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NANHA (ACTIVE C.1600-20)
The Day of Judgement
1605RCIN 1005032.d
Illustration from a manuscript of the Khamsa of Nava’i.
This painting is a reinterpretation of a Flemish engraving of c.1580 depicting the Last Judgement by Adrian Collaert, after Jan van der Straet. Both the Bible and Quran present life on earth as a preparation for life after death and describe a Day of Judgement when God will come to ‘judge the living and the dead’ (Bible, 2 Timothy 4:1.) In the afterlife, ‘those who believe [in God] and do good deeds, they are dwellers of Paradise, they [will] dwell therein forever’ (Quran, 2:82) but for ‘those who have disbelieved and died in disbelief, the earth full of gold would not be accepted from any of them if it were offered as a ransom. They will have a painful punishment, and they will have no helpers’ (Quran, 3:91).
The painting is ascribed to the Mughal artists Nanha and Manohar, who made many alterations to the Flemish original. The figures are fewer in number, altered in scale, and their hyper-masculine musculature is here replaced with a softer treatment of form. The cross held by St John the Baptist does not feature in the Mughal version. Other alterations are more artistic in nature: instead of the monochrome of the engraving, the Mughal artists used contrasting shades of colour – bright pigments for the believers and shadowy tones for the disbelievers – for symbolic effect. The faces of Mary and Jesus and certain areas of drapery are more heavily worked than other areas of the painting and are comparable to ther works by the artist Manohar.
This painting is a reinterpretation of a Flemish engraving of c.1580 depicting the Last Judgement by Adrian Collaert, after Jan van der Straet. Both the Bible and Quran present life on earth as a preparation for life after death and describe a Day of Judgement when God will come to ‘judge the living and the dead’ (Bible, 2 Timothy 4:1.) In the afterlife, ‘those who believe [in God] and do good deeds, they are dwellers of Paradise, they [will] dwell therein forever’ (Quran, 2:82) but for ‘those who have disbelieved and died in disbelief, the earth full of gold would not be accepted from any of them if it were offered as a ransom. They will have a painful punishment, and they will have no helpers’ (Quran, 3:91).
The painting is ascribed to the Mughal artists Nanha and Manohar, who made many alterations to the Flemish original. The figures are fewer in number, altered in scale, and their hyper-masculine musculature is here replaced with a softer treatment of form. The cross held by St John the Baptist does not feature in the Mughal version. Other alterations are more artistic in nature: instead of the monochrome of the engraving, the Mughal artists used contrasting shades of colour – bright pigments for the believers and shadowy tones for the disbelievers – for symbolic effect. The faces of Mary and Jesus and certain areas of drapery are more heavily worked than other areas of the painting and are comparable to ther works by the artist Manohar.
