Akbar Mounting his Horse

Akbar Mounting his Horse is a Mughal miniature painting of Sur Das Gujarati of 1605-07. The painting is of the Mughal emperor Akbar in the centre, astride a brown horse, surrounded by a natural landscape. Akbar is clad in a richly patterned robe and unique yellow shoes. Several animals can be seen around him, such as deer, white cattle, and others, while a group of people can be seen behind rocks to the right side of the composition looking at the emperor. In the upper left corner, there is a fort or fortification visible, and the overall scene is set in a landscape dominated by soft-coloured hills and foliage. The Cleveland Museum of Art attributes the piece to the Mughal school of seventeenth-century India. The piece is rendered as nim qalam, which represents the “half pen” technique, the term used by the Persians. Here the artists used monochromatic washes and ink to draw much of the work, but certain areas might be filled with additional colour or gilding. The Cleveland Museum states that this work is an example of drawing in gum tempera and black ink on paper. This to keep the entire scene from becoming overbearing, while keeping the horses and figures around Akbar stand out. This work can be classified under the field of illustrated writings from Akbarnama, the history of Akbar's reign written by Abu'l Fazl. Historical narrative, meticulous portraits of people, animals, clothing, architecture and landscape were often all that was combined in Mughal manuscript paintings. The impressive presence of Akbar at the heart of the scene underlines the imperial theme of manuscript material. This attribution allows Sur Das to be identified as one of the painters in the Mughal atelier, and the painting is therefore a part of the highly sophisticated manuscript paintings that flourished during the last reign of Akbar and the early reign of Jahangir. The measure of the Mughal emphasis on narration with nuanced observation and measured drawing is taken in this painting.