Mughal Troops Chase the Armies of Da’ud
| Support Type: | Paper |
| Paint Type: | Mixed Media |
| Current Location: | Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, D.C., United States of America. |
| Location History: | The painting is part of the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art and is catalogued under accession number F1954.30. The Smithsonian records its acquisition credit as a purchase made through the Charles Lang Freer Endowment. The museum’s published record states that provenance research is underway, so its earlier ownership history should not be assumed without further evidence. |
This mughal miniature painting shows a pursuit where mughal forces chase the armies of daud as written in the akbarnama the illustrated chronicle of emperor akbars reign the picture has soldiers on horses next to richly decorated war elephants each carrying weapons and bright banners across a plain a persian inscription at the links the picture to the tradition of recording history and imperial campaigns manohar uses outlines and detailed figures patterned clothes and a simple landscape to make a busy scene opaque watercolour ink and gold make the costumes and decorations look rich of showing a plain fight between two sides the painting shows the event through the organised visual style of the mughal imperial court made around 1596 to 1600 this work shows the mughal courts interest in histories detailed pictures of military life and how imperial power is shown it is an example of manohars skill in telling stories with paint during emperor akbars reignthis mughal miniature painting shows a pursuit where mughal forces chase the armies of daud as written in the akbarnama the illustrated chronicle of emperor akbars reign the picture has soldiers on horses next to richly decorated war elephants each carrying weapons and bright banners across a plain a persian inscription at the links the picture to the tradition of recording history and imperial campaigns manohar uses outlines and detailed figures patterned clothes and a simple landscape to make a busy scene opaque watercolour ink and gold make the costumes and decorations look rich of showing a plain fight between two sides the painting shows the event through the organised visual style of the mughal imperial court made around 1596 to 1600 this work shows the mughal courts interest in histories detailed pictures of military life and how imperial power is shown it is an example of manohars skill in telling stories with paint during emperor akbars reign