Berlin – Toronto – Rome: Mughal Medallion Genealogies Revisited
DATE: Nov 27th, 2025, 6 pm
SPEAKER: Franziska Kabelitz
LANGUAGE: German
LOCATION: Klangwerkstatt of the Humboldt Forum (entrance via Schlüterhof), Schloßplatz, 10178 Berlin
Due to limited seating, please register via email until November 21st at info@giak.org
This lecture reintroduces an unusual painted genealogical panel of Mughal Emperor Akbar (r. 1556-1605) and his offspring, preserved in the Museum for Islamic Art, Berlin. Using this work as a point of departure, the lecture examines a small but significant corpus of related medallion-portrait genealogies from the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana in Rome. Through a comparative art-historical approach combined with close provenance analysis, the lecture investigates how these works were produced, circulated, modified, and recontextualised across time. By tracing processes of alteration and translocation, these genealogies emerge as dynamic tools of representation, tracking political events and shaping identities in real time.
COPYRIGHT: I. 6819 © Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Museum für Islamische Kunst / Dietmar Katz
