MUGHAL PAINTING

MUGHAL PAINTING The Mughal dynasty was founded by Zahir al-Din Muhammad, called Babur (r. 1526–1530), a member of the princely Chagatai Turk clans of the Ferghana Valley in modern Uzbekistan, who claimed descent from the great conquerors Timur and Genghis Khan. Although no works of art can be attributed to Babur's patronage, his royal seal can be found in a number of extant manuscripts attesting to his bibliophilic interests. According to his own autobiography the Baburnāma (Story of Babur), he was a connoisseur well versed in the artistic works produced by contemporary Persian and Central Asian painters.

Humayun

Only two years after assuming rule in Delhi, Babur died and was succeeded by his son Humayun (r. 1530–1540; 1555–1556). Only a handful of paintings can be ascribed to Humayun's reign; however, two incidents noted posthumously in the Akbarnāma (Story of Akbar), a biography of his son and heir Akbar (r. 1556–1605), indicate that Humayun treasured rare books and kept them with him even while traveling. Included among the manuscripts mentioned is a copy of the history of Timur's rule, said to be illustrated by Bihzad, the highly esteemed Persian painter, and probably one of the many volumes he inherited from his father Babur. Early examples of painting from this period include illustrations to a manuscript of Yusuf and Zulaykha (New York Public Library), painted in a style resembling that of contemporary Bukharan works, made about 1530–1553 for Humayun's brother Kamran, governor of the fort at Kabul.

In 1540 Humayun and his court fled from Delhi after losing a battle to Shir Shah Suri, an Afghan chief, and was granted safe haven at the court of the Safavid Persian ruler Shah Tahmasp at Tabriz. After gathering financial and military resources, Humayun returned to the subcontinent via Kabul in 1555 and wrested Delhi from Shir Shah. Accompanying the returning Mughal entourage were two accomplished artists of the Safavid atelier, Mir Sayyid ʿAli and ʿAbd al-Samad, who had been given permission by the shah to leave. Other artists from the Persian court joined their colleagues in Delhi, including Mir Sayyid ʿAli's father, Mir Musavvir. These émigrés took their place at Humayun's court, and in concert with local painters, prepared works, such as a manuscript of the Khamsa (Five poems) of Nizami (Ahmedabad, private collection), that display the varied artistic influences of the newly formed atelier, including Bukharan, Safavid, indigenous Indic, and Indo-Persian styles. Historical manuscripts and depictions of court scenes were apparently favored by Humayun, as evidenced by a painting from about 1550, Humayun and His Brothers in a Landscape (Berlin, Staatsbibliothek Preussischer Kulturbesitz), attributed to the Persian painter Dost Mohammad. Not long after his return to Delhi, Humayun tumbled down a stairway as he was rising from his prayers. At Humayun's untimely death, his son Akbar ascended the throne at the age of thirteen.

Akbar

Akbar inherited his father's library and his atelier of artists, calligraphers, and illuminators who produced manuscripts in the karkhana, or imperial workshop. Following Timurid and contemporary Safavid practices, the atelier was organized hierarchically, and duties were be assigned according to the experience and skill of the individual artist. Senior artists supervised the production of manuscript illustrations and would often lay out preliminary drawings, leaving space for the text to be added later by the calligrapher. One or more artists collaborated in the painting of the composition, with portraits and other detailed areas left to be completed by master artists.

Young apprentices (usually the sons or nephews of artists) would first learn how to prepare pigments and brushes. Pigments were made by grinding minerals such as lapis lazuli, resulting in a rich ultramarine, and other substances, such as gold in leaf and powdered form, which were then mixed with a liquid vehicle. Brushes were made from fine animal hair, such as that of a squirrel, and would be carefully arranged and tied to terminate in a sharp point. Preparation of the paper ground consisted of burnishing an individual sheet by placing it on a flat surface and repeatedly rubbing a smooth stone over the front and back surfaces. Between applications of pigment, the folio would be turned over and the back would be burnished to create a brilliant enamel-like surface on the front side. After the illustration was complete, it was inserted into an ornamented border and bound with other folios.

Akbar was an enthusiastic patron of the arts, and numerous marvelously colored and detailed manuscript paintings were produced at his capitals at Delhi, Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, and Lahore. One of the earliest challenges for the Mughal atelier was Akbar's request that a manuscript of the Hamzanāma (Story of Hamza) be produced. This epic story conflated the heroic exploits of Hamza, the uncle of the prophet Muhammad, with the fantastic tales of an adventurer by the same name. Mir Sayyid ʿAli and then ʿAbd al-Samad oversaw the production of the ambitious project, which took fourteen years to complete and resulted in fourteen volumes, each containing one hundred folios. The unusually large illustrations (averaging approximately 26.6 x 20.2 in., or 67.6 x 51.2 cm) were painted on cotton cloth, and the Persian text, written on paper, was affixed to the back of the cloth painting. The now dispersed manuscript took fourteen years to complete (c. 1562–1577), and featured unusually large folios (averaging approximately 26.6 x 20.2 in.) as compared with other manuscripts that could be easily held in the hands of a single person. The composition, coloration, and figural representations of the Hamzanāma exemplify an early stage of experimentation and synthesis in Akbar's atelier. An examination of the 140 or so extant folios now dispersed in public and private collections reveal the use of brilliant saturated colors influenced by traditional indigenous artistic sensibilities, combined with elegant Persianate patterned textiles and architectural elements.

Epic, historical, and poetic manuscripts were among the preferred subjects produced for Akbar, including illustrated copies of his grandfather's autobiography, the Baburnāma. The emperor's biography, the Akbarnāma (Story of Akbar), was commissioned in 1590–1591 and was written by Abu al-Fazl, Akbar's close friend and panegyrist. One of the earliest volumes produced enumerated the emperor's many activities and accomplishments between the years 1560 to 1578. In these richly embellished folios, he was often portrayed centrally in the composition, as shown in a folio painted about 1590–1595 by Basawan with Nand Gwaliari that documented Akbar's journey on foot from Agra to Ajmer in fulfillment of a vow following the birth of his son and heir Salim (London, Victoria and Albert Museum). Although some compositions may have been conceived in the mind of the painter, it was not unusual for one or more artists to accompany the emperor and his court on military campaigns, hunts, and other forays, where documentary sketches made on the spot would later be used as the basis of a fully realized folio. The identification of the hand of a specific artist during this period is aided by the occasional inclusion of signatures within the painting or noted on the border.

When the Mughal court was in residence at Lahore (1585–1598), a number of exquisitely rendered illustrated literary works were produced for Akbar. Among these are two poetic anthologies, painted with precision and jewel-like colors: the 1588 Divan (Collected poems) of Anvari (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Art Museums), and a 1595 copy of the Khamsa (Five poems) of Nizami (London, British Library and Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery). Diverging from an earlier tradition whereby one or more artists would collaborate in the production of a single folio, many of these paintings were completed by a single artist, a practice that would be further developed under the patronage of Jahangir.

The translation of Hindu texts from Sanskrit into Persian are evidence of Akbar's ecumenical nature and philosophical curiosity. A brilliantly delineated folio from a dispersed copy of the Harivamsha (Lineage of Hari [Krishna]) produced about 1585–1590, depicts the slaying of the demon king Samvara by the hero Pradyumna. Although this composition includes a fantastically colored landscape similar to those found in mid-sixteenth-century Safavid manuscript illustrations, there is also evidence of artistic influences from contact with European models. European artistic influences are manifest in the form of the representation of atmospheric perspective, a naturalistic depiction of forms receding in space, and the chiaroscuro modeling of figures.

The first documented gift of a European work to the Mughal court was in 1580, when a copy of the eight-volume Royal Polyglot Bible printed in Antwerp between 1568 and 1573 by Christopher Plantin was presented to the emperor by a mission of Portuguese Jesuit priests who visited the Mughal court at Akbar's invitation. Subsequently, numerous religious publications and prints were sent as gifts to the emperor and his courtiers in the hope of influencing Akbar's conversion to Christianity and in order to negotiate trade agreements favorable to the Portuguese crown. These religious and allegorical prints, largely the works of northern European artists such as Georg Pencz and Albrecht Dürer, were studied closely by Mughal artists, who integrated European representational elements into their works and sometimes faithfully copied entire compositions.

Rochelle Kessler

See alsoAkbar ; Aurangzeb ; Babur ; Humayun ; Jahangir ; Shah Jahan

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Beach, Milo C. The Grand Mogul: Imperial Painting in India,1600–1660. Williamstown, Mass.: Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, 1978.

——. The Imperial Image: Paintings for the Mughal Court. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1981.

——. Early Mughal Painting. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1987.

Beach, Milo C., et al. King of the World: The Padshahnama. London: Thames and Hudson, 1997.

Dye, Joseph M., III. "Artists for the Emperor." In Romance of the Taj Mahal, edited by P. Pal, J. Leoshko, J. M. Dye III, and S. Markel. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1989.

Leach, Linda York. Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the Chester Beatty Library. 2 vols. London: Scorpion Cavendish, 1995.

Okada, Amina. Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1992.

Stronge, Susan. Painting for the Mughal Emperor. New York: H. N. Abrams, 2002.

Welch, Stuart Cary. The Art of Mughal India. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1964.

Welch, Stuart Cary, et al., The Emperor's Album. New York: H. N. Abrams, 1987.