Jali Screen
North India, 16th or 17th century
Red sandstone
125 cm high, 69 cm wide
125 cm high, 69 cm wide
A5355
Further images
Provenance: Purchased from Sotheby’s New York, March 1988.
This red sandstone jālī screen of arched form features latticework in a design that combines different geometric patterns. The design consists of hexagons with central six-pointed stars, which are the intersections of horizontal and diagonal parallel lines. The border is plain and frames the entire central design panel.
Jālī screens were commonly found in Mughal Indian architecture, serving as windows or dividers between rooms. They offered the practical function of keeping the interior of a building cool, as the holes in the screen allowed for air to pass through and circulate. Additionally, the light passing through the carved geometric decoration resulted in beautiful shadows exhibited across the walls and floors, which would move and shift throughout the day. The use of red sandstone was particularly favoured from as early as the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar (1550–1605).
A very similar red sandstone jālī, also ornamented with overlapping hexagons containing six-pointed stars is in the MKG Museum for Applied Arts, Hamburg (accession no. 2013.173). It is dated to 1605–1650, the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. A pair of rectangular jālī screens, though with internal arches, are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession nos 1993.67.1 and 1993.67.2) and are dated to the late 16th century.
The geometric design used for this screen finds its parallel in panels from Dīwān-e Khass, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra as well as panels from the Red Fort, Delhi. A 19th-century architectural sketch held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (accession no. IS.1052:27-1883), shows the same pattern was used in Aram Bagh, the oldest Mughal garden in India.
This red sandstone jālī screen of arched form features latticework in a design that combines different geometric patterns. The design consists of hexagons with central six-pointed stars, which are the intersections of horizontal and diagonal parallel lines. The border is plain and frames the entire central design panel.
Jālī screens were commonly found in Mughal Indian architecture, serving as windows or dividers between rooms. They offered the practical function of keeping the interior of a building cool, as the holes in the screen allowed for air to pass through and circulate. Additionally, the light passing through the carved geometric decoration resulted in beautiful shadows exhibited across the walls and floors, which would move and shift throughout the day. The use of red sandstone was particularly favoured from as early as the reign of Mughal emperor Akbar (1550–1605).
A very similar red sandstone jālī, also ornamented with overlapping hexagons containing six-pointed stars is in the MKG Museum for Applied Arts, Hamburg (accession no. 2013.173). It is dated to 1605–1650, the reigns of Jahangir and Shah Jahan. A pair of rectangular jālī screens, though with internal arches, are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession nos 1993.67.1 and 1993.67.2) and are dated to the late 16th century.
The geometric design used for this screen finds its parallel in panels from Dīwān-e Khass, Fatehpur Sikri, Agra as well as panels from the Red Fort, Delhi. A 19th-century architectural sketch held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (accession no. IS.1052:27-1883), shows the same pattern was used in Aram Bagh, the oldest Mughal garden in India.