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JONE, 1910.) COL. HANNA'S COLLECTION OF INDO-PERSIAN PICTURES, &c. 183
works in both the British Museum and the India Office which it would be hard to beat, and, if Colonel Hanna's specimens really are better, they must be supremely good. But, while I have seen and admired the London examples, I have not seen Colonel Hanna's, except in a few reproductions, and so cannot deny his claim to have obtained the absolute best.
The catalogue enumeratos 130 piotures and 8 richly decorated manuscripts. Colonel Hanna still retains three good albams, which I have had the pleasure of inspecting, and are distinct from those catalogued. Many readers may be glad to have some account of the unrivalled colleotion lost to India and England, and to read the following notes on some of the more remarkable items.
Most of the piotures were painted during the reigns of Akbar, Jahangir, and Shahjahan (A.D. 1656-1658), a century of high art, but some portraits of Taimar (Tamerlane) and others, in the Persian style, are earlier, while certain portraits are later. The pictures, as distinguished from the portraits, were all, or almost all, executed between the dates abovementioned.
Many of the pictures and books come from the Royal Libraries at Delhi and Agra, which were dispersed at the time of the Mutiny or some earlier revolution. The greatest glory of the collection is Akbar's copy of the Persian version of the Ramayana, prepared in 1582 and adorned with 129 full page pictures or miniatures,' signed by the artists, which in Colonel Hanna's judgment are far superior to anything to be seen in London. He supposes that this book must have cost at least £20,000 to produce. It is known that the similar Razm Nama or version of the Mahabharata, at Jaypur, cost £40,000 sterling.
Another remarkable manuscript is that entitled Hamls-i-Haidari, which is said to treat of the wars of Muhammad, It contains 45 exquisite pictures in the best Indo-Persian style, and formerly belonged to the Nawab-Vazirs of Oudh.
A volume produoed in the eighteenth century, entitled Ajaib-ul-makhlakat, or Wonders of Creation, is described as containing 'over 300 curious illustrations of men and monsters, of beasts, birds and fishes, and of the vegetable creation.'
The pictures were examined by the late Sir Frederick Burton, Director of the National Gallery, London, who was delighted with their beautiful colouring,' and regarded thein all as exquisite examples of native art.' He was particularly interested in No. 107, The Emperor Jahangir in his Palace'; No. 23, Deerstalking by Night,' with the young Emperor Akbar on horseback; No. 25, A Village Scene,' painted towards the end of the sixteenth century, and No. 21, the so called Angels ministering to Christ,' painted at some time in Akbar's reign.
Colonel Hanna regards as the goms of his oollection,' Nos. 21, 23, 25, and 107, abovementioned.
But No. 21, of which a photographic reproduction is given on the cover of the catalogae, is wrongly named. At first sight it seems to be what it is called Angels ministering to Christ.' Four women, fitted with the conventional wings of Christian art, are bringing offerings to a holy man with a halo seated on the ground, and are watched by celestial figures hovering in the clouds, while an old man with a beard is seated in the distance. But a recent writer (J.R.A.S., 1909, p. 751) has shown that the subject, although treated under the influence of Italian art, really is purely Muhammadan, the saint honoured being Ibrahim bin Adham, the ex-King of Balkh. I have shown (J.R.A.S., Jan. 1910) that the sabject was a favourite one of the Indo-Persian artists. All students of the Indo-Persian paintings are, of course, aware that Christian
ubjects were often treated. The London collections offer many examples beyond dispute but the work labelled Angels ministering unto Christ,' is not one of them.
