Quotation from the Koran in the shape of a horse, 1660 (Private Collection)

Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham

Quotation from the Koran in the shape of a horse, 1660 (Private Collection)

Authors

Photographer: Arthur Llewellyn Basham

Description

In the Deccan region of southern India, painters employed by sultans worked in a tradition combining Persian, Mughal, and South Indian Hindu styles. The painting shown here is of a quotation from the Koran, or holy book of Islam, in the shape of a horse. The colours are soft and subdued, in the Persian tradition, and the delicate outline of the diminutive rider is also typically Persian. The hierarchy of scale is typical of the Indian tradition, with the horse, as the most important element, disproportionately large in comparison with the rider. The flowers indicating the setting are also incongruously large, and are set in a flat, decorative pattern without giving any sense of perspective.