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European Costume Scene

c. 1590–1595
Gum tempera and gold on paper

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In the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland · as of July 2026

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FROM THE CLEVELAND MUSEUM OF ART’S CATALOG

This painting of European subjects by an unnamed Indian artist depicts an unidentified scene in which two merchants approach a pavilion where a seated lady receives a kneeling holy man unrolling a scroll before her. The figures wear garments associated with different periods, which increases the painting’s ambiguity. The distant cityscape in the upper left corner is a Mughal version of the type introduced into India by Jesuit missionaries who brought gifts of European paintings and engravings.

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