Pair of Indian Mughal Manuscript Paintings of Tiger Hunt, 19th century

A pair of gouache watercolour manuscript pages from the 19th century showing a prince on horseback hunting tigers. It is surrounded by a foliate border and an inscription in nastaliq. The reverse side has a long text also in nastaliq script. They are framed in 19th-century Hogarth frames.

In very good condition with bright colours.

Mughal miniature paintings developed in Northern India after the Mughal Emperor Humayun (1508 -1556) brought two great Persian artists, Mir Sayid Ali and Abdus Samad, with him from Persia. A blend of indigenous Indian, Persian and Islamic styles, the themes were mostly taken from royal courts and nature, including tiger hunts as an expression of power. The paper was sized and polished to make it impermeable to the ink. Lines were lightly impressed as a guide to the writers and margins were drawn and illuminated. The lines here have been altered as the artist changed his mind. Nastaliq script was prized in Mughal India. It had been refined at the Timurid courts of the fifteenth century in Persian and Central Asia, though Korans, for fear that eligibility might lead to corruption of the text. Nastaliq was not a quick script to write and reflects the care with which these manuscripts have been painted.