The young hawk and the hunt

This miniature painting is called "The young hawk and the hunt", but in museum records its real name is mostly "The experienced hawk outwitted by a young hawk". It was done around the year 1604 or 1605, during the moghal period when Prince Salim, who later became Jahangir, was ruling his court. The master painter who created this fine work is Aqa Riza Heravi. He was an Iranian artist who moved to India and became one of the main court painters for Prince Salim. The painting is actually part of an old fable manuscript called Anvar-i Suhayli. If we talk about the materials, the artist did not use oil paint or normal modern wash colors. Instead, it is made completely on handmade paper with ink and opaque watercolor, what people often call gouache, along with fine gold touches on the clothes and horses. You can see the rider with a hawk on his hand, hunting dogs, and the funny rocky mountains behind which is classic Persian style mixed with Mughal nature details. Right now this manuscript folio is preserved safely in London at the British Library under the collection mark Add MS 18579, on folio 36r. It is really important work because it shows Aqa Reza's special way of painting figures and landscape just before Jahangir sat on the throne.