Portrait of an Urial

This is a fine study of Urial also known as arkars or shapo found in western central Asia up to Ladakh, India. This painting is a fantastic study of the specie with a flat green background and elaborate border.
Even though animal and bird drawing commenced in the period of Akbar, it was due to Jahangir’s patronage that independent studies, almost portrait like became a common feature.
These type of paintings were either done for personal observations in the field at the time of hunting or close examination of captured specimens dead or alive at the time of hunt or received as a gift to the emperor.
Jahagir writes in his memoirs: Among these were some animals that were very strange and wonderful, such as I had never seen, and up to this time no one had known their names. Although Babur has described in his Memoirs the appearances and shapes of several animals, he had never ordered the painters to male pictures of them. As the animals appeared to me to be very strange, I both described them and ordered that painters should draw them in the Jahangirnama so that the amazement that arose from hearing of them might be increased.