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A woman mistakes a cow for the Angel of Death, from a Lights of Canopus (Anwar-i Suhaili) of Kashifi (Iranian, d. 1504)
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
In this gently colored, amply shaded painting, an ailing girl lies listless, eyes barely open, as an attendant fans her. A cow who got her head stuck in a pot has entered the yard in confusion. The girl’s mother, who had been weeping and praying to exchange her own life for the health of her daughter, thought the Angel of Death had come to take her. Pointing to heaven, the woman begs that her daughter be taken instead. Outside the gate, a wandering holy man dozes, indicating this scene takes place in the evening, and a calf annoys her mother as she eats.
Cleveland Museum of Art’s own descriptionCredit lineA woman mistakes a cow for the Angel of Death, from a Lights of Canopus (Anwar-i Suhaili) of Kashifi (Iranian, d. 1504), c. 1610. Mughal India, court of Jahangir (1605–1627). Gum tempera on paper; painting: 19.7 x 10.2 cm (7 3/4 x 4 in.); framed: 38.1 x 26.7 cm (15 x 10 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Michael Silver and Deborah Lader in memory of Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver, 2019.81
