Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros malabaricus)front

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Pied Hornbill (Anthracoceros malabaricus)

  • loan

  • Description

    This large, mainly fruit-eating Hornbill is found in forests in India and Nepal. In this early commission for Lady Impey, Shaikh Zain ud-Din depicts the bird perched on a tree stump entwined by a flowering creeper, in the manner of European natural history illustrations that he may have seen in the Impeys’ library, such as the Histoire naturelle (1749-1788) of the Comte de Buffon. Unusually he also includes a shadow effect in the foreground as a gesture to occidental naturalism. An inscription describes Zain ud-Din as ‘Native of Patna’, a major centre in Bihar where he may have previously worked.

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Asia › India › east India › West Bengal › Kolkata (place of creation)
    Europe › United Kingdom › England (place of creation)
    Date
    1777
    Artist/maker
    Shaikh Zain ud-Din (active c. 1770 - 1785) (artist)
    Whatman (established 1740) (manufacturer)
    Associated people
    Mary, Lady Impey (1749 - 1818) (commissioner)
    Material and technique
    gouache on paper
    Dimensions
    mount 112 x 81.5 cm (height x width)
    page 85.5 x 59.8 cm (height x width)
    Material index
    processed material › paper
    Technique index
    marked › painted,
    decorated › painted,
    painted,
    covered › coated › painted
    Object type index
    visual representation › painting,
    communications equipment › manuscript
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Lent by the Radcliffe Science Library, University of Oxford.
    Accession no.
    LI901.7

Past Exhibition

see (1)

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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