[INDIAN PAINTING: AN IMAGINARY "DYNASTIC" SCENE WITH IMAGINARY WRITING]. Painted in gold and color, overpainted on a partially printed leaf with manuscript annotations

India, 19th or 20th century. Good. Painting with extensive gold, applied on a partially printed leaf with some manuscript annotations (ca. 358 x 260 mm), hinged on plexiglas so that the verso is visible, matted (matte size: 475 x 327 mm). Minor staining to the paper, but the painting is in excellent condition. An intriguing Indian painting with extensive gilding which mimics Persian dynastic or genealogical manuscripts but was in fact written in a fake language. Likely created for the tourist trade, the painting was applied on a completely unrelated, partially printed leaf (lithographed?) which has been annotated in manuscript. The words which appear in the circular portraits are written in a fake language. Clearly the artist did not know Persian (or Urdu since the two languages utilize almost the same alphabet), and thus resorted to writing letters that looked similar. In fact, they are mere squiggles. Suitable for exhibition and study.

We are grateful to Kelley Tuttle for her characteristically excellent cataloguing assistance.