A Court Atelier folio from a manuscript of the Ethics of Nasir, Pakistan, Lahore, ca. 1590 – 1595, Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper, AKM 288.12

A Court Atelier folio from a manuscript of the Ethics of Nasir, Pakistan, Lahore, ca. 1590 – 1595, Opaque watercolour, ink and gold on paper, AKM 288.12

Produced in a Mughal court in Lahore, this image comes from a late 16th-century manuscript on Ethics by author Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201-1274) and includes the name of the manuscript painter, Sanju. The artist has chosen to illustrate his own arduous working conditions, depicting a manuscript workshop much like the one he must have operated in at the spacious and architecturally splendid court. The master craftsman, depicted as the largest of all the figures to show his authority, is seated on the right in a brown tunic and green shawl being fanned by an attendant. He is correcting and instructing a young apprentice, who holds a page from a manuscript on a board balanced on his knee, watercolours in shells, a rectangular pencase, and inks arranged on the ground in front of him. Additional members of the workshop toil on other parts of the manuscript production process. Scribes and painters seated in the center copy out text and paintings on fresh pages. Next to the bubbling fountain inside a tranquil and beautiful walled garden, a craftsman burnishes paper by rubbing it vigorously against a board with a smooth stone to create a polished and smooth writing surface; his fellow craftsman, wearing an orange tunic, rubs his wrists and waits his turn to continue the work.

Nasir al-Din Tusi (1201-1274)

Sanjua, the painter

Aga Khan Museum

1590-95

Aga Khan Museum

Material: Opaque watercolour, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions: 23.9 x 14.2 cm

AKM288.12

Pakistan, Lahore