The Adoration of the Shepherds, from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier
Unknown Artist
1602–4
Medium
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Dimensions
image: 20 × 11.2 cm · sheet: 26.2 × 15.6 cm
Classification
Manuscript
Department
Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
John L. Severance Fund
Accession Number
2005.145.30.a
About this artwork
Without reading the text, it would be difficult to identify the adorers as shepherds, because they are clothed as Portuguese merchants with ruffed collars and broad-brimmed hats. Mary stands with her divine newborn in a fenced enclosure, evocative of a sacred or royal space within a rather palatial setting, complete with pseudo-Ionic columns and heavy red draperies. The two books on the floor indicated to the Mughals that Christians, like Muslims, revere a definitive sacred scripture such as the...