{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O66745"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O66745/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024PA8147/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2024PA8147/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2024PA8147","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GL0483","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2013GL0489","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O66745/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O66745","accessionNumber":"IS.2511-1883","objectType":"Painting","titles":[{"title":"The giant Sar Farangi dashes Mesluq to the ground","type":"generic title"}],"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 the story is difficult to reconstruct from the text preserved on the backs of the few remaining paintings. Work on the project probably began in about 1562 and took 15 years to complete.\r\nThe giant Sar Farangi here leaps from a rocky outcrop to smite Mesluq with a huge mace. Mesluq falls to the ground, watched by men on horseback. The painting has been damaged and the faces of all the humans and horses deliberately obliterated, probably in the 19th century. The giant's face has been crudely repainted.","physicalDescription":"A giant leaps out from a rocky outcrop brandishing a huge mace which he has brought down on the head of an opponent who has slumped to the ground. A figure flees towards a row of men on horseback at right; horses rear at upper left. The surface is very damaged; the heads of all the figures and horses in the scene have been obliterated, though the features of the giant have been crudely repainted.","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; the back with writing on paper, lined with cotton. The folio thus has four layers glued together.","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"Mughal court","id":"x30977"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"SSEA","id":"THES48598"},"images":["2024PA8147","2013GL0483","2013GL0489"],"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 5, text number 7"}],"objectHistory":"Illustration from the epic romance of the Hamzanaman commissioned by the Mughal 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":"Mesluq fights with the giant Sar Farangi and is dashed to the ground. In the meantime, at the order of Hamza, a Frank fortress is taken and their camp is sacked. 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. R32, pp. 260-261."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Gluck, 1925, fig. 16."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"giant","id":"x38125"},{"text":"horse","id":"x30117"},{"text":"mace","id":"AAT37214"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["IS.2511-1883"],"accessionNumberNum":"2511","accessionNumberPrefix":"IS","accessionYear":1883,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-10-02","recordCreationDate":"2002-07-19","availableToBook":false}}