(India, late Moghul period 1760/70)
Mother and Child in a landscape, gouache and gold, on paper, black border and framing lines in reddish orange, gold, green and white, mounted on a blue album page (?), 38 x 27 cm, unframed, damaged (the corners worn), (Hu)

The artist referred to the Christian motif Madonna on the Crescent. The Madonna holds infant Jesus in her arms who offers her a fruit. She stands on the crescent and treads on the snake. Prints after works by Schongauer, Lucas van Leyden or Albrecht Dürer reached India and were copied by local artists. The present sheet goes back to a watercolour in Washington which in turn is a copy after a European model image: Anonymous Mughal artist, Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Copy after an engraving by a Westphalien or Netherlandish artist of ca. 1520, ink, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, 12,9 x 9,4 cm. Freer and Sackler Galleries of Art, Washington D. C. S 1990, 57. See also: Jerry Losty, Problems in Deccani and Mughal drawings: a marbled ox fight and the Virgin of the Apocalypse, British Library, Asian and African Studies blog, 12th Oct. 2015.

We are grateful to Univ. Prof. Dr. Ebba Koch for the scientific consultation.