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Magazine
Adventures of Hamza
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An ongoing show of the Hamzanama paintings is a highlight of the New York season. LAKSHMI VISWANATHAN writes.
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The Arghan division bringing the chest of armous to Hamza.
THE Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York is the centre of attraction this autumn as a priceless collection of 16th Century Mughal Indian art — the Hamzanama paintings — is on display. Fifty-eight of them (from the 200 that exist) are on show — the first time since the 18th Century when the art world discovered them. Chronicling the adventures of Amir Hamza, uncle of the prophet Muhammed, the collection was painted between 1557 and 1572 and is regarded as the world's most accomplished illustration of a popular Persian story. Amir Hamza's encounters with giants, demons, and dragons as well as abductions and hair-raising chases are seen in vibrant colour and detail in these spectacular paintings.
The story of Hamza is Persian in origin. Like many a tale kept alive by the telling and re-telling over time, this one too took elaborate shape and colour over the centuries. Akbar, when he was 16, was so fascinated by it that he ordered Persian and Hindu artists to create the Hamzanama, an epic in 14 enormous volumes, illustrated with 1,400 boldly conceived paintings.
But this monumental work of art was lost and only a part of it was found accidentally.
The collection from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London is considered unique because the paintings were located miraculously — as window shades in huts and houseboats along the Jhelum river in India!
The largest collection of Hamzanama paintings are found at the MAK-Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art, Vienna. The museum has lent 28 paintings from its core collection for the New York show.
The show comes to New York, organised by The Arthur M. Folger Fund, the Sackler Gallery and the Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.. Art historians and lovers of Mughal art are queuing up for tickets for the show which has also been supported generously by The Folger Fund, the Starr Foundation, Friends of the Freer and Sackler Galleries and the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities. The exhibition will travel to London and Zurich in 2004.
Like many a great epic of Persia and the Indian sub-continent, the Hamzanama was recited to a group, rather than read in private. The story teller improvised and elaborated upon the text. The paintings were originally meant to visually complement public recitations of the text. In the current exhibition, extensive summaries of each scene will help visitors understand the context depicted. A beautifully illustrated catalogue carries translations of the relevant parts of the narrative, and focusses on the major characters of the story.
The Ayyars, led by Songhur Balkhi and Lulu the spy, on a spree of violence.
The Hamzanama paintings are said to be the finest example of the integration of Persian and Hindu styles.
In short, they are the first distinct examples of what is now widely known as the Mughal painting tradition. The vibrancy of the colours, the intricate patterns, the minute attention to detail and the delicate strokes that surround the central figures give the paintings a certain power to communicate more than the principal episode they illustrate.
The paintings are large and are on fabric, with calligraphy on paper on the back. It is interesting to note that it was between these two layers that experts found several layers of decorated paper, which once formed the margins for the paintings. They have also inferred that several artists were associated with the twin projects that these paintings involved: one, the painting on cloth and two, the beautiful calligraphy. Made from plant fibre, the paper, in large sheets, prove the highly evolved craft of Persian artisans.
Open till January 26, 2003, "The Adventures of Hamza" exhibition is a major highlight of the New York season. The Curator and Chair of the Brooklyn Museum's Department of Asian Art, Amy G. Poster, and the Exhibition Curator, John Seyller, are sure to feel a sense of satisfaction in making Brooklyn the "home" of a world class exhibition.
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