This exhibition is in the past. View our current exhibitions.
An album of calligraphy and painting
c.1600
The Persian name for an album of paintings and calligraphy is muraqqa, derived from the Arabic word for ‘patchwork’. This reflects the collage-like quality of an album in which each page is made up of several sheets of paper, cut up and arranged within decorative borders.
These pages are from a muraqqa assembled at theMughal court c.1600. They combine the work ofthe master calligrapher Muhammad Husayn Kashmiri (c.1560–1620) and paintings by contemporary Mughal artists. Although the original page ordering is unknown, each page or opening was deliberately intended to inspire new literary, philosophical or art historical meaning.
