{
"data": {
"id": 148833,
"accession_number": "1976.74",
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"tombstone": "Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza), c. 1560s\u201370s. Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556\u20131605). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on cotton and paper; page: 83.7 x 67 cm (32 15/16 x 26 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of George P. Bickford, 1976.74",
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"title": "Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, from volume 11 of a Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza)",
"creation_date": "c. 1560s\u201370s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1555,
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"culture": [
"Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556\u20131605)"
],
"technique": "Gum tempera, ink, and gold on cotton and paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Page: 83.7 x 67 cm (32 15/16 x 26 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
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}
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"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 302374,
"title": "Year in Review, 1976",
"description": "Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).",
"opening_date": "1977-02-01T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 309644,
"title": "The Year in Review for 1982",
"description": "The Year in Review for 1982. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 6, 1983).",
"opening_date": "1983-01-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 219976,
"title": "The Adventures of Hamza",
"description": "The Adventures of Hamza. National Museum of Asian Art, Washington, DC (organizer) (June 21-September 29, 2002); The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (November 1, 2002-January 26, 2003).",
"opening_date": "2002-06-21T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 203111,
"title": "Art and Stories from Mughal India",
"description": "Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2016-07-31T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 441124,
"title": "Martial Art of India",
"description": "Martial Art of India. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 11-August 21, 2022).",
"opening_date": "2022-02-11T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 538356,
"title": "Indian Painting of the 1500s: Continuities and Transformations",
"description": "Indian Painting of the 1500s: Continuities and Transformations. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15, 2025-January 11, 2026).",
"opening_date": "2025-03-15T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 31, 2013\u2013June 30, 2014).",
"opening_date": "2013-12-31T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Tabbagh",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "George Bickford [1901\u20131991] and Clara Louise Gehring Bickford [1903\u20131985], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131976",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1976\u2013",
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}
],
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"related_works": [],
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"did_you_know": "The title in the bottom margin is a continuation of the text on the previous page.",
"early_education_description": null,
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"description": "The hero, Alamshah the Greek, perches on a cliff above a rushing torrent of water. He has just slain the villain who raised the massive bronze plug on the dam in order to wash away the camp of Alamshah\u2019s father, Hamza.
The Hamza-nama recounts the adventures of an uncle of the Prophet Mohammed. It was the first major undertaking of the fledgling painting workshop created by Akbar. Originally in 14 volumes of 100 illustrations each, just a little more than 10 percent of the pages survive.",
"external_resources": {
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"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1976.74-alamshah-cleaving-as"
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"citations": [
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1976.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 64, no. 2 (February 1977): 39\u201378.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 79, no. 149; Reproduced: p. 60",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152676"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 303",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n323"
},
{
"citation": "Leach, Linda York. Indian Miniature Paintings and Drawings. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art in cooperation with Indiana University Press, 1986.",
"page_number": "cat. no. 10",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cunningham, Michael R., Stanislaw J. Czuma, Anne E. Wardwell, and J. Keith Wilson. Masterworks of Asian Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 170\u2013171",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sporre, Dennis J. The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2000.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 327, no. 11.8",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Seyller, John William, and W. M. Thackston. The Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India. Washington, DC: Freer Gallery of Art, 2002.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 51, pp.162\u2013163, R78, p. 266",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sporre, Dennis J. The Creative Impulse: An Introduction to the Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 332, no. 11.19",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Douglass, Scott, and Dennis J. Sporre. The Creative Impulse. Seventh Edition. Seventh Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice-Hall, 2006.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 322, fig. 10.18",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2012.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 174\u2013175",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Quintanilla, Sonya Rhie. \"From the Fifth Vizier's Story to the Gifts of Timur: Mughal Paintings by Sravana in the Cleveland Museum of Art.\" Orientations: The Magazine for Collectors and Connoisseurs of Asian Art, November/December 2013, pp. 13\u201318.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: fig. 5",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: pp. 211\u2013212",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\u201cA Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8\u201333.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 33",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2014-01"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 35",
"url": ""
}
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"alternate_titles": [
"Alam Shah Closing the Dam at Shishan Pass",
"Alamshah cleaving asunder the chain of the wheel, painting 46 from volume 11 of Akbar's Hamza-nama (Adventures of Hamza)",
"Alam Shah Closing the Dam at Shishan Pass. Page from Dastan-i-Amir Hamza"
],
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"updated_at": "2026-08-22 11:53:19.327000"
}
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