{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O66619"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O66619/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024PA8070/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024PA8070/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024PA8070","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GN4900","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GN4899","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O66619/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O66619","accessionNumber":"IS.1515-1883","objectType":"Painting","titles":[],"summaryDescription":"The <i>Hamzanama</i>, or 'Book of Hamza' was commissioned by the great Mughal emperor Akbar in the mid-16th century. The epic story of a character based very loosely on the life of the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad chronicles the fantastic adventures of Hamza as he and his band of heroes fight against the enemies of Islam. The stories, from a long-established oral tradition, were written down in Persian, the language of the court, in multiple volumes. These originally had 1400 illustrations, of which fewer than 200 survive today. No independent, contemporary version of the text is known and it is now difficult to follow the story from the text written on the back of the existing folios. Work on the project probably began in about 1562 and took 15 years to complete.\r\nThe subject of this very damaged painting has been identified thus: 'In Khwaja Ashob's garden, Badi'uzzaman abandons himself to love and is overheard by the spy Kashdum'.","physicalDescription":"A large area of damage in the centre of the painting is filled with a repair of roughly rectangular shape. The scene is of a garden with pavilion on which two men, one a king as indicated by his turban plume, converse. Two men sit outside the plinth, at the bottom of the steps to the pavilion, near a low table on which are decanters. The garden is of Iranian form, with a central rectangular pool and regular water channels. Outside the walls a man approaches the gate, and another sits in a tree at lower right.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gouache","id":"AAT70114"},{"text":"cotton","id":"AAT14067"},{"text":"paper","id":"x30308"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painting (image-making)","id":"AAT54216"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Gouache on prepared cotton backed with paper","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"Mughal court","id":"x30977"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2024PA8070","2013GN4900","2013GN4899"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"006","id":"THES403673"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Painting","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca.1562-1577","earliest":"1557-01-01","latest":"1577-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"","value":"","unit":"","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"51","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":"Painting number 10, text number 11."}],"objectHistory":"Folio from one of the volumes commissioned by the emperor Akbar. bought for the museum by Caspar Purdon Clarke in Srinagar in 1881.","historicalContext":"The 'Hamzanama' was the first major project undertaken by the new painting studio of the Mughal court. Directed by two Iranian masters brought to India by Humayun, work began under Akbar and was said to have taken fifteen years to complete, drawing from artists from all over northern Hindustan.","briefDescription":"In Khwaja Ashob's garden Badi'uzzaman abandons himself to love and is overheard by the spy Kashdum. Hamzanama. 1562-77","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"C. Stanley Clarke. Indian Drawings. Twelve Mogul Paintings of the School of Humayun (16th century) illustrating the Romance of Amir Hamzah. Victoria and Albert Museum Portfolios, London, 1921.\r\nSeyller, John. The Adventures of Hamza. Smithsonian Institution. 2002, cat. R149, pp. 274-275."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gluck, 1925, fig. 31."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"garden","id":"AAT8129"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["IS.1515-1883"],"accessionNumberNum":"1515","accessionNumberPrefix":"IS","accessionYear":1883,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-02","recordCreationDate":"2002-07-08","availableToBook":false}}