Composite Elephant
India, Agra, ca. 1600
Watercolours and gold on paper
AKM143
© The Aga Khan Museum
Painted in Mughal India ca. 1600, this painting, once mounted in an album, shows a majestic crowned peri (fairy) and its elephant mount formed from multiple, interlocking creatures, packed tightly together — birds, mythical and actual quadrupeds, and humans. Guiding them is a footman dressed in the garb of an Indian qalandar (itinerant mystic), who is overpainted in luminous translucent white, forming a stark contrast to the motley, crowded figures behind him.