European Costume Scene
Unknown Artist
c. 1590–1595
Medium
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Dimensions
21.5 × 13.4 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Andrew R. and Martha Holden Jennings Fund
Accession Number
1971.89
About this artwork
This painting of European subjects by an unnamed Indian artist depicts an unidentified scene in which two merchants approach a pavilion where a seated lady receives a kneeling holy man unrolling a scroll before her. The figures wear garments associated with different periods, which increases the painting’s ambiguity. The distant cityscape in the upper left corner is a Mughal version of the type introduced into India by Jesuit missionaries who brought gifts of European paintings and engravings.