Katalog

22 Acquisitions of Indian Paintings before 1738 Among the Indian works at the Kupferstich-Kabinett, there is only one portrait album, Ca 112 (cat. 1), which may have become part of the Dresden collection prior to the Throne of the Great Mughal Aurangzēb . The endpaper is inscribed, “dies Buch ist ganz von hohen Werth, d. 23. Dec. 1689” (This book is of very high value, the 23 Dec. 1689). Although this inscription does not securely place the volume in Dresden at this time, it certainly was in Germany or was owned by a German. 6 The album contains forty-six posthumous portraits with captions in nas- ta’līq depicting the Mughal emperors from Akbar to Aurangzēb and the rulers and nobles of the ‘Ādil Shāhī dynasty up to the young Shāh ‘Abbās, who ruled Golconda until 1629 (fig. 1). Even though the employees in Dinglinger’s workshop could have seen the album when they began work on the Throne of the Great Mughal Aurangzēb in 1702, there is no evidence of direct imita- tion. This pictorial world draws largely on contemporary illustrated travelogues and includes Turkish and Japanese motifs and chinoiserie. In contrast to Ottoman and Chinese works in the electoral Kunstkammer , for which there is a documented history of their use, the same cannot be said for the Indian works. Four albums with depictions of rulers and princes represent the main collection of Indian art acquired for the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett at the beginning of the eighteenth century. These acquisitions can be traced to the early years of the museum, established in 1720, which built its collections upon the electoral Kunstkammer . 7 The Indian works initially belonged in the group of Eastern works on paper, in particular Chinese and Chinese style prints that were acquired on a large scale. The oldest inventory of the museum, documented in 1738 by the first director, Johann Heinrich von Heucher (1677–1746), 8 records these acquisitions under the cat- egory “La Chine.” 9 Judging by the notes in the volumes and the labels attached to them, these items were probably not classified as “Sinica” and “Indica” until the nineteenth century. In addition to the four portrait albums, the “Indica” collection also includes depictions of Indian rulers, a set of ganjīfa playing cards, two Ottoman volumes of costumed figures, 10 and an album with medallion portraits based on Indian models but presumably produced by European artists. 11 The works in the Heucher Inventory are given brief descriptions. They are designated as “Indica” on the works themselves 12 and also in the catalogue cards begun in 1906 which record the organisation of the sketchbooks and volumes of drawings according to “Ca” numbers. An album with portraits of Mughal rulers and regents of Golconda, assembled and bound in Europe about 1700 and mounted in simple Indian paper frames, is recorded under number 11 as “39 Japanese portraits of men, from head to feet, in Maroquin rouge doré in folio” (cat. 2). 13 Number 12 (cat. 1) contains portraits executed in the same style but with more elaborate frames and is described as “24 folios of the like, which, except for the first are painted on both sides, in Marcoquin rouge d’oré. Placed in a leather bag. Folio.” 14 Number 20 (cat. 3) is an album with “179 Mughal portraits.” 15 Like Ca 112, it was bound at the place of manufacture. On the verso, the portraits are inscribed, somewhat awkwardly, in devanāgarī , presumably by local workshop employees, with the names of the sitters. There are paintings pasted on the interior and the exterior of the lacquered covers. Both miniatures on the exterior show the same scene of women making music. The miniature on the front pastedown shows a woman opening a book; on the rear endpaper, the same woman is shown closing the book. 16 This poetic, allegorical framing of a book about the history of India, which traces the ruling dynasties of Hindustan back to the age of legends and consists entirely of “illustrated names,” is thus given a programmatic character. According to Heucher, the fourth portrait album, listed in the inventory as number 29 (cat. 4), represents the “House of Tamerlane.” 17 Sixty-two portraits, apparently from various series, were pasted into the album, which was bound in Europe. Many of the paintings are exe- cuted in the nīmqalam (half-pen) style comparable to those in Ca 113; others are similar to earlier paintings produced in Golconda, with a more opaque application of paint. They document the fig. 2 Johann Michael Püchler the Younger (German, 1679–1709) Augustus II, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony (Augustus the Strong; r. 1694–1733) c. 1697 Engraving, 10×6 cm Kupferstich-Kabinett, SKD, inv.no. A 2017-23