Young courtier, folio from the Salim Album

Young courtier, folio from the Salim Album. This painting shows a well-dressed young man leaning on a staff, and echoing the framing Persian verses: "the sapling stature of youths is the staff of our old age". The Salim Album refers to a group of thirty (known) folios, today dispersed in international collections. These were once part of a small album of paintings and calligraphy, assembled for the Mughal Indian prince Salim (who from 1605 would reign as the emperor Jahangir), probably during the brief years (1600-1604) that he spent in his own court at Allahabad. Eight of these folios are in the Chester Beatty. Although many have been trimmed down, the surviving Salim Album folios share a similar border scheme, of distinctive gold-painted geometric, cloud collar and floral motifs. The art collection mounted in the prince's album deals mainly with single or paired figures, framed by couplets of Persian poetry: these are contemporary court portraits, small compositions adapted from European print media, or studies of spiritual figures. Folio, ink, colours and gold on paper, mounted on gold-painted card, pasted onto plain card, painting of a young man leaning on a staff, Persian poetry in nasta`liq script, folio from the Salim Album, assembled Allahabad, India, painting c. 1595, album c. 1600-1605.