EL MONSTRUO MARINO

A sea monster swallowing a boat, India, Mughal, mid-17th century

Gouache heightened with gold on paper, mounted on a later Qajar border with blossoms and birds

This illustration relates closely to a miniature that depicts the same scene and has identical Qajar borders signed by Reza Shirazi and identified as Muhammad Reza, the nineteenth-century Qajar artist who was particularly accomplished at drawing flowers. It is likely that the two miniatures were bound in the same album in the nineteenth century.