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Mughal Paintings

The beginnings
Akbar laid the foundations
rejected the orthodox view that artists transgressed
by seeking to rival gods creation and insisted that
they felt all the more humble before gods
omnipotence because they could not infuse painted
figures with life.
The beginnings
Persian artists Abd us- Samad and Mir Sayyid
Alikharkhana
Paper makers, calligraphers, illuminators, gilders,
illustrators, binders and MASTER
Paper, initially imported from Iran but laterPunjab (16
cent. onwards)
Paints were made from animal, vegetable, and mineral
substances, brushes from animal hair.


Early Akbars workshop
Tuti Nama (Tales of a Parrot), popular Indian
folktale completed in mid-16
th
cent.
Tales of a Parrot is a frame story whose main
character is a talking parrot.
Mir Sayyid Ali & Abd us- Samad
Daswanth & Basawan
First landmark
Work began on Hamza Nama around 1562
Mythical adventures of Prophets Uncle, Amir
Hamza
1400 paintings
Mir Sayyid Ali & Abdus Samad

Spy Zambur bringing maid
Hamzas friend Umar looking at corpse
"Having observed the fanatical hatred between
the Hindus and the Muslims, and being
convinced that it arose only from mutual
ignorance, the enlightened monarch wished to
dispel the same by rendering the books of the
former accessible to the latter.
Abul- Fazl
Illustration from Ramayana
Ram arriving at the shores
Razm Nama
Persian translation of Mahabharata
Commenced under the supervision of
Daswanth

Night assault on Pandava camp
Yudhistra meeting Bhishma
Draupadi & her companions
History painting
Akbar Nama (Akbar hunting lion)
Controlling elephant Hawai
(Basawan)
Akbar inspecting captured elephant
Babur Nama (Babur being struck on head)
Tarikh-i-khandan-i-Timuriyah
Tarikh-i-khandan-i-Timuriyah
Animal forms
Crow addressing the animals (Miskin)
Raven complaining (Miskin)
European Influence
Nursing princess
Faithless wife
Jahangir
The beginnings
Portraits, dynastic subjects, animal, flower and literary
paintings replaced the epic narratives of Akbar
Illustrated manuscripts gave way to self contained,
decorated albums of miniature paintings called
muraqqas
Iranian painter Aqa Riza made incharge of workshop
Development of naturalism
Naturalistic color compositions
Focus on figures and faces
Single figures were placed against plain
backgrounds
Artistic individualism became more
pronounced (signed individual works)
Gen next
Abul Hasan s/o Aqa
Riza
Manohar s/o
Basawan
Balchand
Daulat
Govardhan
Bishandas
Mansur
Bichitr
Padarath
Abul Hasan
Colorist by preference
Given the title Nadir-uz- Zaman (Light of the
Age)
His portraits had soft outlines, subtle shading
Jahangir conferring the title of Shah Jahan on
25 year old Khurram
Govardhan
Career also spanned Shah Jahans reign
Most accomplished portraitists of the time
Fascinated by the western art, modelled
individual figures softly

Portraiture
Psychological portraits of variety and depth
Formal court scenes, with ensembles of
courtiers
Didnt ignore the morbid side of life
Dying of Inayat Khan (Govardhan)
Shah Tamasp (Sahifa Banu)
Jahangir prefers sufi (Bichitr)
Mansur
Shah Jahan & Historical Narratives
Padshah Nama
The Padshah Nama (or Chronicle of the King of
the World) is the unique official description of
part of the reign of the Mughal Emperor, Shah-
Jahan (44 illustrations)
They were executed by fourteen painters which
included Balchand, Bichitr, Bishandas, Daulat,
Payag
Jahangir receiving Shahjahan (Balchand)
Shah Jahans Accession (Bichitr)
Shahjahans 42
nd
Bday
Siege of Qandahar (Payag)
Dara Shikohs Wedding (Balchand)
Colonial Art & Architecture
Impact of British Rule
New genres such as oil portraits, naturalistic
landscapes, academic nudes
Artistic individualism was prized
Art schools, art societies and exhibitions
provided the network for promoting art

Indian art of the Raj
The first sign of change was the loss of courtly
patronage
Patna & Murshidabad continued to flourish
EIC employed artists for its wide ranging
economic surveys and documentation of
natural history
Indian art of the Raj
British residents commissioned paintings of
Indian flora and fauna (for e.g.. Stork)
Sheikh Mohammad Amir of Karraya
(company artist, patronised by Thomas
Halroyd)
Kalighat Patuas
Village scroll painters (patuas) moved to city
Large scale production started
Woodblock and metal printmakers
appropriated Kalighat imagery and by the
end of 19
th
cent., it became a staple of
popular consumption (Calcutta Art Studio)
Beginnings of Academic Art
From 1854 onwards art schools and art societies
became instrument of disseminating academic
art
Art schools were set up in Calcutta, Bombay and
Madras
Henry Cole, William Morris, George Birdwood
played an influential role.
Henry Cole
The profession of the artist
Colonial artists enjoyed status of an
independent gentlemen
Indian artists began showing exhibitions
Pestonji Bomanji, Manchershaw Pithawalla,
Annada Bagchi
Pestonji Bomanji
Pestonji Bomanji
Manchershaw Pithawalla
J. P. Gangooly
Gentlemen Artists
Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906)
Fame rests on history paintings, adapted
Victorian salon art to Indian epics
New canon of beauty created by him was
greeted by Indian nationalists.

The Bengal School
Varmas works were denounced as hybrid,
undignified and above all unspiritual.
The change was due to upsurge in nationalist
sentiment which fed on the potent myth of
Indias spirituality
Ernest Binfield Havell
Principal of the CALCUTTA SCHOOL OF ART and Keeper of the
Government Art Gallery from 1896 until 1906.
In Calcutta, Havell worked with Abanindranath Tagore,
nephew of Rabindranath Tagore, in developing a Bengal
School of Art by reforming the art education at the Calcutta
School of Art to gain inspiration from Mughal art rather than
western methods.
Ernest Binfield Havell
Havell was instrumental in founding the INDIA SOCIETY to
bring attention to Indian Art in Britain and the West.
The Society organized lectures, exhibitions and produced
publications on Indian Art, including Havell's 1920 publication
of a Handbook of Indian Art
Havell introduced Abanindranath Tagore to Calcutta Art
School to Indianize art teaching and to rediscover the lost
language of Indian art.
The Bengal School
Abanindranath led the Bengal School, the first art
movement in India to create an oriental art by
assimilating different Asian cultures.
The target of Bengal School was academic art, which
was branded as a colonial hybrid lacking
authenticity.

Muslim Nationalism in art
The Swadeshi ideology of art, a reflection of
militant Hindu nationalism, tended to privilege
Hindu culture as the kernel of the Indian
nation, thereby disinheriting other
communities.
Muslim Nationalism in art
Abdur Rehman Chugtai, painter from Lahore
represented the awakening of Muslim political
and cultural identity in India.

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