Impero Del Gran Mogol

Circa 1690s

Original hand-coloured copper engraving on paper

Print size: 18 x 24 in (45.5 x 61 cm)
Sheet size: 19.5 x 27.25 in (49.5 x 69 cm)

Imperio del Gran Mogol—A Monumental Baroque Map of Mughal India and Central Asia

This richly engraved Baroque map presents a grand early-eighteenth-century European vision of the Mughal Empire, extending across Northern India, Bengal, Tibet, and Central Asia. The map covers almost the whole of North India, extending from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal and from the Indus Valley to the Mekong River. This map features important regions and places such as Cabulistan, Kandauna, Harduari, Binsola, Burchar, Kachemire, Iamba, Ragepor, and others.

On the top corners are cartouches for the title and dedication to the Empire of the Great Mogol and to Girolamo Correr, a Venetian statesman (with a coat of arms). Both cartouches depict martial themes. Framed by sumptuous allegorical cartouches and executed in finely controlled copperplate linework, the sheet exemplifies the fusion of imperial geography, decorative spectacle, and political intelligence characteristic of continental mapmaking at the height of Europe’s engagement with Asia.

The map foregrounds the territorial reach of the Mughal state, articulating a complex network of provinces, fortified cities, trade routes, and river systems anchored by the Ganges and its tributaries. Its geographic structure reflects a synthesis of Persian-Islamic administrative knowledge, Jesuit and missionary reports, and European commercial intelligence circulating through imperial and mercantile networks. Mountain chains of the Himalayan and Tibetan regions are rendered with pictorial drama, while the dense hydrography of Bengal underscores the strategic and economic centrality of the region within Indo-Oceanic trade.

Beyond its geographical function, the sheet operates as a visual assertion of empire — projecting the Mughal realm as a coherent political and cultural entity at a moment of intensifying European colonial ambition. The balance of scientific cartography, ornamental grandeur, and imperial narrative positions this work among the most compelling large-format representations of South Asia in the Baroque period.

A rare and visually commanding survival, it represents a cornerstone example of early modern European mapping of Mughal India.

NON-EXPORTABLE

This lot is offered at RESERVE

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