Allegorical drawing after an unidentified European original

European prints, which must have been available to the creator of this drawing, were among the many goods presented at the Mughal court by missionaries, merchants, and diplomats. Although some such works were closely copied, many simply provided Mughal artists with new techniques and motifs to utilize in their own increasingly naturalistic and propagandistic imagery.

Several references to vision and perception occur in this drawing. A young man holds a large mirror for his companions, and nearby, a cherub mimics his action. A bearded man peers intently through a scope while another adjusts the spectacles upon his nose. Allegories were popular subjects for sixteenth-century European engravings, and this sketch may be one such moralizing work, the exact meaning of which is unknown to us today. In any case, its various scenes appropriately reflect the Mughal interest in illusionism and appearances.