This item has been added to the Database within the Explore Islamic Art Collections project. Information is available in: English, Arabic.

Name of Object:

Minto Album

Location:

Dublin, Ireland

Holding Museum:

The Chester Beatty Library

About The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin

Date of Object:

Hegira c. 1020-50 / AD 1612–40

Museum Inventory Number:

CBL In 07A

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Coloured pigments and gold on paper

Dimensions:

38.9 x 27.2 cm

Period / Dynasty:

Mughal

Provenance:

India

Description:

The Minto Album is a collection of forty, now loose folios, divided between the Chester Beatty Library (nineteen) and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (twenty-one). It includes some of the finest Mughal paintings ever produced and consists mainly of standing portraits of emperors and other individuals important at court. The paintings included here depict Jahangir (r. 1605–27) holding a globe, Shah Jahan (r. 1627–58) in an orange robe, Shah Jahan and his sons, Mu‘in al-Din Chisti, spiritual guide of the Mughals, and a religious scholar identified by inscription as Muhammad Riza Kashmiri. The magnificent floral borders that surround each painting are as impressive as the paintings themselves.

Link to catalogue/digitisation in Holding Institution’s database:

https://viewer.cbl.ie/viewer/image/In_07A_10/1/LOG_0000/

Citation of this web page:

 "Minto Album" in Explore Islamic Art Collections. Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;EPM;ir;Mus21;43;en

MWNF Working Number: IR 43