{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O16756"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O16756/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NX3125/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024NX3125/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024NX3125","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2022NF9403","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GB1077","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AY9629","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BC2150","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AY9630","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006AY9628","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2006BD7351","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC4260","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017KC4317","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O16756/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O16756","accessionNumber":"IM.23-1925","objectType":"Painting ","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The zebra in this painting (Burchell's Zebra, Equus quagga burchelli) was presented to the Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627) by Mir Ja'far who had acquired it from Turks travelling to the Mughal empire from Ethopia.  Jahangir wrote on the painting (in Persian, the court language) that it was: 'A mule which the Turks [rumiyan] in the company of Mir Ja'far had brought from Ethiopia [Habasha]. Its likeness was drawn by Nadir'ul-'asri [Wonder of the Age] Master Mansur. Year 1030 [ie 1620-21], [regnal] year 16'. Jahangir's memoirs, the Jahangirnama (Book of Jahangir) make it clear that the animal was presented to him during the extensive Nowruz, or New Year, festivities in March 1621. When Jahangir had carefully examined it, and ensured that it was not, as some thought, a horse on which someone had painted stripes, he decided to send it to Shah Abbas of Iran, with whom he often exchanged rare or exotic presents. He does not mention ordering the animal to be depicted in a painting, and the inscription is the only evidence for Mansur's encounter with this exotic beast. The painting was almost certainly intended to be an illustration for his memoirs. No illustrated volume has survived, and it is likely that none was ever completed. Mansur, as his title indicates, was one of the leading artists of Jahangir's reign, but was already painting highly naturalistic studies of animals while in service to the emperor's father Akbar. A fine example of his work may be seen in the V&A's Akbarnama, the history of Akbar's reign (IS.2:55-1896), in a hunting scene dating to c. 1590-1595.\r\nThe painting later came into the possession of Jahangir's son, the emperor Shah Jahan (r. 1628-58) and was added to a royal album of paintings and calligraphies. The ornate borders of the painting, and on the reverse of the folio, framing illuminated calligraphy (IM.23A-1925) are additions of Shah Jahan's reign. \r\nThe folio belongs to a group of loose folios known as the Minto Album, now divided between the V&A and the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin. They were purchased at auction in London in 1925.","physicalDescription":"The zebra is depicted facing right against an undyed paper on which earlier outlines have been covered with a light pinkish wash. The animal is tethered to a post and has a red harness. On the right, a Persian inscription in black ink identifies the subject, artist and provides the date. The borders are filled with polychrome flowers and green leaves on scrolling lines and are later additions of the reign of Shah Jahan.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Mansur","id":"A1620"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"AAT251917"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"opaque watercolour","id":"x35013"},{"text":"gold","id":"AAT11021"},{"text":"paper","id":"AAT14109"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Painted in opaque watercolour and gold on paper","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"},{"text":"Animals and Wildlife","id":"THES250852"},{"text":"Bonita Trust Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project","id":"THES263148"}],"styles":[{"text":"Mughal","id":"AAT18939"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2024NX3125","2022NF9403","2013GB1077","2006AY9629","2006BC2150","2006AY9630","2006AY9628","2006BD7351","2017KC4260","2017KC4317"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"004","id":"THES403708"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"painting","id":"AAT33618"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Mughal Empire","id":"THES262021"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1621","earliest":"1621-01-01","latest":"1621-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"18.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"unmounted","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"24","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"page H: .26.9 W: 38.7cm","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"painting is mounted on a folio with a panel of calligraphy on the other side.","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"Persian","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"Persian","translation":"'A mule [asturi] the Turks [rumiyan] in the company of Mir Ja'far brought from Ethiopia [Habasha]. Its likeness was drawn by Nadiru'l-'asri [Wonder of the Age] Master Mansur. Year 1030, [regnal] year 16.","transliteration":"usturi ke rumian az Habasha bahamrahi-i Mir Ja'far avorda budand u shabih-e inra Nadiru'l-'asri Ustad Mansur kashida, sana 1030 hijri sana 16","type":"","note":"The Persian inscription is in Jahangir's hand and runs along the right side of the painting. Steingass (Persian-English dictionary) glosses astur as 'mule (S.asvatara)'. "}],"objectHistory":"The painting of the zebra was done for the Mughal emperor Jahangir by one of the leading artists of his reign. It was undoubtedly intended to illustrate a royal copy of the emperor's memoirs, the Jahangirnama or 'Book of Jahangir'. No illustrated copy of the volume has survived, and it would seem that none was ever completed. The painting was certainly inherited by Jahangir's son, the emperor Shah Jahan, who had the floral borders added so that the painting could be included in a new volume of illuminated calligraphic specimens and paintings. This painting has illuminated calligraphy on the other side of the folio (IM.23A-1925). The page belonged to a group of loose Mughal folios sold at auction in London  in 1925 as \"The Minto Album\" and subsequently divided between the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin and the V&A. According to Asok Kumar Das, this is one of only two dated examples of Mansur's work.\r\nAsok Kumar Das was the first to provide the scientific classification of the animal, based on the information provided by Divyabhanusinh: it is Burchell's Zebra, Equus quagga burchelli (Das, Wonders of Nature, p. 86).\r\nOther Mughal depictions of zebras are known. A zebra with similar, but not identical markings, and depicted facing left, is in Boston Museum of Fine Art  (14.659).","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Painting, a zebra, by Mansur, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Mughal, 1621","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Asok Kumar Das, Mughal Painting During Jahangir's Time, Calcutta: the Asiatic Society, 1978\r\nAsok Kumar Das, 'Mansur' in Pratapaditya, ed. Master Artists of the Imperial Mughal Court, Bombay: Marg Publications, pp. 39-52.\r\nJ. M. Rogers, Mughal Miniatures. The British Museum Press, 1993, pl.61, p. 95.\r\nJay Levenson, ed., Encompassing the Globe. Portugual and the World in the 16th & 17th centuries, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, 2007, I-9, p. 237; Jay Levenson, ed., Encompassing the Globe. Portugual and the World in the 16th & 17th centuries. Reference catalogue, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, 2007, Cat. I-9, p. 111 (entry by Susan Stronge).\r\nCatalogue entry in Linda Komaroff ed, Gifts of the Sultan. The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yale University Press, 2011, cat. 226, pp. 291-2 (adds no new information)\r\nAsok Kumar Das, Wonders of Nature. Ustad Mansur at the Mughal Court, Marg Publications Mumbai, vol. 64 No. 2, 2012, pl. V7 with commentary p. 86-87\r\nSusan Stronge, Painting for the Mughal Emperor: The Art of the Book 1560-1650,  V&A Publications, 2002, pl. 100, p. 135.\r\nThe Jahangirnama. Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India. Translated, edited and annotated by Wheeler M. Thackston. Freer Gallery of Art. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC in association with Oxford University Press, New York/Oxford, 1999, pp. 360-1 and p. 477.\r\nBarnard, Nick: Arts of Asia, vol. 45, no. 5, September - October 2015,   \"The Parasol Foundation Trust Programme: digitising and cataloguing the V&A's South Asian collection.\", p.104, pl. 16.\r\nAmina Taha-Hussein Okada, La peinture en Inde, Paris, 2016, illustrated p. 54"},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Ayers, J. Oriental Art in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London 1983, ISBN 0-85667-120-7","id":"AUTH347571"},"details":"pp. 66-67","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"The Indian Heritage. Court life and Arts under Mughal Rule London: The Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982 Number: ISBN 0 906969 26 3","id":"AUTH352798"},"details":"Robert Skelton, cat. no.46.  p. 39","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Stronge, S. Made for Mughal Emperors. Royal Treasures from Hindustan. London and New York, 2010","id":"AUTH327057"},"details":"p. 134, pl. 98","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Gifts of the Sultan. The Arts of Giving at the Islamic Courts. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2011 Number: 978-0-300-17110-5","id":"AUTH353888"},"details":"cat. no. 226, fig. 267 pp. 291-2","free":""}],"production":"The floral borders date from the reign of Shah Jahan (1628-1658).\r\nOther versions of this are in a 'Private collection, New York' and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (14.569). See Asok Kumar Das, Wonders of Nature. Ustad Mansur at the Mughal Court, Marg Publications, Mumbai 2021, pp. 86-87.","productionType":{"text":"Unique","id":"THES48864"},"contentDescription":"A zebra.","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"zebra","id":"x31326"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["IM.23-1925"],"accessionNumberNum":"23","accessionNumberPrefix":"IM","accessionYear":1925,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2026-05-18","recordCreationDate":"1999-12-15","availableToBook":false}}