Mughal manuscripts.(Current and coming)

This spring and summer visitors to the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, D. C., will have the rare opportunity to view a selection of almost ninety Mughal imperial albums from the renowned collection of the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin. Called muraqqa' in Persian, these albums display remarkable paintings and calligraphy commissioned during the seventeenth century by the Emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan, both important and active patrons of the arts in Mughal India. Jahangir was particularly interested in naturalistic paintings and drawings that drew on Persian, Indian, and European ideals; he claimed to be able to identify any painter's work just from looking at the faces of the subjects depicted. Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan, was fascinated with floral imagery and is perhaps best known as the builder of the Taj Mahal. The paintings made under his reign include formal portraits and courtly scenes characterized by jewel-like colors and clarity.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

With over six thousand items--mainly manuscripts and single-page paintings and calligraphies--the Chester Beatty Library's Islamic collection is one of the finest in the world. Alfred Chester Beatty began collecting this material about 1914 when he and his second wife, Edith, visited Egypt and bought some decorated copies of the Qur'an in the bazaars. After making a fortune supplying raw materials to the Allies during World War II, for which ...