Three Wondrous Birds, Deccan, probably Golconda or Bijapur, attributable to Isma'il, circa 1620-1640

collects ion of Dr. William K. Ehrenfeld (1934-2005), San Francisco.

Acquired directly from the Ehrenfeld collects ion by the current owner, 8th December 1988.

Indian Miniatures from the Ehrenfeld collects ion, The American Federation of the Arts, New York

September 1985 - March 1988.

Daniel Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld collects ion, New York, 1985, cat. no. 8.

A simurgh responds to the supplication of two colorful birds. They stand on a mint green ground amidst sprays of flowering plants. Possibly an illustration to the Anvar-i-Suhayli (Chapter I Story XXIII also known as "The Lights of Canopus" a book of fables. The present painting is a version of the "Kalīlah wa-Dimnah" written in Persian by Husayn Va'iz al-Kashivi in the 15th Century. The fables were originally written in India and known in Sanskrit as the "Panchatantra".

Intriguingly, when the present painting was exhibited in 1985 as part of the Ehrenfeld collects ion, it had been catalogued as Mughal, circa 1590 by the scholar Daniel Ehnbom. However, it is interesting to note that another painting with a very related subject and composition is in the Musee Guimet, Paris (3619 m,a) which is described as being from Bijapur in the Deccan circa 1650 and which bears the signature Isma'il. The scholar Catherine Glynn explains the relationship of Bijapuri subjects and style influencing interacting Deccan, Rajasthani and Mughal painting in Catherine Glynn, 'Bijapur Themes in Bikaner Painting' in A. Topsfield (ed.), Court Painting in Rajasthan, Mumbai, 2000, cat. no. 5

Another closely related example in the Freer and Sackler Gallery, also depicting two colorful birds, executed in a similar style with very related sprays of flower blossoms on a flat verdigris ground, originally from the Kirkor Minassian collects ion (before 1929) described there as being from Golconda in the Deccan. Another interesting comparison is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (accession number: IS:13:103-1962) of a similar subject and described as being from Golconda in the Deccan in the later 16th Century - the composition of that painting having somewhat more landscape detail.