2-738-500 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of Murad Bakhsh (1624-1661), c. 1635. The youngest son of Shah Jahan wears a stylish jama not unlike the example on view on the adjacent wall, and the fabric pattern recalls the poppies on the textile hanging above the display case to the left. He would meet his death in 1661 after being imprisoned and executed by order of his ambitious older brother, Emperor Alamgir, who determined that there be no rivals to his claim to the throne. The exceptionally soft treatment of his youthful features even at such small scale is testament to the skill of the imperial Mughal painters.