1719 Atlas Historique Timurid-Mughal Emperor Plates
DESCRIPTION
These plates are from Henri Chatelain's Atlas Historique, a historical atlas published aspiring to comprehensive accounting of global and transhistorical matters. Lacking only one plate (no. 38), this near-complete series traces the bloodline of the Timurid-Mughal emperors of India back to Timur.
This grouping includes:
- Tome 5, No. 36, Page 110
- Tome 5, No. 37, Page 110
- Tome 5, No. 38, Page 110
Starting with Timur (who Chatelain, in keeping with European convention, treats as the founder of the Mughal house), the plates cover 3 centuries and 12 generations of lineage. The missing fourth sheet in this series would bridge the gap from Timur to Farrukhsiyar—the reigning emperor at the time of publication.
Though every emperor here is haloed—a Mughal convention picked up from Jesuit missionaries—to indicate their common anointed status, each figure's pose is distinct. Some sit in repose empty-handed while others stand bearing arms or practicing falconry. It's possible that each emperor's distinct pose could reflect the artist's perspective on his legacy or the state of India during his reign.
An Empire Seen from a Distance
The captions record what Amsterdam knew of India, and what it did not. Several death dates are wrong: Humayun is said to have died in 1552, though he died in January 1556 after a fall on the stairs of his library in Delhi. The caption to the final portrait admits that Bahadur Shah’s date of death is unknown; he had died at Lahore in February 1712, seven years before this volume appeared. The empire shown here in unbroken succession was already unraveling. After Bahadur Shah came a run of short reigns, and in 1719, the year of publication, four emperors held the throne in turn.
CONDITION
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