{
"data": {
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"accession_number": "2013.295",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Portrait of a kneeling holy man, from the Prince Salim Album, c. 1556\u201360; border c. 1602. Attributed to Mir Sayyid Ali (Persian, active in Iran 1540s\u201350, active in India 1555\u20131580). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper, laid down on an album page with cream borders decorated with gold flowers and geometric motifs; painting: 12 x 7.1 cm (4 3/4 x 2 13/16 in.); overall: 23.3 x 14.9 cm (9 3/16 x 5 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.295",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Portrait of a kneeling holy man, from the Prince Salim Album",
"creation_date": "c. 1556\u201360; border c. 1602",
"creation_date_earliest": 1555,
"creation_date_latest": 1565,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Mughal India, court of Akbar (reigned 1556\u20131605)"
],
"technique": "Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper, laid down on an album page with cream borders decorated with gold flowers and geometric motifs",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art - Mughal",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Painting: 12 x 7.1 cm (4 3/4 x 2 13/16 in.); Overall: 23.3 x 14.9 cm (9 3/16 x 5 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"painting only": {
"height": 0.119,
"height_inch": 4,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.072,
"width_inch": 2,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.8125
},
"painting": {
"height": 0.12,
"height_inch": 4,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.071,
"width_inch": 2,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.8125
},
"overall": {
"height": 0.233,
"height_inch": 9,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.1875,
"width": 0.149,
"width_inch": 5,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "[[verso, upper left corner]] 6212",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "[[verso, upper left corner]] 20.865",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "[[verso, upper center, below crossed out words and circled]] red",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "",
"inscription_translation": "[[recto, above and below, from a Persian homiletic qasida (composite ode in verse) by Hakim Sana\u2019I (Persian, c. 1087\u20131130), in nasta\u2018liq script]] If it were greed that led you to acquire learning, then be afraid, For at night, a thief with a torch can take away the choicest goods!",
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": 1
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"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": 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": "On loan to the San Diego Museum of Art (2005)",
"opening_date": "2005-01-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Hagop Kevorkian [1872\u20131962], New York, NY",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "Before 1962",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby\u2019s, London, Highly Important Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures: The Property of the Kevorkian Foundation, lot 47)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "December 6, 1967",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim Collection",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1967\u20132013",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2013\u2013",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [
{
"id": 170789,
"description": "A mendicant bowing before a holy man, from the Prince Salim Album, c. 1585; inner border added in Allahabad c. 1602; outer border added probably 1900s. Basavana (Indian, active c. 1560\u20131600). Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; page: 32.7 x 21.1 cm (12 7/8 x 8 5/16 in.); painting: 13.6 x 7.5 cm (5 3/8 x 2 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection, 2013.296",
"relationship": null
}
],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "In this sensitive portrayal of a charlatan holy man, the eyes are pale and empty.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "The kneeling figure is a charlatan holy man who wears the blue robe of a Sufi mystic. According to the inscriptions above and below the painting, he acts humble and pious for monetary gain rather than sincerity of devotion. Images of charlatan holy men recur in Mughal painting, including in the Cleveland Tuti-Nama.
Mir Sayyid Ali was the first head of the Mughal workshop under Akbar. He was responsible for training Indian artists to adopt Persian sensibilities, admired by elites of the Islamic world during the 1400s to at least the 1700s.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60481252"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2013.295-portrait-of-a-kneeli"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Mace, Sonya Rhie, Mohsen Ashtiany, Catherine Glynn, Pedro Moura Carvalho, Marcus Fraser, and Ruby Lal. Mughal Paintings: Art and Stories: the Cleveland Museum of Art. London: D Giles Limited, 2016.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. no. 2, p. 308, figure 4.34, p. 161; mentioned: pp. 161\u2013162 and 309",
"url": ""
}
],
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"creditline": "Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection",
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"description": "Mir Sayyid Ali (Persian, active in Iran 1540s\u201350, active in India 1555\u20131580)",
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"updated_at": "2026-06-22 19:23:41.228000"
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