This painting by Manohar (active between 1582–1624) depicts Prince Danyal, who was three years young than Mughal Emperor Jahangir. Jahangir writes, “As his birth took place at Ajmer in the house of one of the attendants of the blessed shrine of the revered Khwaja Mu’inuddin Chishti, whose name was Shaykh Danyal, this child was called Danyal.”
In this portrait, Prince Danyal - whose features suggest a weaker and coarser Jahangir - is isolated against a pale green ground. Stylistically, this portrait is one of the earliest Mughal miniatures in the Kevorkian Album, conforming in its apple-green ground and in the subject’s squat but angular physique and costume to those commissioned by Emperor Akbar for a portrait album “so that, those that have passed away have received new life, and those who are still alive have immortality promised them.”
This portrait was probably painted in the studio after a sketch from life. Danyal’s age and the style of the painting date it to the mid-1590s, when the sitter was in his twenties and the artist but a few years older. A powerful drawing of Danyal at a later age (Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay) can also be assigned to Manohar, who seems to have observed him closely.
In this portrait, Prince Danyal - whose features suggest a weaker and coarser Jahangir - is isolated against a pale green ground. Stylistically, this portrait is one of the earliest Mughal miniatures in the Kevorkian Album, conforming in its apple-green ground and in the subject’s squat but angular physique and costume to those commissioned by Emperor Akbar for a portrait album “so that, those that have passed away have received new life, and those who are still alive have immortality promised them.”
This portrait was probably painted in the studio after a sketch from life. Danyal’s age and the style of the painting date it to the mid-1590s, when the sitter was in his twenties and the artist but a few years older. A powerful drawing of Danyal at a later age (Prince of Wales Museum of Western India, Bombay) can also be assigned to Manohar, who seems to have observed him closely.