperies. The two books on the floor indicated to the Mughals that Christians, like Muslims, revere a definitive sacred scripture such as the Bible or the Koran.
Provenance
An Indian family in Great Britain, whose grandfather brought the manuscript to England in the 1930s or 1940s (before 1930s–2005); (Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) (2005); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (2005–)
The Adoration of the Shepherds, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
1602–4
Accession Number
2005.145.30.a
Medium
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 26.2 x 15.6 cm (10 5/16 x 6 1/8 in.); Image: 20 x 11.2 cm (7 7/8 x 4 7/16 in.)
Classification
Manuscript
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund
