Royal Riding Horse and Runner
late 16th Century, Mughal India.

Royal Riding Horse and Runner
Mughal: period of Akbar (r. 1556- 1605)
Ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper
6½ x 9¾ in. (16.4 x 24.7 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Fletcher Fund, 1925 (25.68.3)

The elegant arabesques of the design, the kindred textures of the horse's dappled coat and the fantastic rocky landscape, and the stereotyped physiognomy of the groom, with ovoid head, large chin, dark eyes, small nose, and bowlike mouth, are some of the features indicating that the painter of this miniature was trained in the Persian style. The edges of the forms modulate from light to dark, creating a continuously changing visual interplay between the horse and the background, like that seen in nature. Although the horse and groom exist within a narrow space, the setting is a deep landscape.

Source: p.37, Indian Court Painting, 16th-19th Century by Steven Kossak
via Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York