id: 170828 accession number: 2013.319 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2013.319 updated: 2022-01-04 17:57:23.479000 A floral fantasy of animals and birds (Waq-waq), early 1600s. India, Mughal. Opaque watercolor and gold on paper; page: 37.6 x 26.6 cm (14 13/16 x 10 1/2 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 2013.319 title: A floral fantasy of animals and birds (Waq-waq) title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: early 1600s creation date earliest: 1600 creation date latest: 1625 current location: 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 copyright: --- culture: India, Mughal technique: opaque watercolor and gold on paper department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art collection: Indian Art type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Page: 37.6 x 26.6 cm (14 13/16 x 10 1/2 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Art and Stories from Mughal India opening date: 2016-07-31T04:00:00 Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * A Flower From Every Meadow. Asia House Gallery, New York, NY; Center for Asian Art and Culture, San Francisco, CA; Albright-Know Gallery of Art, Buffalo, NY (1973) * Main Asian Rotation (Gallery 245). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 31, 2013-June 30, 2014). --- PROVENANCE Motichand Khajanchi, Bikaner, India date: ?-December 1967 footnotes: citations: Ralph Benkaim [1914-2001] and Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: December 1967-2013 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2013- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The dragon threatens to singe the boar’s beard. digital description: wall description: Derived ultimately from a conflation of medieval Persian and Qur'anic sources, including descriptions of the mythical island of Waq-waq inhabited by half-plant/half-animal creatures, this extraordinary painting depicts a plant that brings forth animal life in multiple forms. Playfully rendered with animals both real and mythic and birds that seem to effervesce away as they break free of the stems, this brilliant rendition of a life-giving plant maintains its compositional integrity, even as it sprawls across the page. This painting was made to beguile courtly connoisseurs who would gather to admire the wondrous images in an imperial album. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS India 1966: a pictorial diary depicting Indian birds and animals [= India 1966: agenda illustre sur les oiseaux et animaux l'Inde = India 1966: ein Bildkalender indischer Vögel und Tiere]. New Delhi: Government of India, 1966. page number: Reproduced: back cover url: Welch, Stuart Cary, and Mark Zebrowski. A Flower from Every Meadow: Indian Paintings from American Collections. New York: Asia Society; distributed by New York Graphic Society, 1973. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: no. 60, frontispiece url: Archives of Asian Art 64, no. 2 (2014): p. 227. page number: Reproduced: p. 227, fig. 13. url: 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: cat. 28, p. 221 url: Okada, Amina. Les Animaux Magiques dans la Peinture Indienne. [Paris] : Circonflexe, 2017. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 7, 10 url: Lal, Ruby. Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan. New York, NY : W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. page number: Reproduced: color plate after p. 142 url: Singh, Kavita, editor. Scent Upon a Southern Breeze: The Synaesthetic Arts of the Deccan. Mumbai, India: Marg Foundation, 2018. page number: Reproduced: fig. 10, p. 101, and back cover url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.319/2013.319_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.319/2013.319_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2013.319/2013.319_full.tif