{
"data": {
"id": 170882,
"accession_number": "2013.348.b",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains (verso), mid-1700s. Mughal India, probably Lucknow. Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper; calligraphy: 17 x 9.6 cm (6 11/16 x 3 3/4 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, 2013.348.b",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains (verso)",
"creation_date": "mid-1700s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1725,
"creation_date_latest": 1775,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Mughal India, probably Lucknow"
],
"technique": "Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Indian and Southeast Asian Art",
"collection": "Indian Art - Mughal",
"type": "Calligraphy",
"measurements": "calligraphy: 17 x 9.6 cm (6 11/16 x 3 3/4 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"page": {
"height": 0.306,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.25,
"width_inch": 9,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.8125
},
"calligraphy": {
"height": 0.17,
"height_inch": 6,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.6875,
"width": 0.096,
"width_inch": 3,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "verso: Persian verses in nasta\u2018liq script.\nWhoever set eyes on the Opening Verses of your face recited \u201cSay He is the Only God\u201d and breathed it out in pure sincerity./\n\u201cGod has made her grow in purity and beauty,\u201d So recited and passed by Khizr, the moment he saw the green [pubescent] sprouting around your lips.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "verso: Persian verses in top horizontal border, right to left, in nasta\u2018liq script.\nMy heart became shackled to her tresses;/\nYou have lost your head in fulfilling this desire./\n\nGo and become entangled in her tresses./\nIf you see her mouth, do not say a word.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "verso: Persian verses in bottom horizontal border, right to left, in nasta\u2018liq script.\nIf she asks you what you desire, say \u201cyour heart.\u201d/\nSince once she knows it, one could never banish her from one\u2019s heart./\n\nFor one cannot assure one\u2019s heart based on her words of promise;/\nIt is not fitting that one should lose one\u2019s heart for naught.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "verso: Persian verses in right vertical border, top to bottom, in nasta\u2018liq script:\nFrom the anguished mood and state of this sorrowful heart,/\nNarrate down the story as you brush down her tresses [conjectural]/\n\nOf me, in an unfit state, shackled and in chains/\nHow I fare in that stifling prison./\n\nIf you go and seek her out in that abode/\nOnce you find her, you should say of me, the heartbroken.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"inscription": "verso: Persian verses in left vertical border, bottom to top, in nasta\u2018liq script:\nI have a heart ensnared by her tresses/\nExiled in foreign lands [. . .] of her tresses/\n\nThe tale of this broken-hearted soul, like disheveled hair/\nBring to her ears in a well-composed manner, like well-arranged hair/\n\nEnchain her tresses in your speech/\nBrush her locks behind her for a while.",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"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"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Sir Charles Forbes, 7th Baronet (1773-1849), Bengal, London, and Scotland, by descent to his great-grandson, Colonel Sir John Forbes",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1849",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Colonel Sir John Stewart Forbes [1901-1984], Baronet, DSO, DL, Allargue House, Strathdon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, UK, consigned to Sotheby's London for sale",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1962",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "(Sotheby's, London, Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures, lot 21)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "December 10, 1962",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Ralph Benkaim [1914-2001], Beverly Hills, CA, by descent to his wife Catherine Benkaim",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1962-2001",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Catherine Glynn Benkaim [b. 1946], Beverly Hills, CA, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2001-2013",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2013-",
"sortorder": 6
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Floral sprigs illuminate the central calligraphic work, and paired verses have been written in smaller script all around the border. All the verses are about the beauty of\u2014and longing for\u2014the beloved.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80080247"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2013.348.b-calligraphy-of-lyric"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Sotheby's, London. Western and Oriental Manuscripts and Miniatures. December 10, 1962.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: Lot 21",
"url": null
},
{
"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. 85, p. 258",
"url": null
}
],
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"date_created": "2015-08-20T14:25:06",
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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",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 170882,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2013-12-02T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1725,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "mid-1700s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "part",
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"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": "2013.348",
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Calligraphy",
"Calligraphy of Lyrical Quatrains"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 08:47:23.115000"
}
}