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Mughal Paintings

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Page 1: Mughal paintings

Mughal Paintings

Page 2: Mughal paintings

Mughal Paintings

• Mughal painting is a style of Indian painting which emerged from Persian miniature.• It began in the courts of the Mughal

Empire (16th - 19th centuries), and later spread to other Indian courts, both Muslim and Hindu, and later Sikh.

Page 3: Mughal paintings

DIFFERENCES FROM PERSIAN MINIATURE PAINTING

• Extended sense of space.• Realistic style.• Agitated action rarely seen

in Persian art.

Hunting expedition

Page 4: Mughal paintings

Features

• Exquisitely detailed and finely drawn.

• Lively and realistic.

• Elements of portraiture.

• Muted, more pastel, representing the nature, and earth tones dominated the mood of the paintings.

• Beautiful Calligraphy.

• Magnificent ornaments created elegant borders.

• Historical painting.

• High viewpoint and 3 dimensional nature.

• Book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums.

Page 5: Mughal paintings

Jehangir and nur jahan

Page 6: Mughal paintings

JOURNEY OF MUGHAL ART

Page 7: Mughal paintings

Origin• Humayun became enamoured by the

art of miniature painting in Persia.

• He brought back two persian masters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad.

• They became the founders of the new Mughal school of Indian painting.

• Humayan's major known commission was a Khamsa of Nizami with 36 illuminated pages.

Page 8: Mughal paintings

Akbar• Between 1562 and 1577 the atelier

worked on an illustrated manuscript of the Hamzanama consisting of 1,400 canvas folios.

• European influence.

• Cultural synthesis can be traced from its flat decorative beginnings through a blending with a lively Rajasthani and finally to its move towards realism.

• Illustration of manuscripts with themes from Persian literature, Indian epics, court scenes, animal fables and battles.

• Mughal style during this period continued to refine itself with elements of realism and naturalism coming to the fore.

Alexander lowered into the sea from the khamsa of amir khusrau

Page 9: Mughal paintings

Jehangir• Under Jahangir, Akbar's lively naturalism

was advanced into a calmer and strongly realistic approach.

• Brushwork became finer and the colors lighter.

• European influence.

• Encouraged his royal atelier to take up the single point perspective favoured by European artists, unlike the flattened multi-layered style used in traditional miniatures.

• Paintings depicting events of his own life, individual portraits, and studies of birds, flowers and animals.

Squirrels in a chenar tree by Mansur

Jahangir seated on a allegorical throne by Bichitr

Page 10: Mughal paintings

Jahangir and Nur-jahan

Page 11: Mughal paintings

Shah Jahan• Paintings gradually became cold and rigid.

• Themes including musical parties; lovers, sometimes in intimate positions, on terraces and gardens; and ascetics gathered around a fire, abound in the Mughal paintings of this period.

• well-embellished portraits with exact likeness of the portrayed figures.

Portrait of Shah jahan

Page 12: Mughal paintings

Revival under Muhammad Shah

Page 13: Mughal paintings

In sections of former empire such Murshidabad in Bengal and Lucknow in Oudh, a shadow of the former imperial style was kept alive and subjects a hundred or more years old were copied as if to recapture the heroic grandeurs of the past.

The marriage procession of Dara Shikoh

Page 14: Mughal paintings

● Jain monks and scholars of medieval India wrote thousands of manuscripts related to their religious literature. These manuscripts contain some beautiful miniature paintings

● The earliest known miniature paintings are from 11th Century

Jain Painting

Page 15: Mughal paintings

Jain Painting● One of the earliest art forms● Used palm-leaves for their

inscriptions with decorative and flat style

● Early palette restricted to simple reds,yellows,blue,brown etc

● Although that changed with the introduction of paper

Page 16: Mughal paintings

• The significant feature is the stylish figure of the women in the paintings.• Used strong colors and liked to

show enlarged eyes of the persons in the paintings.• The artist also liked to decorate

the persons with ornaments.

Miniature Painting from Kalakacharya Katha

Jain Painting

Page 17: Mughal paintings

• Jain miniature paintings are found mainly in old Rajasthani, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi and Kannada manuscripts.

• The colors were made especially from vegetables, minerals and even from gold and silver.

• This art of miniature painting began to decline after 16th century.

Jain Painting

Miniature Painting from Chandana Malayaqiri Varta

Page 18: Mughal paintings

Lesya(Mental Attitude Painting)

• Lesya is a Jain concept of mental attitude, where different persons think and behave differently for getting same thing.

• In this beautiful multicolored miniature painting from a Jain manuscript, we see that the 6 persons want to get fruits

Jain Painting

Page 19: Mughal paintings

Rajasthani (Rajput)

Most of the time depicted events of epic,beautiful landscapes and humans.

Radha and Krishna was probably the favourite theme in Rajput paintings

Nihal Chand

Page 20: Mughal paintings

Rajasthani (Rajput)• The preparation of desired colors was

a lengthy process, sometimes taking weeks.

• The colors were extracted from certain minerals, plant sources, conch shells, and were even derived by processing precious stones.

Nihal Chand

Page 21: Mughal paintings

Rajasthani Paintings• While Mughal art is

realistic, Rajasthani is symbolic and filled with poetic metaphor

• All men are symbols, all nature is symbolic

• Women are symbolic of all feminity

• Artist’s ultimate desire was to clarify man’s relationship with god

Page 22: Mughal paintings

Rajasthani Paintings

Vasant Ragini, Kota, Rajasthan

• Ragamala means garland of melody or mode• Poems dealing with musical

sentiments are illustrated by representations of specific human situations• The Ragamala series were prized for

their narrative as well as the visual effect of their use of rich, vibrant colours

Page 23: Mughal paintings

Rajasthani Painting

• Different colours were given different meanings• Red connoted fury• Yellow showed the marvellous• Brown signified erotic• Colours were also used to

represent specific musical notes

Page 24: Mughal paintings

PAHARI Miniature Paintings

The Origin:• The exact origin of miniature painting style practised at the Hindu Courts in Himalyan

Foothills remain unknown.

• Frist known examples were in the states of Basohli, Kahlur and Mankot , painted in 1650.

• The invasion of India and the sack of Delhi in 1739 provided the catalyst for refinement of

Pahari Art.

• The Rajasthani Hindu courts welcomed the displaced Mughal artists. The Hill elements of

realism and Mughal Craftmanship from “The Muhammad Shahi revival ” contributed

significantly to the evolving Pahari aesthetics.

Page 25: Mughal paintings

Pahari, BasohliKrishna Arriving at

Radha’s House, Rasamanjari of Bhanudatta

1660-70 Key features

• Flat red background and

an ornate pavillion

• Rich colour scheme

• Gargoyle-like ornament

on the base of pavillion

Page 26: Mughal paintings

Pahari, Guler

The arrest of Spies, Seige of Lanka,Ramayana

Pahari guler 1725

Key features• The series illustrates the acitivities

of Rama and his allies before

climactic battle of Lanka

• On the reverse, they were inscribed

with text of the great epic poem.

Page 27: Mughal paintings

Pahari, GulerLady with a Hawk

Guler,1750

Key features:

• Set after twenty-five years of Siege of Lanka,

the Mughal Influence has set itself into the

mainstream style

• The subtle tones and shading skilfully

depict the flesh tones ,sheer fabrics and the

setting in the inner apartment of the palace.

Page 28: Mughal paintings

Pahari, MandiRaja Shamsher Sen with his son Surma

Sen,Mandi ,1775

Key features

• The plain, vivid powder-

blue background and the

stiff ,boldly stripped carpet

• Smaller figure of prince

Page 29: Mughal paintings

Pahari, Jammu

By the master artist of Jammu court,

Nainsukh

Raja Balwant Singh of Jammu

smoking alone on a Palace roof

in the rains(July-August

1751)

Page 30: Mughal paintings

Pahari, KangraIntroduction of love and romance in art

Radha and Krishna in the Grove (1780)

From the atelier of Raja Sansar Chand

(1775-1823)

Page 31: Mughal paintings

The Swing (1790)

The Kangra Style:• generally have a central elegant female form• expresses an innocent and open sensuality• features traditionally symbolic elements (dark clouds, rain, swing in this work)

Page 32: Mughal paintings

Pahari, GarhwalConsiderably influenced by Kangra

The Road to Krishna (1780)

Illustrating an episode from

Bhagavata Purana

Page 33: Mughal paintings

Termination of Miniature Art

Domination of India by British

Demise of Rajput Art Centres

Making stiff, hollow copies of the past

Misunderstood interpretations of Western

art

Introduction of ‘Company Paintings’